Struggling to turn year‐end pilots into production? Here’s what changed across late Dec 2024–Jan 4, 2025 and why you should care: code AI moved from inline copilots to agentic, repo‐wide refactors (GitHub Copilot Workspace, Sourcegraph, JetBrains), shifting the decision from “use autocomplete?” to “what refactors can agents do safely”; on‐device vision/multimodal models gained hardware and quantization momentum (Snapdragon X Elite, Apple Silicon, llama.cpp work) as NPUs hit ~40–45 TOPS and 7–14B models see 4–5‐bit tuning; biotech stacked generative design with automated labs (Meta ESM, Generate:Biomedicines), while gene‐editing updates tightened off‐target and immunogenicity assays; trading pushed AI closer to exchanges (Nasdaq, Equinix) for low‐latency analytics; enterprise vendors hardened AI platform governance and observability; and creative tools embedded AI into pro pipelines (Adobe, Resolve). Immediate actions: pick safe agent use cases, design on‐device/cloud splits, invest in assay and governance tooling, and plan co‐location or platform controls.