El 2025 marcará el auge de los agentes de IA y otras tendencias destacadas.

El avance de la inteligencia artificial continúa a un ritmo acelerado, con capacidades nunca antes imaginadas que se vuelven una realidad. Esto se refleja especialmente en los agentes de inteligencia artificial, o compañeros virtuales de trabajo, que trabajarán junto a nosotros y, eventualmente, de forma autónoma.

De acuerdo con las predicciones de Gartner, para el año 2028, al menos el 15% de las decisiones diarias de trabajo serán tomadas de forma autónoma a través de la inteligencia artificial (un aumento significativo desde el 0% en 2024). Además, la firma ha nombrado a esta tecnología como una de las principales tendencias estratégicas en 2025.

“Está sucediendo muy, muy rápido”, dijo Gene Alvarez, VP analista distinguido de Gartner, a VentureBeat. “Nadie se va a la cama por la noche con todo hecho. Las organizaciones pasan mucho tiempo monitoreando cosas. La capacidad de crear agentes no solo para monitorear, sino también para tomar acciones, ayudará no solo desde una perspectiva de productividad sino también desde un punto de vista temporal”.

¿Qué más predice Gartner para el próximo año? Aquí hay algunas tendencias que la firma explorará en su Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2024 esta semana.

Los agentes de inteligencia artificial, tanto «geniales como aterradores»

El uso inicial de los agentes de inteligencia artificial son tareas mundanas que consumen tiempo y energía humanos, explicó Alvarez.

El siguiente nivel es la inteligencia artificial agente que puede monitorear y administrar sistemas de forma autónoma. “La inteligencia artificial agente tiene la capacidad de planificar, percibir y tomar medidas”, dijo Alvarez. “En lugar de tener algo simplemente observando sistemas, la inteligencia artificial agente puede analizar, hacer la corrección y reportar que sucedió”.

Mirando hacia escenarios aún más complejos, los agentes podrían ayudar en la capacitación de la fuerza laboral. Por ejemplo, un nuevo empleado que normalmente seguiría a un humano podría ser guiado en su lugar por un compañero de trabajo de inteligencia artificial.

“Un agente puede ser ese mentor, para ayudarles a subir la curva de aprendizaje mucho más rápido”, dijo Alvarez.

Reconoció que todo esto es simultáneamente «genial y aterrador», y que existe un temor a la pérdida de empleo. “Pero si el agente realmente puede enseñarme un nuevo conjunto de habilidades, puedo alejarme de un trabajo que está desapareciendo hacia un trabajo que se necesita”, señaló.

Construir confianza en la inteligencia artificial de forma sistemática

Pasando a la siguiente tendencia principal, Alvarez señaló: “Hay una nueva fuerza laboral ahí fuera, ¿cómo la gobernamos?”

Esto dará lugar a plataformas de gobernanza de inteligencia artificial, que permiten a las organizaciones gestionar el desempeño legal, ético y operativo de sus sistemas de inteligencia artificial. Nuevas herramientas crearán, gestionarán y harán cumplir políticas para asegurar que la inteligencia artificial sea transparente y se use de forma responsable. Estas plataformas pueden verificar sesgos y proporcionar información sobre cómo se construyeron los modelos, así como la lógica detrás de sus indicaciones.

Eventually, Alvarez predicted, such tools will become part of the AI creation process itself to ensure that ethics and governance are built into models from the start.

“We can create trust through transparency,” he said. “If people lose trust in AI, they don’t use it.”

Not just one type of computing model

There are seven computing paradigms “on our doorstep right now,” Alvarez pointed out. These include CPUs, GPUs, edge, application-specific integrated circuits, neuromorphic systems, classical quantum and optical computing.

“We’ve always had a mindset of moving from one to the other,” said Alvarez. “But we’ve never done a good job of making that move complete.”

But the hybrid computing models of the future will combine different compute, storage and network mechanisms, he noted. Orchestration software will move compute from one to the other depending on the task and the method most suited for the job.

“It’s going to be about how to get them to work together,” said Alvarez.

At the same time, new, more specific compute technologies will use significantly less energy, he pointed out. This is important, as there is increased pressure to reduce consumption and carbon footprints. But “at the same time, demand for IT computing capabilities is increasing at an incredible rate.”

Incremental improvements won’t be enough; enterprises need long term solutions, he said. New technologies — such as green cloud providers or new, more efficient algorithms — could improve efficiency by thousands or even tens or hundreds of thousands orders of magnitude.

Proactively addressing disinformation security

AI is allowing threat actors to spread disinformation faster — and more easily — than ever before. They can push out deepfakes and craft convincing phishing emails; exploit vulnerabilities in workforce collaboration tools; use malware to steal credentials; and initiate account takeovers (among other tactics).

This makes disinformation security critical; the emerging category seeks to assess authenticity, track the spread of harmful information and prevent impersonation. Elements include brand impersonation scanning, third-party content evaluation, claim and identity verification, phishing mitigation, account takeover prevention, social/mass media and dark web monitoring and sentiment manipulation. Deepfake detection will also be able to identify synthetic media, Alvarez explained, and watermarking tools will help ensure that users are interacting with real people.

By 2028, Gartner predicts that half of all enterprises will begin adopting products, services or features specifically designed for disinformation security, up from less than 5% today.

“Disinformation security is not going to just be a single technology,” said Alvarez, “it will be a collection of technologies.”

Preparing security for the post-quantum world

Right now, the web runs on public key cryptography, or asymmetrical encryption, which secures two points of communication. This encryption is difficult to break because it simply takes too long, Alvarez explained.

However, quantum is rapidly advancing. “There’s going to be a point where quantum computing is going to work and we’re able to break that encryption because it has the mathematical power to do that in real time,” said Alvarez.

Red teams are already getting ready and waiting it out: Many are harvesting encrypted data and holding onto it until quantum is realized. That won’t be long: Gartner predicts that by 2029, advances in quantum computing will make most conventional asymmetric cryptography unsafe.

“We believe it’s going to be bigger than Y2K, if not bigger,” said Alvarez.

Organizations must be prepping for post-quantum cryptography now, he said, to ensure that their data is resistant to decryption. Alvarez pointed out that it’s not easy to switch cryptography methods and it’s “not a simple patch.”

A good place to start is established standards from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Alvarez pointed out that the agency will be releasing the second version of its post quantum cryptography guidelines in spring 2025.

“What do you do when all the locks are broken? You need new locks,” said Alvarez. “We want to make sure we’re updating our security before quantum becomes a reality.”

AI enhancing our brains

Reaching more into the sci-fi arena, Gartner anticipates a rise in the use of bidirectional brain-machine interfaces (BBMIs) that read and decode brain activity and enhance human cognitive abilities. These could be directly integrated into our brains or made possible via wearables such as glasses or headbands, Alvarez explained.

Gartner anticipates that, by 2030, 30% of knowledge workers will be using technologies such as BBMIs to stay relevant in the AI-powered workplace (up from less than 1% in 2024). Alvarez said he sees potential in human upskilling and next-generation marketing — for instance, brands will be able to know what consumers are thinking and feeling to gauge sentiment.

Alvarez ultimately compared it to the 2011 film “Limitless” or Apple TV’s “Severance” (although, to be fair, neither of those portray the technology in the most positive light). “It can reach into your brain and enhance function,” he said.