In this episode, Holly and Ewan look back on 2025 as a defining year in technology, exploring what really changed (and what didnât) in the most transformative period since generative AI emerged.
They begin with the obvious headline: ChatGPTâs rise into the top five most-visited websites on Earth, a staggering shift for a product only three years old. Ewan reflects on the moment AI moved from novelty to normalised daily tool, from homes to boardrooms to government reports.
Holly highlights how this yearâs explosion of ChatGPT features (apps, search, shopping recommendations, and especially AI voice conversations) have reshaped expectations of what interacting with AI feels like.
Ewan shares real-world stories of fixing household appliances using ChatGPT voice guidance, contrasting it with Googleâs Gemini, which has undergone a dramatic improvement arc.
The pair also discuss:
Email-integrated AI (e.g., Gmail â ChatGPT via Pulse)
The coming wave of agentic automation, and why agents still arenât truly mainstream
How Gemini 3 and Googleâs AI reboot shocked the industry
Nvidiaâs rise to the worldâs most valuable company
Why predictions of mass AI-driven unemployment havenât materialised (yet!)
The uncomfortable truth: companies use âAI realignmentâ as a convenient narrative during layoffs
They also examine the misses of 2025, including Siri and Alexa still being terrible, Appleâs underwhelming AI offerings, and the gap between promised AI agents and what actually exists today.
Finally, Holly closes with a reminder that tech CEOs shape narratives as much as technology itself and that 2025 has been a year of learning to question the hype.
