Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2025. Read them in this 17th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
From new generative AI use cases helping enhance experiences to next generation networks and a multi-cloud shift, 2025 will witness a rapid acceleration in tech advancements to help businesses and industries alike unlock new growth opportunities.
Amdocs leaders share their predictions on what’s in store for the year ahead.
The Multi-Cloud Era: 2025’s Big Shift in Enterprise Cloud Strategies
While many enterprises have already undergone their shift to the cloud, some made the bet on a single provider to support their transition – leaving them locked in to limited capabilities.
In 2025, Steve Ellis, Head of Amdocs Cloud Division, believes that there will be a big shift in enterprise cloud strategies – with companies placing investments towards a multi-cloud approach:
“In 2025, enterprises that initially made big bets on a single cloud hyperscaler will begin to diversify by introducing secondary providers, adding competition, and unlocking capabilities their primary provider may not offer. While the major cloud players still dominate enterprise spend, there will be a noticeable shift toward multi-cloud strategies as businesses seek to complement their existing investments. This trend, along with the evolution of cloud networks from the enterprise to the application portfolio level, will drive greater self-service capabilities for both tech and business teams. Additionally, as cloud continues to mature, AI’s regulatory compliance and technical tooling will also improve, enabling public-facing AI interactions to become more commonplace.”
The Rise of AI Factories-Powering the Next Era of Generative AI
To support the next wave of generative AI, Doron Sterlicht, Head of R&D, Amdocs, believes we can expect to see a steady rise in AI factories in the coming years with the next focused on communications service providers building the infrastructure necessary to power these factories:
“In 2025, AI factories will drive a new wave of technological growth and play a pivotal role in transforming how businesses operate and compete. We anticipate double-digit growth in these specialized facilities over the next 3-5 years, with a focus on sovereign AI data centers that prioritize privacy and security.
With this, communications service providers (CSPs) are uniquely positioned to complement hyperscalers by leveraging their data centers, existing experience in monetization, and deep relationships with enterprise and government customers. With their robust network infrastructure, CSPs can power AI-generated content while bundling it with connectivity services, presenting new opportunities to finally monetize 5G/6G technologies. A strong platform in 2025 will be key to unlocking revenue potential by optimizing infrastructure and enabling enterprise-grade models and generative AI applications as a service across industries.”
Shaping Brand Identity: The Rise of Brand Aware AI Agents in Business Strategy
As AI use cases grow, enterprises are locked in on identifying opportunities to leverage the tech to bring customers consistently positive experiences across their interactions. Gil Rosen, Chief Marketing Officer, Amdocs believes that this demand will drive increased use of AI avatars – allowing enterprises to shape their brand identity and redefine customer interactions:
“We’re entering a completely new era – the agentic era — where AI agents autonomously perform tasks, make decisions, and interact with customers. For service-centric brands, each care and sales interaction with a customer via AI agents will be seen through the paradigm of brand, context, and customer: What is the brand persona, what is the context of the customer interaction, and who is the customer? This shift raises questions: Is it always the same AI agent persona or does each customer meet another persona depending on the context of the interaction? It’s a question every brand must address in 2025, because as AI agents evolve, this will fundamentally redefine how businesses interact with their customers and workforce across all channels.
GenAI and the Impact on Mainframe Modernization
Paul Holland, Chief Technology Officer, Amdocs’ Astadia, predicts that 2025 will see more widespread use of GenAI for mainframe modernization:
“In 2025, I anticipate a broader use of GenAI to support mainframe application refactoring for the cloud. Over the past year, the focus has largely been on automating language conversions, such as COBOL to Java. While some vendors have productized GenAI solutions for this, current offerings fall short of providing a full cloud migration journey or achieving code conversion at scale. In the coming year, GenAI will be applied more effectively to additional application modernization tasks, such as application analysis, code explanation, unit test case generation, and optimizing code produced by traditional refactoring tools, which are proven to scale.”
Generative AI Transforms CSPs with Automation and Actionable Intelligence
While communications service providers (CSPs) started to hear rumblings of the benefits of AI-powered agents in 2024, Roy Sgan-Cohen, General Manager, Amdocs Data and Intelligence, believes early adopters will begin to experience their true innovation in the year ahead:
“In 2025, generative AI will transition from a co-pilot to an automation-driven enabler of business value. Rather than focusing on content generation, AI will drive modular telco capabilities, empowering systems to reason, recommend, and act autonomously across network operations, customer interactions, and service management. This shift will enable consumer-facing businesses to set and track business impact KPIs, such as improved operational efficiency and enhanced customer experiences, while embracing more data-driven decision-making.
AI-powered agents will be equipped with advanced reasoning abilities to route, recommend, and execute tasks autonomously. While digital avatars and immersive environments will continue to evolve, they will require further optimization in algorithm efficiency, hardware consumption, and scalability. By FY25, these technologies will still be maturing, with improvements in their functionality and cost-effectiveness before they become widespread. However, early adopters will begin seeing transformative potential in personalized, context-aware interactions that reshape customer experiences.”
GenAI will Transform Customer Engagement and Loyalty
GenAI may be driving innovation across industries but, when it comes to the telecommunications sector, it’s causing an evolution – with CSPs taking on an entirely new form as dynamic tech companies says Samit Banerjee, Division President, Customer Services Unit, Amdocs:
“Gen AI isn’t just a buzzword anymore; it’s a true force for change, especially within the telecommunications sector. As CSPs evolve from traditional telcos to dynamic tech companies, GenAI will further emerge as a linchpin for driving this evolution. Its impact is already reverberating across multiple facets of CSP operations, from enhancing network efficiency and bolstering security to streamlining business operations.
