The Top 10 Technology Trends in 2025

Businesses around the world are constantly having to evolve in order to keep up with the ever-changing technological landscape. We’re now living in a time powered by artificial intelligence (AI), where self-driving cars, augmented reality, and automation are more accessible than ever before.

It can feel challenging to keep up at times, and you may be wondering how this will impact your business.

To help, we’ve compiled the top 10 insights from trusted sources and both our State of IT Security report and State of IT AI & App Development report. Together, these studies reflect the views of more than 4,000 IT leaders worldwide, offer a clear snapshot of where things are heading, and how business and IT teams are adapting.

In this article, you’ll find practical takeaways from those findings, along with guidance on how your organisation can use technology more effectively in the year ahead.

Let’s dive straight in. Based on our research findings, here’s an overview of the 10 trends that are essential for IT and business leaders to keep in mind.

1. Automation is providing a competitive edge
2. AI is now a core part of any modern business
3. Cybersecurity is being reinvented
4. Low code and no code go mainstream
5. Customer and employee experiences are converging
6. Integration is a strategic imperative
7. Ethical and responsible AI are taking centre stage
8. Sustainability has become a tech mainstay
9. Explainability of AI outputs becomes a business imperative
10. Human-AI collaboration is redefining work

We’ll now take a look at each of these trends in more detail, highlighting the key statistical data behind each finding.

One of the main talking points around AI since it first started to gain momentum is that AI tools are here to take everyone’s jobs. What research suggests instead is that businesses are using AI to automate the more tedious parts of their workday, rather than as a substitute for human work.

Automation is prevalent and widely used by businesses across all sectors and industries. Our latest report on the State of IT AI & App Development indicates that the average office worker loses 41% their day to low-value tasks, customer service representatives spend just 39% of their time helping customers and sales teams devote only 30% of their time to actually selling.

All of the extra time spent on lower-value tasks can be done by automation, freeing up staff to work on more complex problems.

An example of this in action can be seen with the online tradie marketplace, hipages. The hipages team used our Agentforce to automate onboarding verification checks, including license and business registration approvals.

Through integrating real-time data through Data Cloud, hipages gave their AI agent everything it needed to verify new tradies instantly, without relying on manual processes or jumping between systems. This process went from taking three hours to being completed in mere minutes.

hipages uses Agentforce to make life easier for employees and tradies

Only a couple of years ago, many people saw AI as little more than a gimmick, a novelty for generating funny images or chatting. A far cry from something that would go on to reshape the global economy. Fast forward to 2025, and 78% of organisations use AI in at least one business function.

Additionally, the National AI Centre (NAIC) has revealed that 40% of SMEs in Australia are currently adopting this digital transformation, with generative AI assistants and automated data processing being cited as the two main areas of adoption.

For small and mid-sized businesses, AI offers a way to punch above their weight. Whether it’s automating admin, speeding up customer service, or generating content at scale, the right tools can help lean teams do more with less.

With AI still a relatively new force, it’s not surprising that cybersecurity has had to evolve to keep up with the rapidly changing threat landscape. We found in our latest State of IT Security report that 68% of leaders view data breaches as a major or moderate threat as AI use increases, followed closely by privacy concerns (66%) and data poisoning (65%).

As threats become more complex and coordinated, security teams are developing multi-layered strategies to protect organisations from real-world consequences.

These threats can be difficult to keep up with for businesses without access to cybersecurity support.

To mitigate these challenges, Australia and New Zealand’s national identity and cyber support service, IDCARE , has launched the Small Business Cyber Resilience Service . This free service helps small business owners strengthen their cybersecurity, respond to incidents, and even access mental health and case management support when needed.

In addition, our Salesforce Shield provides comprehensive protection against all forms of cyber threats and gives users full control over who accesses their data.

It’s no secret that building AI-powered systems and digital tools has traditionally required deep technical expertise. In the past, businesses relied on skilled data engineers, developers, and coders to create applications that were secure, scalable, and effective.

That’s starting to change. Today, 80% of IT organisations use low-code or no-code platforms, up from 77% the year before. These tools are helping teams move faster, reduce development timelines, and make advanced technology more accessible across the business.

This timing couldn’t be better, as IT project requests have increased by 18% year over year, placing more pressure on already stretched teams. This shift is also helping reduce technical debt by replacing short-term workarounds with more scalable, modular solutions.

Tools like Salesforce MuleSoft help businesses connect their systems without custom code. For example, teams can pull data from different apps into one dashboard, automate internal approvals, or sync customer records across platforms, all with minimal development work.

AI is changing how businesses support both customers and staff, and the two are becoming more connected than ever. With most interactions now happening online, companies need faster, smarter systems behind the scenes.

