Enterprises will use AI to eliminate middle management positions, board members will use AI guidance to challenge executive decisions, and bad actors will use AI agents to carry out nefarious activities, Gartner predicts.
Artificial Intelligence continues to dominate this week’s Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo, as well as the research firm’s annual predictions list.
“It is clear that no matter where we go, we cannot avoid the impact of AI,” Daryl Plummer, distinguished vice president analyst, chief of research and Gartner Fellow told attendees. “AI is evolving as human use of AI evolves. Before we reach the point where humans can no longer keep up, we must embrace how much better AI can make us.”
Gartner’s top predictions for 2025 are as follows:
Through 2026, 20% of organizations will use AI to flatten their organizational structure, eliminating more than half of current middle management positions.
“Organizations that deploy AI to eliminate middle management human workers will be able to capitalize on reduced labor costs in the short-term and long-term benefits savings,” Gartner stated. “AI deployment will also allow for enhanced productivity and increased span of control by automating and scheduling tasks, reporting and performance monitoring for the remaining workforce which allows remaining managers to focus on more strategic, scalable and value-added activities.”
By 2029, 10% of global boards will use AI guidance to challenge executive decisions that are material to their business.
AI-generated insights will have far-reaching impacts on executive decision making and will empower board members to challenge executive decisions. “Impactful AI insights will at first seem like a minority report that doesn’t reflect the majority view of board members,” said Plummer. “However, as AI insights prove effective, they will gain acceptance among executives competing for decision support data to improve business results.”
By 2028, 40% of large enterprises will deploy AI to manipulate and measure employee mood and behaviors, all in the name of profit.
“AI has the capability to perform sentiment analysis on workplace interactions and communications. This provides feedback to ensure that the overall sentiment aligns with desired behaviors which will allow for a motivated and engaged workforce,” Gartner stated.
By 2027, 70% of new contracts for employees will include licensing and fair usage clauses for AI representations of their personas.
Large language models that emerge have no set end date, which means employees’ personal data that is captured by enterprise LLMs will remain part of the LLM not only during their employment, but after their employment. This will lead to a public debate that will question whether the employee or employer has the right of ownership of such digital personas, which may ultimately lead to lawsuits, Plummer said.
By 2027, 70% of healthcare providers will include emotional-AI-related terms and conditions in technology contracts or risk billions in financial harm.
“The increased workload of healthcare workers has resulted in workers leaving, an increase in patient demand and clinician burnout rates which is creating an empathy crisis. Using emotional AI on tasks such as collecting patient data can free up healthcare workers’ time to alleviate some of the burnout and frustration they experience with increased workload,” Gartner stated.
By 2028, 30% of S&P companies will use GenAI labeling, such as “xxGPT,” to reshape their branding while chasing new revenue.
“CMOs view GenAI as a tool that can launch both new products and business models. GenAI also allows for new revenue streams by bringing products to market faster while delivering better customer experiences and automating processes. As the GenAI landscape becomes more competitive, companies are differentiating themselves by developing specialized models tailored to their industry,” Gartner stated.
By 2028, 25% of enterprise breaches will be traced back to AI agent abuse, from both external and malicious internal actors.
New security and risk solutions will be necessary as AI agents significantly increase the already invisible attack surface at enterprises. This increase will force enterprises to protect their businesses from savvy external actors and disgruntled employees to create AI agents to carry out nefarious activities, Plummer said.
By 2028, 40% of CIOs will demand “Guardian Agents” be available to autonomously track, oversee, or contain the results of AI agent actions.
Enterprises’ interest in AI agents is growing, but as a new level of intelligence is added, new GenAI agents are poised to expand rapidly in strategic planning for product leaders. ‘Guardian Agents’ build on the notions of security monitoring, observability, compliance assurance, ethics, data filtering, log reviews and a host of other mechanisms of AI agents,” Gartner stated.
“In the near-term, security-related attacks of AI agents will be a new threat surface,” Plummer said. “The implementation of guardrails, security filters, human oversight, or even security observability are not sufficient to ensure consistently appropriate agent use.”
Through 2027, Fortune 500 companies will shift $500 billion from energy opex to microgrids to mitigate chronic energy risks and AI demand.
“Microgrids are power networks that connect generation, storage and loads in an independent energy system that can operate on its own or with the main grid to meet the energy needs of a specific area or facility,” Gartner stated. “Fortune 500 companies who spend some of their operating expenses on energy should consider investing in microgrids which will offer a better return than continuing to pay rising utility bills.”
By 2028, technological immersion will impact populations with digital addiction and social isolation, prompting 70% of organizations to implement anti-digital policies.
Gartner predicts that by 2028, about one billion people will be affected by digital addiction, which will lead to decreased productivity, increased stress and a spike in mental health disorders such anxiety and depression. Additionally, digital immersion will also negatively impact social skills, especially among younger generations that are more susceptible to these trends.
“The isolating effects of digital immersion will lead to a disjointed workforce causing enterprises to see a significant drop in productivity from their employees and associates,” Plummer said.
AI issues represented a significant portion of Gartner’s Top 10 strategic technology trends for 2025, which the firm also presented this week. For example, Gartner said it is expecting a proliferation of “agentic AI,” which refers to intelligent software entities that use AI techniques to complete tasks and achieve goals. By 2028, at least 15% of day-to-day work decisions will be made autonomously through agentic AI, up from 0% in 2024, Gartner predicts. Agentic AI will be incorporated into AI assistants and built into software, SaaS platforms, IoT devices and robotics.
