2024 saw AI mistakes dominate the headlines as bad actors spread wide across the world, from the anticompetitive cases reigning in big tech to electoral manipulation and disinformation on social media. As AI and emerging technology mistakes loom over headlines and companies’ shoulders, organizations are building the plane as they fly. Executives are learning new lessons about AI and tech responsibility on a daily basis, all in the name of earning consumer and customer trust.

But not all countries have the same (or any) rules for AI, which means that not all companies are playing the same game. Patchy AI standards and regulations across the globe will result in some organizations faring better than others when it comes to building and maintaining trust.

In 2025, as leaders attempt to navigate these uneven pockets of trust, Forrester predicts that:

  • Trust in government will rise 10% post-2024 elections — briefly. With several major political elections in 2024, almost half of the world population will have voted in a national election. Disinformation and social manipulation by foreign state-based actors have fueled distrust in democratic institutions — in nine of 11 G20 countries we surveyed, more online adults reported they do not trust that the government will follow through on their promises than those who reported that they do. After a politically uncertain, sometimes contentious election year, 2025 will see transitions of power begin to restore trust in government globally. This bump in trust will be short-lived, however. The honeymoon halo will wear off just as the newly elected governments begin to grapple with more serious challenges that can’t be solved quickly.
  • Regulated and unregulated industries will diverge on trust. Two types of trust will emerge: enforced trust and performative trust. Regulated industries such as financial services and healthcare will live within enforced trust — where government regulations and oversight set the standards for transparency and accountability. On the other hand, unregulated industries will operate in the environment of performative trust, where they’re not required by law to act in ways to build trust but instead are motivated by fear of brand damage, public condemnation, and other potential financial loss. In 2025, Forrester predicts a divergence of trust between these two types of industries in which regulated industries maintain current levels of trust while nonregulated industries see levels of trust erode.
  • AI-powered skill intelligence and career tools will increase employees’ trust in AI. One realization companies had in the brouhaha of AI was that a big portion of their employee base required reskilling (learning completely new skills for emerging jobs) or upskilling (learning additional skills in their existing jobs). Forrester’s 2024 data shows that among the skills that global business and tech professionals say they need most to support their organization’s modernization in the next 12 months is skills in data and analytics. Familiarity breeds trust, as progressive organizations will leverage AI to analyze their workforce’s skill data to solve complex challenges such as talent redeployment, upskilling or reskilling, and to help scale employee experience initiatives that currently require too much manual effort.

If you’re a Forrester client, check out the Predictions 2025: Trust report. There, you can read all five of our 2025 trust predictions in full and get more details on what they mean for you and your organization in the upcoming year. Set up a Forrester guidance session with us to discuss how to apply these predictions and best practices to stay ahead of trust in 2025.

If you aren’t yet a Forrester client, you can visit our Predictions 2025 hub to register for webinars and download one of our complimentary Predictions guides, which provide more insight into our predictions for 2025.