“Dig into every industry, and you’ll find AI changing the nature of work.”

—Daniela Rus (Director of MIT’s Computer Science and AI Laboratory)

As we approach 2025, artificial intelligence is poised to further embed itself into our daily lives and reshape industries in ways that are as exciting as they are unpredictable.

From the evolution of AI products to its role in cybersecurity and culture, here’s a look at 5 predictions that experts anticipate in the year ahead:

1. The Era of Practical AI Tools

After years of experimentation, AI development in 2025 will likely focus on tools that deliver high quality, practical, and specific results. The quality of AI-generated images, videos, and audio will also reach impressive levels, and gimmicky features will take a back seat to platforms that integrate seamlessly into workflows across industries.

2. Incremental Progress Over Exponential Leaps

The rapid pace of AI advancements may plateau as scaling laws face diminishing returns. With data limitations and reduced performance boosts from new models, 2025 will likely shift focus from massive breakthroughs to refining existing technologies.

3. Multimodal AI Enhances Insights and Creativity

AI systems capable of processing text, images, video, and audio will expand their capabilities, enabling richer, more nuanced interactions. From creative design to customer support, multimodal AI will power intuitive tools that revolutionize workflows across industries.

4. Cybersecurity’s AI Arms Race

AI will continue to play a pivotal role in automating threat detection, proactive defenses, and backup systems. Simultaneously, attackers will leverage AI for more sophisticated breaches, creating an ever-evolving cybersecurity battlefield.

5. More Professionals Warm to AI

The fear of AI replacing jobs is giving way to its acceptance as a complementary tool. Creators, marketers, and designers will increasingly see AI as a valuable addition to their toolkit, and not an enemy in the shadows.

Character.AI takes the idea of AI-powered conversations and turns it into a practical tool for training, engagement, and creativity.

Whether you’re role-playing tough customer interactions, simplifying financing terms, or brainstorming marketing ideas, this platform takes human-like interactions to the next level.

And while it’s certainly not going to replace your top talent anytime soon, it might just help everyone work a little smarter.

Check out our full write-up on the platform here.

Translation, Please?

Who hasn’t received a cryptic, novel-length message from a customer browsing your inventory at 3:17 a.m., trying to decide if the new Bronco is their dream car or if they should just keep nursing their trusty ’98 Camry? Decoding these epics is part art, part science—and let’s be honest, part wild guessing.

But what if you didn’t have to guess? Enter AI, your trusty wingman in the battle against missed customer cues. This week’s prompt eliminates the dreaded "Did I reply to everything they said?" spiral by helping you analyze customer communication and ensure your reply covers all the bases.

Try This Prompt

From here, you can work with AI to craft a warm, helpful, on-brand reply—or wing it, since that’s apparently how they prefer their communication style. 😆

Picture this: a 2030 Honda Civic chilling at the beach with surfboards strapped up. Or maybe it’s a 2027 Jeep at a music festival, your Shih Tzu riding shotgun. No, this isn’t some futuristic fever dream—it’s the potential reality with Google’s latest AI-powered tool, Whisk.

Whisk ditches the complicated prompts and lets you remix images with a few clicks. Want to see a truck splashing through mud for your outdoorsy customers? Or a sleek sedan parked outside a trendy loft? Done. This tool doesn’t just create pictures; it crafts stories.

For retail auto marketers, the job may be officially changing. Hyper-personalized ads, virtual test drives, and content that slaps on social media—all at your fingertips. Curious how it works and why you need it?

Check the full breakdown and start thinking about how you can make your inventory pics do more than just sit there.

• AI may generate video games in real-time as players play. Should we expect the same from TV?

• Mercedes-Benz added a new AI voice assistant powered by ChatGPT to millions of their cars this week.

• The NHS in England is launching an AI tool that can identify patients at risk of type 2 diabetes more than a decade before they develop the condition.