By John Engates, Field CTO, Cloudflare
As 2024 nears an end, 2025 brings new exciting trends and investments around technology that will shape organizations in coming years. John Engates, Field CTO at Cloudflare shares his insights on top tech trends and predictions that will drive the tech industry in 2025.
The AI revolution will hinge on edge computing: To unlock AI’s true potential, edge computing must bring the compute power closer to where it’s actually needed. Edge computing represents a paradigm shift, dramatically reducing latency and enabling a new generation of sophisticated, responsive applications. Imagine autonomous vehicles making split-second decisions, interactive gaming with zero perceptible delay, and real-time video processing that responds instantaneously. These innovations become possible when compute resources are strategically positioned near their point of use. That’s why the future of AI is not just about raw computational power, but about smart, distributed computing that brings intelligence closer to where it’s most impactful.
AI is the double-edged sword of cybersecurity: On the one hand, it powers advanced threat detection, anomaly detection, and automated response systems, enabling defenders to stay ahead of emerging threats. On the other, it is being weaponized by attackers to create more sophisticated and adaptive exploits. We are entering an era where AI systems will battle AI systems, with human security teams orchestrating strategies to maintain the upper hand. This shift underscores the need for continuous innovation in AI-driven security solutions, as static defenses become increasingly inadequate.
Zero Trust exits its buzzword era to become a fundamental security necessity: Imagine a security system that treats every digital interaction as potentially suspicious, requiring continuous verification – much like a hyper-vigilant airport security checkpoint that doesn’t just check your ID at the entrance, but monitors your every move. Zero Trust operates on a simple yet powerful principle: trust nothing by default, verify everything constantly. This methodology has become even more essential as traditional network boundaries disintegrate in our cloud-native, distributed work environments.
Connectivity and the ever-expanding space-based Internet will face new challenges and growing pains with machine-to-machine traffic: Connectivity itself is undergoing a profound transformation. As space-based internet services gain traction and billions of IoT devices come online, networks must now handle not only human-to-human communication but also an ever-growing flood of machine-to-machine API traffic. Meeting this challenge calls for designing networks with security, reliability, and performance baked in from the start. These attributes become indispensable as data flows multiply and diversify, demanding an infrastructure that can gracefully scale, adapt, and maintain trust at the edges of our increasingly interconnected world.
AI will transform the user experience and how we interact with our favorite technologies: Imagine retail platforms that intuitively understand your preferences before you articulate them, or educational tools that dynamically adjust to your unique learning style in real time. These experiences are made possible by sophisticated AI algorithms that leverage comprehensive yet ethically-sourced data. Critical to this transformation is robust infrastructure that ensures seamless, consistent experiences across devices and locations. Emerging technologies like edge computing are key to this vision, bringing computational resources closer to users and enabling faster, more responsive interactions. The future of user experience is not just about technology—it’s about creating intelligent, intuitive connections that feel almost magical in their precision and personalization.
