McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2025: A Comprehensive Look at Frontier Technologies Shaping the Future
The global technology landscape is experiencing rapid and transformative change, driven by breakthroughs and escalating demand for computing power. As companies and countries compete fiercely to lead in emerging strategic technologies, McKinsey’s latest Technology Trends Outlook 2025 report offers deep insights into 13 frontier technology trends poised to revolutionize industries worldwide.
Exploring the Frontier: 13 Key Technology Trends
This year’s expansive 108-page report dives into what McKinsey terms a “baker’s dozen” of technology trends with the potential to fundamentally alter business operations. From artificial intelligence powering innovation across sectors to advancements in semiconductors tailored for AI needs, these trends reflect the blurring boundaries between digital and physical realms, and between centralized and decentralized systems.
Executives now confront increasing complexity as they seek to identify which technologies matter most for their companies, scale emerging solutions, and foster trust in an environment of accelerated change. The report equips leaders with a thorough understanding of how peers are beginning to apply these technologies, supported by a robust analysis of quantitative indicators such as patent filings, investment flows, talent demand, and innovation activities.
Research Methodology: Data-Driven Insights
To provide a reliable foundation for its analysis, McKinsey employs six tangible metrics: search engine queries, news articles, patents, research publications, equity investments, and job postings. These data points were meticulously gathered from sources including Google Patents, The Lens (research publications), Factiva (news), Google Trends, PitchBook (investment data), and McKinsey’s Organizational Data Platform (talent demand).
Each trend is scored on innovation and interest, combining patents with research and news with search trends, respectively. Investment figures capture financial flows from venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, IPOs, and private equity, excluding corporate operational expenditures. Talent demand reflects the volume of job postings, mainly from English-speaking regions.
The team also updated their categories from prior reports, most notably consolidating AI trends into a single overarching artificial intelligence category. New additions include agentic AI and application-specific semiconductors, while energy-related trends have been merged to present a unified outlook on future energy and sustainability technologies.
Adoption Stages: From Frontier Innovation to Full Scaling
McKinsey’s expert interviews helped rank each trend’s enterprise adoption on a scale from 1 to 5:
- Frontier Innovation: Technology is nascent with limited organizational investment.
- Experimentation: Small-scale prototype testing without immediate ROI focus.
- Piloting: Early deployment in select business use cases.
- Scaling in Progress: Broader enterprise adoption underway.
- Fully Scaled: Technology is standard practice across organizations.
This framework helps leaders gauge where each technology stands and informs their strategic approach, whether it’s cautious observation or aggressive deployment.
Artificial Intelligence: The Transformative Catalyst
Artificial intelligence dominates the technology trend landscape not only as a powerful technology but also as a foundational amplifier that accelerates progress across other domains. The report highlights AI’s fusion with other technologies to unlock new possibilities—from enhancing robot learning and propelling bioengineering breakthroughs to optimizing energy infrastructure.
Importantly, McKinsey views AI components previously analyzed separately—applied AI, generative AI, and industrial machine learning—as part of a single evolving AI continuum, reflecting how they increasingly operate in tandem within real-world applications.
Spotlight on New Trends: Agentic AI and Application-Specific Semiconductors
One of this year’s standout new trends is agentic AI, which combines AI’s general intelligence with autonomous action capabilities. These “virtual coworkers” can independently plan and perform complex workflows, signaling a potential paradigm shift in enterprise and consumer technology. While still early in investment and public attention compared to more established trends, agentic AI is the fastest growing, indicating its transformative promise.
Complementing AI’s rise, application-specific semiconductors have surged in innovation, patent filings, and investment. Meeting the surging demand for computing power, memory, and networking in AI applications requires specialized chips designed to manage costs, heat, and energy consumption efficiently. This has sparked a wave of new products and competitors, reshaping semiconductor ecosystems.
Diverse Profiles and Strategic Considerations
Not all technology trends share the same maturity or impact potential. For example:
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Quantum technologies, though garnering excitement particularly after announcements from industry giants, remain in relatively early stages requiring further breakthroughs for practical business use—especially in cryptography and materials science.
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Robotics and autonomous systems continue to advance, addressing sectors from manufacturing to transportation.
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The imperative for responsible AI innovations stands out amid growing concerns about safety, governance, and workforce adaptation.
Business leaders must evaluate these trends based on their industry context, readiness to innovate, and competitive strategies, balancing early experimentation with risk management.
Looking Ahead: Opportunities and Challenges
The report underscores that realizing the full benefits of frontier technologies like AI will require continued innovation to tackle challenges such as computing intensity, deployment costs, infrastructure investments, and ethical governance.
McKinsey’s Technology Trends Outlook 2025 serves as a vital resource for industry leaders, policymakers, and entrepreneurs aiming to harness these advancements to create value, drive sustainability, and maintain competitive advantage.
Upcoming Webinar
On Tuesday, July 29, McKinsey experts Lareina Yee, Michael Chui, and Roger Roberts will present key findings from the report and discuss strategies for capturing value from the 13 transformational technology trends.
Time: 10:30 – 11:00 a.m. EDT / 4:30 – 5:00 p.m. CEST
Topics: AI’s role in innovation, agentic AI and autonomous systems, and how leaders can stay ahead
Register here
As frontier technologies accelerate, McKinsey’s latest insights provide a crucial roadmap for navigating the evolving digital terrain and unlocking the next wave of business growth opportunities.