With this, CSPs will begin to pivot towards proactive, personalized engagements that resonate with digitally savvy consumers. Gen AI has proven to be a game-changer, promising faster, more nuanced interactions that deepen engagement and foster loyalty.”
The Next Leap in AI: Readying Network Intelligence
CSPs are already starting to leverage AI to enhance customer service interactions and Monika Gupta, Principal Technical Architect, Amdocs, believes that the continued appetite for this in 2025 will drive a further need for AI-powered networks:
“The next wave of AI for communications service providers (CSPs) will start with customer service and chatbots, areas where most CSPs are already making headway. But the real breakthrough will come when AI is applied to enhance network operations and drive ARPU growth through advanced customer behavior and network analysis. This could lead to more personalized offers, better promotions, and improved fallout management.
That said, AI-driven networks are still a few years off. Current Large Language Models (LLMs) aren’t yet suitable for mission-critical applications due to issues like hallucinations and significant processing power demands. Until these challenges are resolved, the vision of fully AI-powered networks will remain on the horizon. Solving these challenges will be critical in 2025.”
Incremental Network Improvements Over Immediate 6G Preparations
Discussions around 6G may be on the rise but Joe Hogan, CTO of Amdocs Networks, predicts that in the year ahead, incremental network advancements will take center stage over 6G preparations:
“As we head into 2025, the telecom landscape is rapidly evolving, shifting focus from 5G rollout to more advanced network solutions. A growing number of global deployments are driving faster speeds and lower latency, but also presenting new challenges. For underserved areas, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) utilizing 5G infrastructure offers an attractive alternative to traditional fiber and broadband installations, enabling quick and cost-effective deployments for consumers and Communication Service Providers (CSPs).
However, as FWA traffic surges, network operators will need to rely heavily on advanced tools like policy management and network slicing to balance the increased load. This ensures that retail traffic remains unaffected by rising FWA demand. To maintain optimal performance, operators will focus on refining their existing networks with incremental advancements, such as 5.1 and 5.5, which will take precedence over immediate preparations for 6G.”
Fiber Deployments and the Separation of Engineering and Construction
A common challenge most CSPs face when it comes to fiber adoption is the burden on upfront costs delaying rollouts. Steve Facterman, Director, Fiber Consulting, Amdocs predicts that in 2025, CSPs who rethink their fiber deployment strategies will come out on top:
“As fiber adoption accelerates in 2025, service providers and municipalities must rethink their deployment strategies to overcome the high upfront costs that have historically slowed rollouts. To unlock greater efficiencies, the traditional deployment model will need to evolve. Rather than relying on construction companies to manage the entire project life cycle-from design through deployment-CSPs will find success by decoupling the engineering and design phases from construction.
This shift allows each team to focus on their core competencies, reducing costly design errors that currently surface during fieldwork and cause delays. By streamlining operations and optimizing workflows, CSPs can bring fiber to market faster and at a lower cost. In 2025, those who adopt this dual-team strategy will be better positioned to meet growing consumer demand for reliable, high-speed connectivity and keep pace with the competitive surge of fiber deployments nationwide.”
Post-Quantum Computing will be the Next Security Frontier
With the cyber landscape ever evolving, emerging security threats are constantly on the rise. To best prepare against these new threats, Avishai Sharlin, Division President, Product and Network believes quantum-resistant tech will be key:
“In 2025, Post-Quantum Computing (PQC) will take a big step forward as businesses and governments start adopting Quantum-Safe encryption to secure their data. With the National Institute of Standards and Technology having finalized the key algorithms needed for PQC, companies will soon be integrating these into their security systems. The move will also require updates like Java 21+, which is essential for managing quantum-safe encryption keys. For industries that deal with sensitive information, transitioning to quantum-resistant tech will be critical in staying ahead of emerging cybersecurity threats.”
The Rise of Private AI and AI at the Edge
Sharlin also believes that in the year ahead, we can anticipate a rise in private AI and AI at the edge:
“In 2025, Private and Sovereign AI are set to transform industries. Technologies like NVIDIA’s AI Factory will allow businesses and governments to run AI on their own infrastructure, giving them greater control over their data. With many communications providers already adopting this approach, we can expect rapid growth as independent software vendors develop the tools needed to make Private AI as scalable as cloud services. Meanwhile, AI at the Edge will spark new innovations by bringing AI closer to where data is generated, especially in sectors like healthcare, telecom, and autonomous systems, where fast response times are critical.”
Edge Functions and Hybrid Cloud will Shape 2025’s Cloud Landscape
When it comes to the cloud landscape, Sharlin foresees a steady rise in edge functions and hybrid approaches:
“As 2025 approaches, hybrid and multi-cloud setups will continue to grow, combining the flexibility of public clouds with the control of private ones. A key part of this shift will be Edge Functions, which let code run closer to the user through content delivery networks. This reduces latency and allows real-time, location-based updates. For industries like IoT, telecommunications, and media, where low-latency responses are vital, these advancements will help them innovate faster and offer more responsive services. Pairing this with Private AI will only accelerate the pace of change.”
With 2024 coming to a close, enterprises have already begun preparations for the year ahead. To maintain a competitive edge that fosters innovation, while also enhancing everything from operations to experiences and security, enterprises must ensure their 2025 strategies enable them to keep pace with the rapidly evolving tech landscape.
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