For years, the conversation about AI has centered on its future worth. It was positioned as something to look forward to or prepare for. Something to be excited about or fear.
Those days are over. We are no longer looking forward to AI’s arrival. We are living in its presence.
As the world leaders in AI, semiconductors, and computer science gather this week in San Jose for Nvidia GTC 2025, here’s a preview of the Highwire Intelligence Group’s (HIG) analysis of AI conversations and trends from 2024 into the current year. Our HIG team analyzed over 100 million posts across news, forums, and social media networks and identified the top 15 trends in AI, along with insights into how it is being discussed and how it is quite literally changing the world.
Across 2024, the conversations about AI centered on enhancing user experience, improving customization options, and solving technical issues in automation and commerce. AI adoption was in its infancy. Those who were using it talked about how to integrate it into business processes.
In 2025, those conversations radically shifted. AI is no longer experimental. It is now driving massive industrial and geopolitical changes. Heavily regulated industries like banking and energy are adopting AI to reshape entire workflows. Competition for resources devoted to AI and its market share is heating up between the world’s superpowers, the U.S. and China, with implications for infrastructure, finance, and even defense.
At the micro-level, conversations about AI are shifting from broad explorations of its use as a digital optimizer toward target applications that are reshaping industries like construction, finance, and medicine. AI is making inroads into industries as varied as agriculture and fintech, with companies looking for explicit information about how to adopt the technology for processes like employment models and dairy management.
Our analysis of the AI conversation revealed that 56% of conversations about AI are happening in the news space, with 23% taking place on X. The conversations in the news reflect the possibilities that AI represents: over 90% are discussing financial markets & trading, more than 80% are delving into art & creativity, and 75% center on renewable energy. Finance and AI is top of mind over on X, but with a slight twist: the top AI-related topic is cryptocurrency & blockchain (over 60%).
All of this has massive implications for businesses around the globe. As a communications leader, staying on top of these trends is a full-time job.
We’re here to help. Our full report on the transformative shift in AI conversations and analysis of the top 15 trends is coming very soon. We’ll provide a full examination of conversations about AI across news and social media networks, analyzing how they vary by platform and how you can harness those conversations to propel your business. We also analyze the top five business shifts in AI from 2024 to 2025, along with resources for CMOs on how to adapt to those shifts and what to do next.
Plus, we’ll provide up-to-date analysis of the news and numbers coming from this year’s GTC.
The future is powered by AI. Are you ready to plug in?