How generative and agentic AI will be game changers for enterprises in 2025

Just read anyone’s predictions on technology in 2025, and it’s obvious that AI is on everyone’s mind. 

One thing is abundantly clear: corporate America will be getting serious about AI in 2025. It’s been on everyone’s radar for a while now, and Gartner is signaling that its time has come. The analyst firm named agentic AI as it’s number one tech trend for this year, and predicts that “by 2028, at least 15% of day-to-day work decisions will be made autonomously through agentic AI, up from 0% in 2024.”

At a Gartner symposium in Orlando, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang discussed the transformative potential of agentic AI. He talked about a future where enterprises will rely on large populations of agentic AI “workers” that perform much like their human counterparts.

Futurum sees “Agentic AI, enabling semi-autonomous decision-making, will disrupt business applications by 2025, driving shifts toward agent-usage-based pricing and software market consolidation. Generative AI expands beyond text to modalities like images and molecular design, with smaller, task-specific models gaining traction in edge computing and privacy-sensitive applications.” 

Agentic AI’s ability to act autonomously demonstrates potential to help business leaders realize the goal for generative AI to increase productivity across the enterprise. Those same leaders are also staffing up to achieve this goal, as artificial intelligence engineers top this year’s LinkedIn Jobs on the Rise list. 

Deloitte Insights goes even further than Gartner, positing that AI will soon become as common as electricity, stating: “We propose that the future of technology isn’t so much about more AI as it is about ubiquitous AI. We expect that, going forward, AI will become so fundamentally woven into the fabric of our lives that it’s everywhere, and so foundational that we stop noticing it.”

Integrating AI into work structures is the way McKinsey sees companies using AI to become increasingly data-driven, especially by “automating basic day-to-day activities and regularly occurring decisions.”

But if AI in all its different flavors is really to become as pervasive as all these analysts predict, what will be the practical impact on an enterprise’s technology stack? And, particularly, its network infrastructure? The time is now for IT executives to evaluate existing network architecture; find areas to improve digital experiences and secure data; and work across the entire organization to develop baseline standards that align with capabilities while preparing for future AI needs.

Connectivity fuels AI

AI has the potential to positively impact the efficiency of any organization, if only through its potential usage as a force multiplier (as Jensen Huang seems to be suggesting). And, if we are to believe the analysts’ predictions and the enthusiastic AI promoters, the sky is the limit for AI as a value-adding technology for organizations of all sizes.

However, the impact of AI on network infrastructure and data centers will be profound. At its foundation, AI presents unprecedented demand for data storage, data transfer and compute power. This demand has significant implications for bandwidth requirements as organizations investigate and implement AI's capabilities across their various operations.

To capitalize on the promise of AI, organizations need fast and reliable access to the internet, cloud services, and applications with a secure dedicated internet connection backed by a 100% uptime service level agreement guarantee, end-to-end.

Connectivity needs for AI usage focus on high bandwidth, low latency, reliable connections, and robust network infrastructure to manage the data generated and processed. Essentially, a network that can seamlessly support the constant flow of data required for training and employing AI models. Fiber networks are well-suited for AI applications due to their high bandwidth and low latency capabilities. These networks can support the massive data transfer required by AI, and the best fiber networks offer resiliency and a higher resistance to interference. This is crucial for AI applications which require constant, reliable uptime to deliver optimal results.

Internet connectivity: the hidden jewel in the tech stack

Fiber connectivity is an absolutely essential element in the implementation of AI across industries and use case. Whether enabling near-instant data transmission or facilitating more fluid communication with essential cloud services, fiber circuits are essential to realizing the full potential of AI. Organizations can achieve the consistent, reliable bandwidth and performance needed with a dedicated connection over a nationwide private fiber network. 

A dependable internet connection ensures high performance for your network resources, allowing you to better serve employees and customers. That connection is essential for the data handling across a network necessary to any enterprise seeking to incorporate AI more directly into their operations.

Connecting Data Centers

As data centers have evolved to deal with demands for implementing AI there is an increasing demand for point to point, high-capacity circuits within the data center proper. The large language models that generative AI calls for require more compute power, storage and backup. All these will require dedicated, direct connection between specific points within the data center, designed to transfer large amounts of data with minimal latency and high reliability. Similarly, the same sort of circuits will be required for the inter-cloud connections supporting generative AI plans. Businesses will need to ensure fast data transfer for their most demanding applications, including data replication, critical cloud services and data center connectivity.

How Spectrum Business can help

Whether you are embarking on an AI implementation, supporting a legacy MPLS network, migrating to hybrid WAN or adding high-performance Ethernet connections, you can choose the network that's right for you. We design the best underlay network to meet your needs with dedicated fiber, broadband and wireless or using your existing internet connections. Multiple connectivity methods also provide ideal options for load balancing or to ensure consistent network performance and capabilities across all locations.

Find out why 85% of Fortune 500 companies rely on Spectrum Business for technology solutions.