The top three automation predictions for 2025
Sustained interest and experimentation in AI will support sustainable learning and progress in 2025. Generative AI (genAI) and edge intelligence will drive robotics projects that will combine cognitive and physical automation, for example. Citizen developers will start building automation applications infused with genAI, leveraging their domain expertise.
All promising, but challenges remain that will hinder progress in 2025. We are just beginning to understand how to manage a diverse and growing number of AI models, and we face new questions. What level of autonomy strikes the right balance of risk and efficiency? How and when do we put people in the loop? How do we reliably mine and secure enterprise data for AI?
Despite the apparent benefits and enthusiasm, these implementation challenges will hinder gains in 2025. Of all the AI agent talk, businesses will find only moderate success, mostly in less critical employee support applications. GenAI’s ability to create autonomous, unstructured workflow models and adapt to the dynamic nature of real-world processes will have to wait.
Here’s what this means: The key to automation success in 2025 will be balancing AI innovation with the scale and reliability of traditional automation tools and methods. To help you strike that balance, here’s a look at three of Forrester’s top automation predictions for 2025:
GenAI will orchestrate less than 1% of core business processes.
GenAI will impact process design, development and data integration, reducing design and development time and the need for desktop and mobile interfaces. However, this efficiency of genAI still leaves the current digital and robotic process automation platforms that orchestrate the core process, subject to their deterministic and rule-driven models. For 2025, decision makers can balance AI innovation with the scale and reliability of traditional automation tools and methods by recognizing that deterministic automation will remain in core, long-term process control, while AI models will support bursts of knowledge and efficiency. .
A quarter of robotics projects will work to combine cognitive and physical automation.
GenAI innovations, cutting edge intelligence and advanced communication services are encouraging physical robotics developers to take a fresh look at embodied AI. This will enable robots to sense and respond to their environment rather than following pre-programmed rules and workflows, exposing them to more complex and unpredictable situations. Decision makers in active-intensive industries will begin to see value in the combination and invest in physical automation projects to increase their operational efficiency.
Citizen developers will provide 30% of automation applications infected with genAI.
The citizen developer train continues to roll and now includes automation applications infected with genAI. They have the necessary domain expertise to envision and develop these solutions. A significant portion of genAI-infused automation applications will be delivered by citizen developers in 2025. Automation centers of excellence and line-of-business management will be challenged to safely train and ensure their use and control of the proliferation of AI models and copycat platforms.
The coming year promises to be a dynamic period for automation, characterized by growing enthusiasm and activity around agentic and AI-driven operations. 2025 will serve as a cornerstone to prepare for the integration of physical robots, digital systems, and human endpoints. Enterprises that benefit the most from these automation trends will be those that learn to balance the risk and reward of automation and target the right use cases for their organization.
Download our complimentary guide to Predictionswhich covers more of our top technology and security predictions for 2025. Get additional additional resources, including webinars, at Center for Predictions 2025.
This post was written by VP, Principal Analyst Craig Le Clair and originally appeared here.