CapGemini Top 5 Tech Trends Surprise: Nuclear Power Returns
AI's power demands bring nuclear back from the dead, not humanitarian concerns.
Capgemini’s top five tech trends deliver a surprise, with nuclear power making a big return in support of AI energy consumption.
What makes nuclear energy’s resurgence so interesting and irritating is that humanity's need for additional energy resources isn’t new. However, nuclear energy only returned when big tech decided it needed more power to fuel its AI revolution.
Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta have all made positive statements about nuclear power, which offers a climate-friendly solution for massive AI energy use and is driving its resurgence.
If you enjoy this article, subscribe for more!
While the new generations of nuclear reactors are likely to be an important component of our future energy mix and beneficial for all humanity, it is saddening that it took big tech to push for their adoption. Humanitarian considerations counted for very little in its resurgence.
AI captures four of the five top spots for the other tech trends. The most interesting trend, other than nuclear power, is the emphasis on new-generation supply chains.
This emphasis is imminently practical but also geopolitically charged. Logistics is one of China’s strengths, and as the world’s largest exporter, it will play an oversized role in driving this market. Watch as this brings even greater tech fragmentation.
👉The Top Five
1. Generative AI (Gen AI): From copilots to reasoning AI agents, Autonomous intelligent systems are becoming more prevalent in performing certain tasks. These AI agents can learn and adapt to new situations, making them valuable assets. The next step in this tech evolution will be the rise of the ‘super agent,’ capable of orchestrating and optimizing multiple AI systems.
2. AI & Gen AI in cybersecurity: New defenses, new threats AI is transforming cybersecurity from both sides of the legal divide, elevating both cyberattacks and cyber defenses to new levels of sophistication. At the moment, the criminals have their noses ahead: almost all organizations surveyed (97%) in our recently published report say they have suffered breaches or security issues related to using Gen AI in the past year.
3. AI-powered robotics: Blurring the line between human and machine Collaborative robots (cobots) and AI-driven robotics are used in various industries to enhance productivity and safety. These technologies enable humans and robots to perform precision tasks in concert. As robots creep towards full autonomy and AI takes on complex decision-making roles, the future of work may see a shift in traditional hierarchies.
4. The surge in AI is driving nuclear resurgence: Nuclear energy is a focal point for 2025, propelled by the urgent need for clean, dependable, and controllable power (in part owing to the rise of AI and other new tech). Although very few top executives globally identified small modular reactors (SMRs) as a top-three sustainability technology for 2025 in October 2024, the surge in SMR-related news in the last few weeks of this year suggests that 2025 could be pivotal.
5. New-generation supply chain: Agile, greener, and AI-assisted In recent years, businesses have had to navigate increasingly complex, unpredictable market conditions. Technologies such as AI, data, blockchain, the Internet of Things (IoT), and connectivity with terrestrial satellite networks play a strategic role in enhancing the cost efficiency, resilience, agility, circularity, and sustainability of supply chains.
If you know someone who would like this newsletter, please share it with them and help grow our Asia, CBDC, and AI aficionados community!
Readers like you make my work possible! Please buy me a coffee or consider a paid subscription to support my work.
Sponsor Cashless and reach a targeted audience of over 55,000 fintech and CBDC aficionados who would love to know more about what you do!
I became invested in SMRs and invested in OKLO. It's been very volatile and lucrative. I don't have any idea where OKLO is going from here. There's no revenue yet and SMRs for them are till a couple years down the road. They were a SPAC backed by Sam Altman with Chris Wright in a Board of Directors seat. Very exciting but risky.