Gartner Hype Cycle Identifies Top AI Innovations in 2025

STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 8, 2025--

AI agents and AI-ready data are the two fastest advancing technologies on the 2025 Gartner Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence, according to Gartner, Inc. a business and technology insights company. These technologies are experiencing heightened interest this year, accompanied by ambitious projections and speculative promises, placing them at the Peak of Inflated Expectations.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250808070139/en/

Gartner Hype Cycles provide a graphic representation of the maturity and adoption of technologies and applications, and how they are potentially relevant to solving real business problems and exploiting new opportunities. Gartner Hype Cycle methodology gives a view of how a technology or application will evolve over time, providing a sound source of insight to manage its deployment within the context of specific business goals.

“With AI investment remaining strong this year, a sharper emphasis is being placed on using AI for operational scalability and real-time intelligence,” said Haritha Khandabattu, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner. “This has led to a gradual pivot from generative AI (GenAI) as a central focus, toward the foundational enablers that support sustainable AI delivery, such as AI-ready data and AI agents.”

Among the AI innovations Gartner expects will reach mainstream adoption within the next 5 years, multimodal AI and AI trust, risk and security management (TRiSM) have been identified as dominating the Peak of Inflated Expectations (see Figure 1). Together, these developments will enable more robust, innovative and responsible AI applications, transforming how businesses and organizations operate.

“Despite the enormous potential business value of AI, it isn’t going to materialize spontaneously,” said Khandabattu. “Success will depend on tightly business aligned pilots, proactive infrastructure benchmarking, and coordination between AI and business teams to create tangible business value.”

AI Agents

AI agents are autonomous or semiautonomous software entities that use AI techniques to perceive, make decisions, take actions and achieve goals in their digital or physical environments. Using AI practices and techniques such as LLMs, organizations are creating and deploying AI agents to achieve complex tasks.

“To reap the benefits of AI agents, organizations need to determine the most relevant business contexts and use cases, which is challenging given no AI agent is the same and every situation is different,” said Khandabattu. “Although AI agents will continue to become more powerful, they can’t be used in every case, so use will largely depend on the requirements of the situation at hand.”

AI Ready Data

AI-ready data ensures datasets are optimized for AI applications, enhancing accuracy and efficiency. Readiness is determined through the data’s ability to prove its fitness for use for specific AI use cases. It can only be determined contextually to the AI use case and the AI technique used, which forces new approaches to data management.

According to Gartner, organizations that invest in AI at scale need to evolve their data management practices and capabilities to extend them to AI. This will cater to existing and upcoming business demands, ensure trust, avoid risk and compliance issues, preserve intellectual property and reduce bias and hallucinations.

Multimodal AI

Multimodal AI models are trained with multiple types of data simultaneously, such as images, video, audio and text. By integrating and analyzing diverse data sources, they can better understand complex situations better than models that use only one type of data. This helps users make sense of the world and opens up new avenues for AI applications.

Multimodal AI will become increasingly integral to capability advancement in every application and software product across all industries over the next five years, according to Gartner research.

AI TRiSM

AI TRiSM plays a crucial role in ensuring ethical and secure AI deployment. It comprises four layers of technical capabilities that support enterprise policies for all AI use cases and help assure AI governance, trustworthiness, fairness, safety, reliability, security, privacy and data protection.

“AI brings new trust, risk and security management challenges that conventional controls don’t address,” said Khandabattu. “Organizations must evaluate and implement layered AI TRiSM technology to continuously support and enforce policies across all AI entities in use.”

Gartner clients can read more in the report Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence, 2025.

Learn how to fortify 4 AI strategy pillars to drive business impact in the complimentary Gartner AI Strategy Planner.

About Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo

Additional AI trends will be presented during Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo, the world's most important conference for CIOs and other IT executives. Gartner analysts and attendees will explore how to become agents of change in their organizations and harness AI for successful digital transformation. Follow news and updates from the conferences on X and LinkedIn using #GartnerSYM, and on the Gartner Newsroom.

Upcoming dates and locations for Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo include:
September 8-10, 2025 | Gold Coast, Australia
October 20-23, 2025 | Orlando, FL
October 28-30, 2025 | Yokohama, Japan
November 10-13, 2025 | Barcelona, Spain
November 17-19, 2025 | Kochi, India

About Gartner for Information Technology Executives

Gartner for Information Technology Executives provides actionable, objective insights to CIOs and IT leaders to help them drive their organizations through digital transformation and lead business growth. Additional information is available at www.gartner.com/en/information-technology.

Follow news and updates from Gartner for IT Executives on X and LinkedIn using #GartnerIT. Visit the IT Newsroom for more information and insights.

About Gartner

Gartner (NYSE: IT) delivers actionable, objective business and technology insights that drive smarter decisions and stronger performance on an organization's mission-critical priorities. To learn more visit gartner.com.

Figure 1: Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence 2025 | Source: Gartner (August 2025)

A damaged chemical tank in Southern California cracked over the weekend, which authorities were hopeful would relieve pressure and reduce the risk of an explosion.