It’s why 95% of service leaders say AI is already saving them time on the job, and 94% say it’s helping reduce costs. Generative AI is also improving the customer experience, especially for service ops and decision-makers.

But there’s still a gap. Just 55% of agents say their organisation has a clear AI strategy, meaning many teams are still figuring things out.

One way businesses are tackling this is by switching to all-in-one cloud systems like Salesforce’s Sales Cloud. It gives service teams safe AI, with all the customer data they need in one place, fully integrated and ready to scale.

Most businesses today rely on customer relationship management (CRM) platforms to house much of their data and complete operational tasks, but might still depend on external third-party applications for things such as payroll or a customer call line.

Disconnected systems are slowing everyone down. Nearly one in three IT projects miss their deadlines, and teams are struggling with a mix of complex compliance requirements, outdated processes, and data stuck in silos. It’s creating friction between departments and holding back progress.

InTraffic is one business that solved this by switching to our integrated cloud platform. Their main goal was to improve the automation of their processes to allow them to get through service requests much quicker. In no time at all, InTraffic saw their monthly volume increase by 540% and a huge upswing in efficiency.

AI is evolving fast, and so are the conversations about how to use it responsibly. The Australian Human Rights Commission has made it clear in their latest report that strong ethical frameworks are essential to guiding future development. Without this, we risk amplifying existing biases and undermining public trust in AI altogether.

We found that trust is already on shaky ground, with only 41% of customers trusting businesses to use AI ethically.

At Salesforce, we take this seriously. Every AI solution we build is governed by our Einstein Trust Layer, which helps ensure data is secure, compliant, and free from bias. It acts as a safeguard against misuse and supports the development of trusted, transparent AI experiences.

In the video below, Alexandra Siegel, Salesforce’s Chief Equality Officer, explains how businesses can use AI to promote equity and inclusion by tracking metrics like representation, advancement, and employee sentiment.

A recent PwC study found that 84% of organisations are maintaining or stepping up their climate ambitions, committing to net zero and clean energy goals in the face of growing energy pressure.

The consequences of ignoring environmental impact are significant, both for the planet and for business. Companies that fail to take responsibility for their carbon footprint now risk receiving low environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores.

In today’s climate-conscious market, customers and shareholders increasingly see ESG performance as a key measure of whether a business is worth engaging with.

One of the most powerful features of our Agentforce software is our Net Zero Cloud, which provides all Salesforce customers with the ability to monitor many of the key ESG metrics listed above, as well as advanced reporting software.

This can be set to be an automated process, meaning you’ll be able to effortlessly track your progress across time. Our Net Cloud computing software has a proven success rate, with official accreditations from the Carbon Disclosure Project .

As AI adoption accelerates, explainability, the ability to clearly trace how AI systems make decisions, is emerging as a major security and trust priority.

According to our State of IT security report, 70% of security leaders are concerned about the accuracy and explainability of AI outputs. Yet, only 43% feel fully confident in their ability to explain them.

This gap has serious implications. Without transparent, auditable AI processes, organisations risk regulatory breaches, customer distrust, and reputational damage.

Explainability isn’t only a technical concern; it’s now central to ethical AI governance and customer confidence. We build in our Einstein Trust Layer to make AI use more transparent, ethical, and secure across all your platforms. The tool includes built-in explainability features like source citations, clear indicators when AI is used, and audit trails for every prediction or action.

AI isn’t here to replace people. It’s here to help them spend more time on the work that matters. Despite early fears, 72% of executives say AI will have a positive or neutral impact on hiring. And we’re already seeing the benefits in practice. Desk workers using AI agents are spending 26% less time on admin, which frees them up for more meaningful and strategic work.

This shift is well underway. 82% of IT leaders say they’re already using AI agents or plan to within the next two years.

One example of how this collaboration can work in action is at Ampere , a software and electric vehicle company. Their team is using an AI tool that helps developers write code. It’s designed to understand how the company’s systems work, including its coding rules and structure. Instead of replacing the developers, the tool supports them by handling repetitive tasks like finding bugs or filling in standard bits of code. This gives the team more time to focus on bigger, more complex problems.

The most successful organisations in 2025 won’t be the ones with the most AI. They’ll be the ones who know how to use it alongside human talent.

AI and advanced technology are continuing to take great leaps forward, with most IT experts predicting that this transformation is only going to increase in speed as AI becomes more ingrained into everything.

Want to dive deeper into the data? Download both the State of IT Security report and the State of IT AI & App Development for more insights from 4,000 IT moderators globally.

If you’re ready to see what AI can do for your business, watch a demo of our trusted AI in action. You’ll see how teams are using automation and AI agents, all while keeping security and trust front and centre.

You can also catch more expert tips, customer stories, and thought leadership anytime on Salesforce+.