John Whelan: Will AI be the international trade driver in 2025?
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The 2025 economic crystal ball remains cloudy, with an array of scenarios hanging in the balance. It’s a head scratcher for business executives, do they go with the momentum or stick to their value proposition that has stood them well in prior economic turbulences.
The value propositions from , Nike, Starbucks and Abercrombie & Fitch, all former pillars of success, are now struggling to meet the demands of a new era. These established companies succumbed, like Kodak in the past, to the 'innovators' dilemma' overemphasising the continuity of customer choice from last year's data and overlooking new trends and innovations.
They weren’t able to anticipate and respond to market changes, like 2024’s winners, including Nvidia, Tesla, Amazon, Walmart and Aldi.
The biggest head-scratcher is trying to work out what’s ahead for your particular industry in 2025 and how to plot the best route forward while accepting that we are not in normal times. To mis-quote "It is the best of times, it is the worst of times".
First, some good news, inflation rates, after years of too high for too long, are expected to settle at 2% in 2025. This shift should allow central banks to lower interest rates, easing business costs and opening new doors for investments. If your business has struggled with tight budgets and squeezed profits due to high inflation, this stabilization could bring a breath of fresh air.
Oil prices are projected to stay low in the range of 70 to 75 US dollars per barrel until 2026 according to industry analysts. This is particularly welcome for those in manufacturing and transportation, who are sensitive to energy costs.,
This stability can make budgeting easier and help with financial planning.
And the bad news is that insolvencies are rising. PwC's latest Insolvency Barometer shows insolvencies in are up 35% for the first nine months to the end of September 2024 compared with the same period in 2023. Sectors like retail, hospitality and energy were particularly affected due to high costs and changing consumer behaviours.
While this is one of the highest insolvency rates across Europe and well ahead of the global rate of 9%, the latest Eurostat release shows Ireland with the highest increases in registrations of new businesses, increasing by a dramatic 53% in the quarter to 2024 over the prior quarter.
However, the over-arching trend for 2025 is shaping up to be the year when Artificial Intelligence () technologies come of age, aggressively influencing the way we work, play and trade.
The tech industry has been racing to put generative artificial intelligence into the hands of consumers. Google is focused on making Gemini the “most helpful personal assistant” in 2025, adding that the key to doing so is by incorporating into the everyday lives of users.
Advanced artificial intelligence took the centre stage at Microsoft Ignite which was held in 2024. reflected on as the "most transformative technology of our time," setting the tone for the company's future.
Today’s retail business landscape is increasingly using to reach consumers, a reality that is especially evident in activity in the sector, using technology to optimize consumer buying choices, make more intelligent warehouse robots and better predict where to stock new items.
In the pharmaceutical industry is anticipated to radically change treatment of patients and the delivery of health care, especially as more and more patient data becomes available. As much as 30% of data collected in 2023 was health-related data, and that figure will increase to 36% by 2025, according to global investment bank Capital Markets.
AgTech Ireland is lobbying for farmers in to be supported in integrating into their products, their systems and back offices.
is shaping up to be a’ must-have’ for 2025 likely to affect every aspect of a company’s operations from product development, customer service, to marketing, and sales. Like it or not, executives may have to embrace this technology in order to stay competitive.
However, the big white elephant in , is how to support the creation of more data centres which will be necessary to support our largest exporting companies as they try to stay competitive is a fast-moving data-hungry world.