Some 50,000 residents in Garden Grove, a city of roughly 170,000 about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of downtown Los Angeles, have been evacuated and are waiting for a resolution. The tank overheated Thursday and began venting vapors, leaving local and state officials scrambling to evade a worst possible scenario at the aerospace company site.

No injuries have been reported.

Fire officials planned to send in a team for “an all-night mission” to determine if the pressure has been relieved, which would reduce the worst-case scenario of an explosion, Orange County Fire Authority interim chief TJ McGovern said in a video posted late Sunday to the agency's X account.

“We are not there yet,” McGovern said, urging residents to stay out of the evacuation zone while crews continued operations overnight.

In a follow-up update posted on X, the Orange County Fire Authority said there was one known crack on the tank, disputing reports circulating online of multiple cracks. Officials also said there was no active leak and that continuous atmospheric monitoring confirmed no chemicals were escaping from the tank.

Firefighters have repeatedly sprayed the tank with water in an attempt to cool the chemical inside, methyl methacrylate, which is used to make plastic parts. The tank's interior reached 100 degrees (37.7 Celsius) Sunday, an increase of 10 degrees Fahrenheit (5.5 Celsius) since Saturday, according to Democratic state Sen. Tom Umberg.

Fire officials said a crack discovered in the tank over the weekend may have helped relieve pressure, reducing the risk of a catastrophic explosion.

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Saturday and said he asked President Donald Trump to issue an emergency declaration to bolster federal support for local and state officials.

The tank at GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems, which makes parts for commercial and military aircraft, holds 6,000 to 7,000 gallons (22,700 to 26,500 liters) of methyl methacrylate used to make plastic parts.

Monitoring tests found air pollution around the evacuation zone was within normal limits and specialized equipment is being used to ensure gas is not released, state and federal environmental officials said Saturday.

The first goal of firefighters is to cool off the chemical inside the tank to prevent a leak or explosion.

Drones were monitoring temperatures at 10-minute intervals to watch for any spikes. Containment barriers have been set up to prevent the chemical from getting into storm drains or reaching creeks or the nearby ocean in the event of a spill, Orange County Fire Authority division chief Craig Covey said on social media.

As the interior temperature rises, methyl methacrylate converts from a liquid to a gas and increases the pressure, according to Purdue University engineering professor Andrew Whelton, who said the crack could mean product or pressure is being released, reducing the chance of explosion.

“Think of a soda can. If you leave it in a hot car it can explode,” Whelton said. “But if you put a hole in the can, the product is released and the can itself doesn’t explode.”

Firefighters are unlikely to consider making a hole in the tank, fearing a spark that might ignite the volatile and flammable gas. An explosion that could spread the chemical over a broad area and send shrapnel flying would be the worst-case scenario, he said.

Aerial photos taken by The Associated Press showed streets in the area were empty Sunday, while several evacuation shelters were open. At a high school in neighboring La Palma, people slept in cars or on mats and sleeping bags on the asphalt.

Garden Grove is next to Anaheim, home to Disneyland’s two theme parks, which were not under evacuation orders. Park officials said they were monitoring the situation.

Exposure to methyl methacrylate can cause serious respiratory problems, neurological problems and irritation to the skin, eyes and throat, according to fact sheets about the chemical.

Whelton said if an explosion occurs, it will be crucial to conduct detailed air monitoring specifically for methyl methacrylate and not just generic tests for volatile organic compounds as officials did after a 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which released more than 115,000 gallons (435,000 liters) of vinyl chloride after officials blew open five tank cars and burned the chemical.

Orange County health officials said the chemical is easy to smell and people may notice it over a large area without being harmed.

Some Garden Grove residents filed a class-action federal lawsuit Saturday against GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems, which operates the facility where the tank is located. Lawyers for the residents argued that regardless of what happens, property values in the surrounding community are sure to be impacted.

GKN Aerospace did not comment on the lawsuit but has apologized to residents and businesses forced to evacuate. It said Sunday it was “working around the clock to mitigate the risk of a leak.”

GKN Aerospace agreed in 2025 to pay state regulators more than $900,000 to settle violations involving recordkeeping, permitting issues and nitrogen oxide emissions, according to a report on the South Coast Air Quality Management District website.

Associated Press journalist Ethan Swope in Garden Grove, California, contributed to this report.

An evacuation map is displayed at the incident command post at the Los Alamitos Race Course in Cypress, Calif., on Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

Water is sprayed on a damaged tank at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove, Calif., on Sunday, May 24, 2026, after the tank containing a chemical used to make plastic parts overheated Thursday. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

The streets remain empty in Garden Grove, Calif., on Sunday, May 24, 2026, after a storage tank containing a chemical used to make plastic parts overheated Thursday at an aerospace plastics facility. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

Emergency personnel work at the incident command post at the Los Alamitos Race Course Sunday, May 24, 2026, in Cypress, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

Water is sprayed on a damaged tank at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove, Calif., on Sunday, May 24, 2026, after the tank containing a chemical used to make plastic parts overheated Thursday. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)