AI is now embedded across nearly every domain of business and life. I’m starting to call this phenomenon the AI effect: the rapid spread of AI into everything, everywhere. It’s a shift that is both promising and pressing — exciting in potential but overwhelming in pace. Clients are increasingly anxious to know what the future holds. Specifically, leaders are asking AI value questions: Are we investing wisely? Are we getting value? How do we measure ROI?

Three Ways That AI Is Already Reshaping The World

In our vision report Change The Interface; Change The World, we define AI computing and predict how it will change the world. That future is now arriving in three critical ways:

  • Creating AI-advantaged humans. AI-powered personal agents are beginning to act on behalf of individuals. For example, Genspark enables users to have AI make phone calls and automate many other routing tasks — signaling the early emergence of digital doubles.
  • Reinventing the knowledge economy. AI is beginning to unlock and scale human expertise, leading to new business models powered by agentic productivity. Thoughtful AI, a claims automation startup, sells its AI agents based on the number of people that you won’t need to hire.
  • Disrupting tech markets. The surge in demand for AI compute is giving rise to the AI cloud. Google Cloud Platform, once a distant third, is now the fastest-growing public cloud provider — driven in part by AI platform demand and differentiated infrastructure.

These effects are building on each other, creating acceleration. I’m currently planning a report on the current and future state of AI computing to explore these trends in depth.

What Clients Are Wrestling With Right Now

In guidance sessions, I’m helping clients navigate the velocity of AI change. Here are the core challenges I’m seeing:

  • AI value optimization. Clients are under pressure to prove ROI beyond pilots and prototypes. The challenge is balancing fast-moving tech with investment justification and long-term value realization.
  • Getting ready for agentic AI. There’s confusion between automation, AI agents, and agentic systems. Our latest research defines these terms, but clients want more: how to assess maturity, build data readiness, and operationalize AI across teams.
  • AI risk and governance. AI safety has become a board-level concern. Every major vendor is releasing a responsible AI scaling policy as they see that the raw power of emerging agentic systems needs advanced controls. Clients are starting to notice this and are asking me questions about how to prepare.
  • The artificial general intelligence (AGI) question. With public predictions about AGI accelerating, clients are asking about it in my “future of AI” guidance sessions. While a breakthrough could happen anytime, true AGI is not imminent, especially as we see transformer architecture begin to hit a wall (see the latest disappointing Llama 4 results). What’s already emerging is a class of domain-specific super agents that are multimodal and multimodel (e.g., the Genspark example above).

These conversations are also shaping my research agenda: separating hype from reality and guiding clients toward practical next steps that prepare them for the future.

What’s Next: Building For Scale And Trust

As clients move from vision to execution, one theme is becoming central: trust — trust in data, trust in models, and trust in outcomes. Without it, scaling AI — especially in high-stakes domains — stalls. As I highlight in my upcoming report, “The Top 10 Emerging Technologies In 2025,” trust will be the deciding factor in whether organizations realize the full value of the AI effect.

That’s why Forrester Decisions for Data, AI & Analytics was created: to offer clients more than just vision but also best practices, how-tos, and templates to thrive in this volatile and chaotic time.

Let’s Continue The Conversation

If you’re a Forrester client, I encourage you to book a guidance session or inquiry. I’d be glad to share more of our latest thinking and help shape your strategy.

If you’re not a client but have a compelling story or challenge, let’s connect. I’d welcome the opportunity to learn from you — and will happily share what we’re learning in return.

Please read Change The Interface; Change The World, Turn Your Proprietary Knowledge Into AI Advantage, and Agentic AI Is Rising And Will Reforge Businesses That Embrace It for more forward-looking insight and practical advice on how to prepare for the future. Stay tuned for more research on our top emerging technologies for 2025, AI value, AI computing, and AGI.