Artificial intelligence, innovation and a lot of second guessing

Things moved fast in 2025.

- Vishal Mathur

From artificial intelligence (AI) companies insisting — albeit, fallaciously - that Al agents can replace humans in the workplace, to a true arrival of ultra-slim yet powerful smartphones, significant photography performance evolutions, the adoption of an advanced silicon carbide battery composition for phones and tablets, to your earphones delivering live translation when needed, it’s been a mixed bag. In India’s context, there are finer nuances to assess, also as foundations for next year.Digital transactions, to the moon

India’s digital transactions continued their steep upward climb. October marked 2025's highest monthly tally (NPCI data till November), with 20,700.92 million transactions worth ₹27,27,790.68 crore. PhonePe led with 9,412.07 million transactions valued at ₹13,06,401.9 crore, followed by Google Pay with 7,165.80 million worth ₹9,54,186.1 crore. Platforms are evolving quickly. For instance, Google Pay added a Pocket Money feature, that allows parents to enable access to digital payments for their children, with a layer of supervision. Amazon Pay led with UPI Biometric Authentication to approve payments via fingerprint or face scan, instead of a code.

Xbox and Windows, in a mess

Between regular updates repeatedly breaking Windows 11, a relentless push to force AI down the throats of users who simply don't want it, and an Xbox division struggling while customers are asked to pay more for Game Pass subscriptions, it has clearly not been a good year for Microsoft. Don’t shoot the messenger, but frustrated users on X openly described Microsoft’s Windows strategy as the best pitch yet for Linux and even Apple’s macOS.