Nintex & Boomi predict AI governance shift by 2025

Executives from Nintex and Boomi have made predictions about business strategy and artificial intelligence (AI) for 2025, emphasizing a shift towards more focused transformations and increased governance of AI agents.

Keith Payne, Vice President, APAC at Nintex, has commented on the future of business transformation. "2025 will be the year businesses swap the sledgehammer for a scalpel. Instead of top-down mega-projects that bleed budgets and overpromise, companies are embracing bottom-up innovation. Business units are being handed the reins to tackle inefficiencies head-on. AI and bots are stepping in like detectives, uncovering hidden, repetitive tasks that no one realised were eating time and resources. These small, high-impact wins are snowballing into massive organisational gains—big results without the big price tag."

According to Payne, there are several drivers for this shift. "For CIOs and CFOs, this isn't just about cost-cutting; it's about surviving. With talent shortages and pressure to trim tech bloat, automation is shifting from a 'nice to have' to a lifeline. This coming year, it's not the big transformations that will win—it will be the relentless, incremental ones."

Meanwhile, David Irecki, Chief Technology Officer, APJ at Boomi, projects significant changes in the workforce due to AI advancements. "In 2025, AI agents will outnumber human workers. These aren't your garden-variety chatbots, think of them as autonomous digital co-workers, programs capable of working independently, learning from data, and making decisions in real-time. They'll transform everything from onboarding to enterprise systems. But with their rise comes a critical need for oversight—without it, these digital workers could turn from assets to liabilities."

Irecki expresses concerns regarding the unpredictability and governance of AI systems. "AI agents can be as unpredictable as they are transformative. We've already seen the issues that can arise from allowing technology to run without monitoring or oversight, such as with the Robodebt scandal. But, while The Government spent much of 2024 drafting guardrails and issuing guidelines for ethical AI use, many organisations are lagging, underestimating the sheer scale of governance required to ensure these systems don't go off-script."

Furthermore, Irecki highlights the importance of data quality in AI development. "What's more, AI is only as good as the data it's trained on, yet in Australia, 68% of company data goes untapped—like asking a chef to craft a feast with crumbs. Add to that the challenges of data silos, outdated systems, and poor quality control, and it's a recipe for disaster, one that's leaving businesses vulnerable to failure."

The emphasis on governance is a recurring theme in Irecki's predictions. "The tech is there but the oversight isn't, which is why we can expect governance systems to be where businesses set their sights: monitoring every decision, tracking every data point, and ensuring AI plays fair. But, creating these systems goes beyond a simple tick-the-box exercise—it's about breaking the fear, uncertainty, and doubt mould surrounding AI, ensuring AI agents are seen as trusted collaborators rather than unpredictable disruptors."

Irecki concludes by asserting that the coming year will focus not merely on adopting AI but on establishing resilient and trustworthy systems. "2025 won't simply be about adopting AI—it will be about creating resilient systems that can drive results while inspiring confidence in both the technology and the organisations that use it."