December 11, 2025
AI’s Architects Are Time Magazine’s People of the Year as AGI Rises
As rumoured, and we discussed earlier in the week, Time Magazine has decided not to vote for a person of the year. Instead, it has plumped for AI, or at least the architects of AI.
While these folk, featuring the likes of Jensen Huang of Nvidia, might be building a multi-trillion dollar, world-changing, industry. It is really the impact of AI that we as consumers, business software users and their customers notice.
From no more hold time for phone calls or chat support, to an AI-enhanced cat litter tray and AI-generated songs, AI is putting in a major shift across all levels of society.
The Surging Costs of AI
Amid all the backslapping, much of the article focuses on the cost of AI and competition with China.
The architects’ next step has to focus on bringing down the costs of AI.
As like likes of OpenAI faces funding challenges (while signing a $1 billion deal with Disney today), with rocketing energy, processor and memory prices.
Businesses will face rising SaaS subscriptions for businesses, and for everything with an AI-feature inside, that gets a little price tick to cover the cost of doing AI business.
And there’s the rabid market activity for AI deals like Thoma Bravo grabbing Verint and many more lined up as niche success deliver practical results.
Already Racing into the AGI World
Even as these architects and their ranks of minion builders and power-hungry data centres rise around the globe, firms are claiming to have made the next step with artificial general intelligence (AGI).
A Japanese firm, Integral AI, founded by ex-Google veteran Jad Tarifi can learn how to complete new tasks without accessing massive sets of training data.
There’s a waiting list to get more information, but if meets the claims of founders, Integral can “solve challenging problems in AI research by enabling our models to learn abstractions, ensure the reliability of their predictions, and actively and continuously learn as they encounter new data and are given more resources.”
Lighting up AI’s Murky Future
In response to the barrage of AI news, Nik Kairinos, Founder, CEO and Chief AI Architect, Fountech AI, highlights that “It is an accurate assessment of where global attention has been focused this year. But recognition should not be confused with readiness. At this moment, AI can still be a saviour or scourge to humanity.”
He continued, “We are still in the early stages of building AI systems that are dependable, accountable, and aligned with human values so, for those of us developing the technology and bringing AI tools to market, there is huge responsibility: to prioritise transparency, safety, and genuine human-machine collaboration over sheer speed. The milestone matters, but so does the critical work still ahead.”
Focusing on the Practical Needs for AI in CX
While everyone is churning out the predictions and insights for the future, Dvir Hoffman, CEO of the AI-driven omnichannel customer-experience platform CommBox, highlights the following key areas in CX:
- AI-driven insights emerging as the new competitive edge: Beyond automation, organisations will rely on AI to uncover behavioural patterns, operational inefficiencies, and revenue opportunities, elevating CX teams from reactive support functions to strategic drivers.
- Industry-tuned AI agents becoming the standard for complex customer queries: Rather than generic chatbots, companies will increasingly deploy AI trained on sector-specific knowledge, enabling faster, more accurate, and more trusted interactions. What will this mean for company structure and productivity?
- Voice AI and messaging/calls evolving together: The convergence of conversational voice and text-based channels will change how customers move between touchpoints, making interactions more natural and reducing friction for both users and service teams.
Whatever 2026 and beyond brings us, AI will play an increasing role, both inside and outside the customer experience world, but the tremors of today’s impacts could be far more serious in future iterations.
