Ten tech trends to watch this year

David Walker
08:00am March 13 2025

Artificial intelligence is revolutionising the way humans interact with the digital world. (Getty)

1. Artificial Intelligence is taking collaboration and co-working to the next level  

Big business will continue to expand its use of AI Assistants to enhance productivity by providing automated assistance and insights. As companies become more adept at integrating AI Assistants into their operations, they will begin to explore the adoption of AI Coworkers. 

Coworkers represent a more sophisticated level of automation, capable of performing tasks independently as well as collaborating with human workers. This shift towards AI Coworkers is anticipated, over the next few years, to bring about advancements in how businesses operate, likely leading to increased innovation and competitiveness.

However, there remain challenges that need to be addressed before businesses can truly harness AI at scale. 

These include the persistent issue of AI hallucination, where the system generates false or misleading information, and AI deception, where the system may misrepresent its capabilities or intentions. Developing robust testing systems for new AI solutions will be a priority. 

AI Assistants and Coworkers have the potential to revolutionise the banking industry by automating routine tasks and enhancing customer offerings and experiences. 

But AI will only thrive when deployed collaboratively with humans. The transformation demands strong leadership, a mindset shift, role reconfiguration, and the acquisition of new skills. As repetitive tasks are eliminated, employees will be able to shift their focus to human-centric skills like relationship-building and strategic thinking.  

2. Hyper-personalisation to unlock deeper relationships 

This year, we will see top businesses focus on hyper-personalisation - transforming traditional digital platforms into personalised engaging experiences that prioritise deeper relationships. 

In our haste to digitise every aspect of life, we have inadvertently stripped away personalisation. As we embark on a new era of technology, one that is heavily influenced by AI, data-driven insights and conversational interactions, we have the opportunity to reclaim the personalisation we have lost and to reconnect with our customers on a deeper level. 

Banks will lead the way in transforming their customer interactions, creating a fully integrated, hyper-personalised banking experience that anticipates customer needs. This will involve re-thinking bank websites, contact centres, mobile apps, branches, and implementing AI-driven interactions across them to strengthen customer relationships. 

3. Where are the robots we were promised? 

AI-enhanced robotics will continue to revolutionise selected industries, particularly making autonomous vehicles cost-effective for logistics.

As AI-driven robotics continue to spread across various industries and in the home, they will inevitably influence bank customers and banks will need to adapt. For example, a farmer using robotics to capture moisture levels in the soil could, with other cropping data, help a bank to make a more informed risk assessment on a loan. 

4. Can we build it? Yes, we can 

This year, companies will increasingly rely on AI and open-source technologies to develop software. AI tools will take on broader roles, such as testing, in the software delivery life cycle.

As big users of tech, banks have been at the forefront of adopting AI for software development. In the future, they will reap significant benefits by integrating AI Coworkers across their software ecosystem. 

5. Stopping the bad guys is better as a team sport

Cyber and fraud attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and we’ll see more collaboration across organisations to defend against these evolving threats. 

Banks will lead the way, leveraging cutting-edge technology in conjunction with traditional defence measures to safeguard against cyber and fraud attacks. Banks stand ready to be foundation members in a coalition of governments and other industries to provide a consolidated front. 

6. Rethinking the cloud   

Big business will intensify its focus on repatriating stable workloads to on-premises solutions while maintaining cloud-based platforms for elastic and specialised tasks.  

In recent years, several companies have begun to move some of their workloads away from the public cloud. This trend of re-balancing workloads is expected to continue and intensify in 2025 as more businesses begin to repatriate some cloud workloads that are not suitable for such platforms. 

Overall, while cloud-based solutions offer advantages, issues like cost concerns and data sovereignty make them unsuitable for all workloads. 

Banks have been early adopters of cloud computing, with some going “all-in”. However, this year will see more focus on right-sizing and rebalancing their computing resources between their on-premises infrastructure and their cloud providers. 

7. Is this the year (again) for quantum computing?  

Quantum computing, when ready, will transform many businesses in areas such as optimising portfolio management, risk modelling, scenario analysis, and fraud detection through efficient data analysis.

However, while the tech will continue to make progress in 2025, it’s still too soon for a major breakthrough. 

While waiting for quantum, some banks will focus on two areas: adopting advanced cryptographic techniques in anticipation of bad actors exploiting quantum and experimenting with portfolio and risk optimisations.

8. Chatting to tech to go mainstream 

In 2025, big tech is enabling conversational interfaces and experiences. Companies that align with these consumer-led tech changes will be better positioned to maintain a competitive edge.

Banks must closely monitor consumer tech trends and continuously innovate their interaction offerings. By staying attuned to the latest developments in personal tech, banks can identify emerging customer and employee expectations and proactively adapt their services to meet these demands – like conversational interfaces.

9. How will emerging tech shape our social connections? 

Advancements in social media and always-connected technology will revolutionise social connections and communication.

Emerging technologies like AI, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are offering new ways to enhance social connections. These immersive experiences can create a sense of presence and shared space, allowing people to interact in a more lifelike manner, even when they are physically apart. 

However, it is essential to strike a balance between embracing these innovations and maintaining genuine, face-to-face interactions to ensure that technology enriches, rather than diminishes, our social lives.

Banks must maintain genuine connections with customers and employees, stay aware of social media impacts, and be sensitive in their interactions through these platforms.

10. With a faster innovation-clock, more breakthroughs are inevitable 

With AI advances in reasoning and computing, 2025 is likely to herald a period rapid tech innovation with 50 to 100 years of invention happening in the next decade.

Many trends are being tracked, including the ones discussed here. However, due to AI's acceleration effect on research, we can expect a trend up in breakthroughs and new patents in the year ahead. 


David Walker’s annual Tech Trends report expands on his top ten trends, as well as touching on some of the more unconventional tech developments which could come out of left field in 2025. 
 

David Walker

David Walker joined as Westpac Group's Chief Technology Officer in 2019. David commenced his technology career in 1987 as an engineer, coding systems for various Australian based companies. After a decade of evolving his software engineering craft, David founded a consultancy specialising in the use of data, in what is now known as data science. For the last 15 years, David has been in large, complex organisations. He worked in ANZ across a number of executive roles, in both Australia and Singapore. It was in Singapore where David subsequently joined DBS, which transformed from a traditional bricks and mortar bank to be recognised as the Best Bank in the World and the Best Digital Bank in the World by Euromoney.

Don't miss

Related articles

TECHx showcases Westpac’s tech evolution

By James Thornhill and Kalp Sanghvi

Bright young minds bring fresh thinking to future tech challenges

By Liam Cormican
Reporter

TECH IN 10: Data key to unlocking the power of AI

By James Thornhill
Editor, Westpac Wire

Browse topics