For ambitious startups, 2025 is set to be remembered as a year of regulation whiplash, where rules around the world shift faster than a Series A pitch deck. The pace of AI development is shaking up business, while political turnover from London to D.C. is rewriting the rules, too.

After two years of excitement and experimentation, 2025 will be the year companies get serious about proving AI’s ROI. The days of flashy demos and vague promises are over. Instead, businesses will need to see hard evidence that AI delivers real results, whether that’s faster processes, cost savings, or something else tangible.

It’s impossible to run a successful startup without help. From IT and accounting to branding and marketing, no founder can do it all – and they shouldn’t try to. It’s much better to focus on the core problem you’re solving, outsourcing as many of the wider support functions as you can for as long as you can.

Hallucinate is the Cambridge Dictionary word of 2023. This reflects not only how AI has entered popular consciousness this year, but how one of its biggest challenges is its ability to make stuff up.