ANN ARBOR – Artificial intelligence wasn’t just the biggest tech story of the year — it reshaped infrastructure, energy demand, labor markets, and regulation, making it the dominant force behind nearly every other major trend.
1. Artificial Intelligence Dominated the Narrative
Across virtually all major year-end recaps, AI was the #1 theme of 2025:
Key AI trends that show up across surveys and year-in-review lists:
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- AI shifted from “emerging tech” to infrastructure and business standard, deeply integrated into products and enterprise tools.
- “Agentic AI” — autonomous AI assistants and workflows — became a central industry focus.
- Breakthroughs in reasoning, multimodality, and efficiency…