AI is becoming ingrained in businesses across industries. Where is it going in 2025?

recent YORK — As artificial intelligence continues to develop at a rapid pace, more and more businesses are grappling with how to adjust both quickly and responsibly.

Dan Priest is the recent Chief AI Officer at PwC, one of the globe’s largest consulting firms, where he works with companies across industries as they adopt this burgeoning technology both into their day-to-day operations and upcoming business models. He says 2024 was all about proving what AI brings to the table — and expects 2025 will shift more into scaling it.

Priest recently spoke with The Associated Press about his recent role and other AI business predictions his throng has for the year ahead. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

A: We launched the role in early July, on the heels of us doing an AI impact analysis and way for the firm. The drive was simply to make sure we were tapping into AI’s packed potential, responsibly, to best serve our clients. We work with companies across a range of sectors — including tech, health worry and hospitality.

A: AI is showing up in some form or fashion for the majority of our clients these days. In a recent survey that we did of Fortune 1000 companies, nearly half of respondents said AI is fully embedded in their workflows — and then about a third had even embedded it in their products and services.

And AI is more than just a tech initiative, it’s also adjusting business strategies. CEOs overwhelmingly recognize that AI will impact their operating schedule in some way — with about 73% of those we spoke to in a predictions update saying that they depend AI would factor a shift in their operating schedule. In particular, we’re increasingly seeing generative AI both in the presence of the customer and throughout product advancement.

A: To be competitive, companies can’t just forecast what consumers desire anymore. You have to provide them a way to personalize the specific products and services they desire — and gen AI has a means of doing that.

receive a business in the cruising sector, for example. In the history, cruise lines would have to forecast what each type of foods, products and excursions people wanted. Now, with gen AI, they can have a personalization engine that says, “I’m a fan of these luxury products,” and then make sure those types of luxury products are on board. Or, “I’m a fan of this type of food,” and they can make sure that food is on the menu. It gives companies a way to personalize the encounter that wasn’t feasible before.

A: AI is not monolithic, and there are different maturity levels for different uses. You’ve seen issues in contact centers, for example, where AI agents were introduced and in some cases gave customers hallucinations with incorrect information. And so having a “maturity test” to make sure they tech you’re using is ready for prime period, particularly when it’s customer-facing, is significant. Those same disciplines are critical for protecting internal data, which you don’t desire inadvertently training a large language model.

That’s one category of hazard. On the other side of all of this, another hazard is not moving quickly enough and falling behind. Your AI way will either put you ahead or make it challenging to ever catch up. If we receive a lesson from the Internet era, a lot of those early movers ended up being winners for the next ten, 20 years. We expect to view something very similar for companies that embrace AI today, both early on and in a trustworthy way.