Today’s AI technology is quickly integrating throughout core business and tech capabilities.

Deloitte’s 16th annual Tech Trends report shines a light on where the opportunity and risk of AI is most tangible to inform AI investment decisions. 

Spatial interaction for a world in three dimensions

The use of spatial computing is evolving, fuelled by its ability to contextualise data and engage people.

Scaling this technology to meet modern demands and use cases will require new hardware, software, skillsets and mindsets. Thanks to AI, spatial computing is maturing from a useful training tool that benefits a specific set of workers to an enterprise profit centre that can deliver real-time, advanced data analysis and automatic adjustments.

Smaller models help AI get even bigger

Turning to hyperscalers for LLMs instead of building from scratch has helped many enterprises accelerate their AI adoption. But size isn’t everything – and sometimes it stands in the way of specialisation and flexibility.

Some organisations are turning to smaller, purpose-built models because of security, energy use, agent-to-agent communication, and other specific needs.

Multiple small models can work in concert to address discrete tasks, generate multimodal outputs, run simulations, and arm users with multiple virtual assistants. Thanks to small and open-source models, yesterday’s “there’s an app for that” may become tomorrow’s “there’s an agent for that.”

In PCs and the IoT, AI gets physical

Remember hardware? AI isn’t just software anymore. Manufacturers are pioneering a new generation of chips that embed AI models into PCs and edge devices for localised, offline use, not only supercharging user capabilities but future-proofing the tech infrastructure.

Onboard AI can also make the Internet of Things (IoT) more robust in areas like medical devices and robotics.

It isn’t only the processors’ power that’s improving; they’re becoming more energy efficient as well, a major consideration given the growing energy appetite of global computing. Companies that moved away from hardware at the core may end up making fresh investments in hardware at the edge, but not without a strong vision and business case.

The business of IT: Technician, heal thyself

New AI-based capabilities for writing code, testing software and augmenting human talent are beginning to transform the technology teams and functions within organisations.

This may signal a shift away from the “thin IT” path and its reliance on “as-a-service” offerings as new capabilities come to reside inside the enterprise, and software engineering continues to evolve as a cross-industry strategic fulcrum.

But a new kind of thin IT may emerge after that, as AI democratises development, and IT orchestrates large portions of today’s manual workload.

Today’s protections face an expiration date

Quantum computing’s march toward maturity represents an opportunity - and a deadline.

Its unprecedented decryption power could make current cybersecurity practices a greater liability than two-digit year codes were at the end of 1999.

As with Y2K, work on the solution must start in advance. Where Y2Q is different? The looming deadline doesn’t have a hard and fixed date to work against. NIST is making inroads on new encryption standards, and it will be up to every organisation to reimagine its cyber mindset. What’s at stake? Identities, finances, communications - anything you entrust to computers today, or might tomorrow.

Core modernisation

Integrating AI into core enterprise architecture drives deep change in systems and processes.

The aim is to give users a more streamlined experience, but it takes complex orchestrated architectures to make that simplicity possible.

Meanwhile, enterprises continue to rely on (and invest in) legacy custom systems, ERP and customised cloud solutions. AI can and will be embedded into those systems but might also lead to a recast of the “core” content, data, and transactions - especially as AI trains on data from across the organisation and potentially beyond.

Learn more about Deloitte’s Tech Trends for 2025 here plus explore our Techweek insights and events here.