Key AI Innovations Driving Transformation in 2025

Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to dominate technology investment and strategic planning worldwide. According to Gartner, Inc., two technologies—AI agents and AI-ready data—are advancing at the fastest pace on the 2025 Gartner Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence, standing at the Peak of Inflated Expectations with soaring attention, ambitious projections, and bold promises.

The Gartner Hype Cycle offers a visual framework for understanding how emerging technologies evolve over time, their maturity levels, and their potential impact on solving real business challenges. This model helps organizations evaluate when and how to adopt innovations in alignment with their business strategies.

Shifting Focus: From Generative AI to Foundational Enablers

“AI investment remains strong in 2025, but the emphasis is shifting,” said Haritha Khandabattu, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner. “Instead of focusing solely on generative AI, organizations are turning their attention to the enablers of sustainable AI delivery—such as AI-ready data and AI agents—to ensure scalability and real-time intelligence.”

Next-Generation Innovations to Watch

Over the next five years, Gartner expects several AI innovations to move into mainstream adoption, with multimodal AI and AI trust, risk and security management (AI TRiSM) identified as the most transformative.

• AI Agents: These autonomous or semi-autonomous systems use AI to perceive, decide, and act in both digital and physical environments. Leveraging large language models (LLMs) and advanced algorithms, AI agents are being deployed to tackle complex tasks. However, Gartner emphasizes that no single AI agent fits all scenarios; organizations must carefully identify relevant use cases to unlock real value.

• AI-Ready Data: Preparing datasets to meet AI application requirements is now a critical priority. AI-ready data ensures accuracy, efficiency, and reliability, while minimizing risks such as bias, hallucinations, and compliance issues. Gartner advises companies investing in AI at scale to evolve their data management strategies to meet growing business demands and regulatory expectations.

• Multimodal AI: By integrating multiple data types—text, images, video, and audio—multimodal AI enables systems to understand complex contexts far better than single-input models. Gartner predicts that multimodal AI will become a core feature across industries, enhancing applications and software products by providing deeper insights and broader capabilities.

• AI TRiSM (Trust, Risk and Security Management): With AI adoption comes a new layer of trust and governance challenges. AI TRiSM ensures responsible deployment by addressing fairness, transparency, safety, security, and data protection. Gartner underscores the need for enterprises to adopt layered TRiSM technologies to support policies consistently across all AI implementations.

Creating Tangible Business Value

Despite the transformative promise of AI, Gartner cautions that success will not emerge automatically. “The business value of AI will only be realized through pilots that are tightly aligned with organizational goals, proactive infrastructure benchmarking, and strong collaboration between AI and business teams,” said Khandabattu.

Looking Ahead: Agentic AI at the Forefront

At the upcoming Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo (September 8–10, 2025, Gold Coast), analysts will explore actionable strategies for leveraging AI responsibly and effectively. Special attention will be given to agentic AI, highlighting how organizations can harness AI agents to boost operational performance, empower teams, and drive revenue growth.

Additional insights will be shared with CIOs and IT leaders on shaping AI-driven transformation while ensuring security, trust, and sustainability.

Source: Gartner