AI's Role in Business in 2025

When Rohit Verma (MSIT '99) joined the Industry Advisory Board for Northwestern Engineering's Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) program in 2021, he explained that digital transformation was forcing business leaders to massively shift their mindset about work and the workforce.

He understands that transition better than most. Verma is president and CEO of Crawford & Company, the world's largest publicly listed independent provider of claims management.

Now, as artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more prominent in organizations, Verma said a new mindset shift is necessary. He recently sat down to talk about that shift, what he thinks will be the biggest information technology (IT) trends in 2025, and how MSIT students can stand out in the industry.

Last year saw a lot of businesses adopt (or at least accept the need to adopt) AI as part of their strategy. How do you think AI will further impact organizations in 2025?

While many companies are talking about AI, actual investment in AI is not yet matching the level of conversation. Additionally, as a percentage of IT spend, AI still lags behind investment in enterprise applications. I do believe 2025 will see businesses make clearer and more focused AI investments.

What do you think will be the biggest trends to impact IT leaders in 2025?

1. Cloud spend optimization. A lot of companies moved applications to the cloud that were not optimized for the cloud and now need to reign in those costs.

2. Creating centers of excellence to drive AI initiatives within the organizations.

3. Further cleaning up and setting up data to leverage for AI and data analytics.

4. Modernization of enterprise systems.

What do you think is one thing that would surprise most non-IT people about what it's like working in IT today?

The amount of wasted effort due to poor process design and articulation of business needs.

Looking back at the past 5-10 years, how would you summarize IT’s evolution as a field?

Unfortunately, IT has not delivered on the promise of improving productivity. In fact, a recent McKinsey study showed almost a negligible improvement in productivity despite investments in technology aimed at productivity and cost improvement.

In what ways do you think the field will evolve in the next 5-10 years?

As more business people become literate in technology, they will make better decisions about business. Therefore, better IT alignment with the business will be less about the technology and more about business impact.

What can MSIT students do to make sure they stand out in the IT industry?

Bring a technology perspective to the business and be business architects, not just technology architects.