Society & Technology in 2025: Impacts
A different look at how technologies will impact global cultures and societies in 2025. From a human-centred perspective.
As we look ahead to 2025, most pundits are focused on what new technologies will come to market, from blinking gadgets to of course, new AI tools. This is fine. But we often mistake the arrival of new technologies for societal progress. So we rarely consider how these technologies reshape societies and cultures and give us new meaning as humans.
So in this article I’m taking that different approach. I’m looking at how technologies from Artificial Intelligence to genetic engineering and such, might impact our societies in the coming years. All while trying to take a more global view, rather than the usual Western-oriented ones we see the most.
Current and emerging technologies like Generative AI are fundamentally altering our sociocultural fabric, from our family dynamics to the broader domains of civic engagement, cultural expression and geopolitics. We are entering the time of living with algorithmic systems, a phase that Homo sapiens have never before experienced.
It is a time when we are redefining what it means to be human, to co-exist with technologies that augment us cognitively in real-time. The years ahead area high-stakes game on whether these transformations will enhance or diminish our essential humanity. Let’s get into it.
Defining Algorithmic Sovereignty
For thousands of years we have defined nations by borders, sometimes voluntarily and through dialogue and at other times through warfare, empire building and colonialism. What we have begun to see and will see expanding in 2025 is nations looking to protect their advances in AI and how algorithms are used.
For example, in the EU, the approach to AI within its borders is one that puts citizens, privacy and human rights first. The U.S. considers regulations like this to be an impediment and pits itself against the threat of China, who has little to no consideration for human rights. These will create geopolitical tensions. This will include protecting national data from a knowledge and cultural perspective. With current geopolitical issues, expect this to become more complex in 2025.
Real Humans and Authenticity
As the saying goes, no one on the internet knows you’re a dog. While there have been significant advances in various types of identity verification and many are in the works, we’ve yet to see anything of a global standard or much in the way of a global standardised system. I’d like to say this will be solved in 20205. It won’t be.
But there will be more urgent work on this as we deal with AI “slop”, the vast amounts of AI created content from images and video to text and audio. The challenge of mis/disinformation becomes more complex in 2025. Incidents are likely to happen that continue to push for something to be adopted. Our historical reference this can work? Passports. The challenge? They mustn’t be replicable by AI.
The Growth of the Digital Divide
Not just in economic terms, although that remains a distinct challenge into 2025, but in the impact of those who learn to work with AI tools and those who reject them, or economically can’t. The economic divide comes from a growing socio-technical divide.
We will arrive at essentially two digital divides in 2025; economic and skills/knowledge. Those that figure out Ai advancements and develop new ways of working and deriving income will potentially leapfrog those that can’t. Or won’t.
Reshaping Social Structures & Kinship Systems
Many pundits suggest that 2025 will be the year of “AI Agents” where AI tools start to do things for us from buying groceries, booking vacations and performing other tasks. But it’s been the “year of mobile” for over a decade. AI agents may come along, it doesn’t mean they’ll take off. They won’t. Mostly because broader society has no idea what they are or can do. That takes time. Not a year.
But we are starting to form parasocial relationships with AI agents like chatbots and AI influencers. We are anthropomorphising them. This is risky. Machines aren’t human. They have no feelings or emotions, they simply replicate. We may understand this intellectually, but not emotionally.
What we don’t understand is how, yet, AI systems might unconsciously reshape our understanding of familial and other social relationships. We will face new ways of understanding social obligations with AI systems and one another. How, for instance, will a family integrate an AI agent into it’s dynamics? Do you get an AI agent a birthday present?
The Rise of Digital Disconnection
We’ve already started to see this happen. With talk of doing a “digital detox”, limiting screen time and no-technology vacations. In 2025 we may well see the rise of “AI-free” communities both online and with offline social activities. We may see the creation of forms of social validation that can’t be replicated by AI tools.
Some online spaces may evolve to become “AI sanctuaries” where the use of any form of AI, even basic algorithms, are deliberately kept out. Too, we may see the rise of “temporal gardens” digital spaces designed to slow down content consumption.
Looking Forward to Technologies in 2025
Traditional power structures are being reconfigured, where nations and cultures try to balance their digital autonomy against the siren call of global connectivity. We will be navigating our societal and cultural relationships with AI agents and tools.
We may well see some interesting gadgets and new AI tools emerge in 2025, and while they may be cool and fun, they’re not going to be transformative like AI was in 2023 into 2024. They’ll be incremental. For 2025, it’s much more about figuring things out than anything else. And oh boy, do we have a lot to figure out!
The critical questions and issues for 2025 isn’t as much about managing all these technologies, but rather, how are we shaping them to serve humanity first. How do we preserve and evolve what it means to be human where the boundaries between our digital and physical lives are increasingly indistinct. Heady stuff. Also quite fascinating and exciting.