2025 marks more than just a calendar shift it is a year of profound reset across geopolitics, trade, energy, and technology. We are witnessing a structural realignment that will shape global order for decades to come. Uncertainty itself has acquired value reflected in surging gold prices while oil markets remain surprisingly steady amid turbulence. Disruption has become normalised. Major geopolitical shocks are no longer destabilising; they are absorbed with quiet resilience. Strategy today requires more than agility; it demands a mindset that treats disruption as the baseline condition of doing business.
The geopolitical reset
At the heart of this reset lies geopolitics. Over the past nine months, the global political equilibrium has shifted dramatically. Established trade and tariff systems have been upended, while domestic politics have driven insularity at levels unseen in recent decades. The high costs of global policing, structurally elevated interest rates, balance of payments pressures, and rising indebtedness have all reshaped policy choices in unexpected ways. Each major economy is now prioritising national interest over collective solutions reshaping responses to climate change, trade disputes, and global security.
Energy and climate: Politics over science
Energy and climate are no longer technocratic domains they are deeply political arenas. Despite decades of pledges to transition, fossil fuels still accounted for 86% of global energy supply in 2024, according to the Statistical Review of World Energy by the Energy Institute and KPMG. The costs of this dependence are mounting. Floods, wildfires, droughts, coral bleaching, and relentless heatwaves are producing massive economic losses many either uninsurable or prohibitively expensive to insure.
Meanwhile, the transition faces resistance. In jurisdictions like the US, clean energy policies have been rolled back while fossil fuel and nuclear initiatives expand. For corporates, climate risk is both material and existential. It threatens business continuity and financial stability, yet strategies remain stuck in stasis, focused on short-term survival rather than long-term resilience.
Technology and the AI imperative
Against these headwinds, technology and particularly artificial intelligence emerges as a transformative force. Computational AI, Generative AI, and the rapidly advancing Agentic AI are redefining what is possible for both business and society. For energy enterprises, AI offers unprecedented capabilities: optimising grids, forecasting demand, predicting disruptions, reducing emissions, and building transparent, trusted systems. AI can help enterprises reimagine business models, enhance efficiency, and accelerate the transition to cleaner energy. The imperative is not merely to adopt AI but to integrate it into core processes end-to-end. Done responsibly, AI will not just improve operations it will redefine competitive frontiers. The real prize lies in using AI to solve complex problems, inspire trust, and enable new forms of growth and sustainability.
India’s strategic moment
For India, 2025 is an inflection point. Long driven by infrastructure execution and services, the economy is now pivoting toward becoming a products economy anchored in capital goods, innovation, and research. Two pillars underpin this evolution. First, manufacturing: India is emerging as a trusted hub for high-quality, cost-competitive production. Second, services: digital capabilities, analytics expertise, and global-scale platforms are propelling Indian enterprises into a new phase of sophistication. Together, they position India as a vital hub of innovation. What makes 2025 particularly pivotal is the convergence of computational, generative, and agentic AI enabling end-to-end transformation. With targeted investments in advanced computation, critical manufacturing, energy innovation, and AI-driven solutions, India has the potential not just to reduce import dependence but to lead as a global force. This leadership would extend beyond domestic growth, offering scalable solutions to the wider Global South.
The road ahead
Tariff wars, climate risks, and technological revolutions have rewritten the rules of global engagement. The winners of this reset will be those who embrace uncertainty as the new normal and pivot from reactive survival to proactive reinvention.
Enterprises that look beyond quarterly earnings to focus on resilience, innovation, and long-term sustainability will endure and lead. The world is indeed resetting. The choice before us is clear: will we merely adapt, or will we lead where opportunity beckons?
The decisions of 2025 will define not just a business cycle, but the contours of growth, sustainability, and innovation for an entire generation.
A version of this article was published in The Economic Times Edge Insights Magazine in its October 2025 issue.
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