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Retrospecting from March 2025, the last decade has been a blur of technological progress. From the tentative forays of artificial intelligence to the electrification of transport, the period from 2015 to 2025 has set the stage for a future once the preserve of science fiction. Here’s an overview of how technology developed—and how it changed our lives—over the past decade.
2015-2018: The Age of AI and Connectivity
In 2015, artificial intelligence was a niche market, with software such as Google’s DeepMind and early chatbots foreshadowing what it could do. By 2018, AI had burst into the mainstream. Machine learning algorithms started to drive everything from Netflix suggestions to facial recognition on mobile phones. The release of GPT-2 by OpenAI in 2019 (just outside this window) set the stage, but it was the rapid refinement of natural language processing and image recognition in these years that made AI a household name.
Connectivity also took off. 5G network rollouts started in earnest sometime around 2018, with the promise of faster speeds and reduced latency. At the end of this era, smart homes—Alexa, Google Nest, IoT devices—became the norm in richer countries, while mobile internet penetration exploded everywhere, closing digital divides in Africa and Asia.
2019-2022: The Electric and Remote Revolution
The early 2020s were characterized by two seismic changes: the electrification of transport and the mainstreaming of remote everything. Tesla, a leader in 2015, made electric vehicles (EVs) a mass-market phenomenon by 2022, with models such as the Cybertruck and more affordable EVs clogging roads. Rivals—such as Rivian, Lucid, and traditional automakers—followed suit, as battery technology advances (e.g., solid-state prototypes) reduced charging times and prices. By 2022, EVs represented more than 10% of worldwide car sales, from just 1% in 2015.
The 2020-2021 peak of the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated remote work and digital teamwork. Zoom, Slack, and Microsoft Teams were lifelines, and VR headsets (Oculus Quest) predicted virtual offices. By 2022, hybrid work was normal, and telehealth, a mere blip in 2015, became a multi-billion-dollar industry with patients seeing doctors through screens as regularly as they saw them face-to-face.
2023-2025: Biotech Breakthroughs and Space Ambitions
Space exploration, traditionally a government realm, became private and productive. SpaceX’s Starship, first successfully tested in 2023, made reusable rockets the standard, cutting launch prices. The company had launched crewed orbits and was preparing to go to Mars by 2025, while Blue Origin and others initiated space tourism operations. The moon, visited last in 1972, received new robot missions, with NASA’s Artemis program establishing a foundation for a 2030s base.
Societal Changes and Challenges
These bounds weren‘t turbulence-free. Social media changed—sometimes deteriorated—with X (formerly Twitter) and other sites increasing both connectivity and polarization. Misinformation wars raged as AI-created deepfakes obfuscated reality by 2025. Privacy dissipated as information became the decade‘s oil, powering tech giants and igniting regulations such as the EU‘s GDPR (2018) and its more stringent successors.
Climate technology took hold—solar and wind capacity doubled between 2015 and 2025—but the globe continued to struggle with warming temperatures. Automation replaced millions of jobs, from storefronts to truck drivers, as gig economies boomed then burst, leaving gig workers exposed. Cryptocurrency meanwhile oscillated from mania (Bitcoin’s 2021 peak) to maturity, with stablecoins and blockchain becoming practical uses by 2025.
