😫New year, same problem for women😫

The UK tech industry ended 2025 exactly how it started it: loudly celebrating women while quietly haemorrhaging them. Computer Weekly’s end-of-year diversity round-up reads less like a progress report and more like a very British way of avoiding eye contact with a structural failure. We’re told DEI is under attack in the US, that the UK is “holding the line”, and that innovation will save us — but the numbers don’t lie 

 🫠

Between 40,000 and 60,000 women leave tech every single year. That’s not a skills shortage, that’s an industry repeatedly saying “you’re not welcome here”🚪

More broadly only 12% of the UK’s fastest-growing startups have a woman as CEO, chair or founder, while 36% don’t have a single woman on their board. Not one. Not even the one who usually gets asked to “sense check the culture”. 🪑

And when women explain why they’re done? 45% say work-life balance is the biggest barrier. Translation: flexibility is still treated like a favour, not infrastructure. DSIT’s own research admits unconscious bias and lack of flexible working are blocking progress — which is policy-speak for “we know what’s broken, we’re just not fixing it.” ⏳

Then there’s AI — the shiny future we’re apparently all meant to pivot into. Except access to training is already split by class: 84% of people from higher-income households feel supported to use AI compared with just 59% from lower-income households. So while we shout about “democratising opportunity”, we’re quietly rebuilding the same hierarchies with better tooling. 🤖

Of course, government’s answer is a fresh £8.2m scheme to get girls into AI — launched in the same year tens of thousands of women exited the industry. It’s like mopping the floor while the pipe is still burst and congratulating yourself for the clean corner. 🛑

Quick-skim highlights

• 40,000–60,000 women leave tech every year — this is a retention crisis, not a pipeline problem 🧨

• Only 12% of the UK’s fastest-growing startups have a woman as CEO, chair or founder 🪜

• 36% have zero women on their boards — not even a token seat 🪑

• 45% of women cite work-life balance as their biggest barrier ⏳

• DSIT confirms flexibility gaps and unconscious bias still dominate hiring and progression 🧱

• AI access is already unequal: 84% vs 59% support split by income 🤖

• Government launched another £8.2m “girls into AI” scheme while women continue to leave in droves 🛑

• The industry loves celebrating women — but keeps failing to build systems that keep them 🏆➡️🚪

📚 Read more:
https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366575883/Top-10-women-in-tech-and-diversity-in-tech-stories-of-2025

📆 Review of 2025📆

So let's take a look at what we said at the beginning of 2024 to see if we were right

Economy

• Crypto: We think Trump will do a few big things for the world of crypto. On the macro side, his appointments and general outlook for the currency will keep the balloon broadly inflated. We expect a short-term rally ahead of his inauguration, and then his occasional tweet storms, flanked by Elon, will see meme coins in particular have some very prominent spikes. As traditional currencies are linked to the performance of the world economy, we anticipate folks looking for alternative stores of value will give crypto a go. To the moon eh

• ✅So we were sort of right. Crypto hit its all time high but then dropped back down to pretty much where it started by the end of 2025

• MAG 7 continues to rise: We think they'll continue to defy gravity as the S&P roars to 7,000 and broadly pumps the value of the U.S. economy. It may not make sense on paper, but we feel it a little in our loins.

  • Regulators will cool down, having bitten off a lot to chew on antitrust regulation in the Biden years, as Trump plays kind to the tech bros

• ✅So the S&P hasnt hit 7000 but we were only about 1% off and yes it was down to that Tech boom largely with Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, Google parent company Alphabet and Amazon — the five biggest names in the S&P 500 — now representing ~30% of the entire index

• TikTok will never be banned: We anticipate the app will never disappear from the app stores due to interventions from the president-elect

• ✅So we dont encourage betting but we're on a hot streak and if you bet on this one on Polymarket, you'll see that we were right 

• VC will continue to be slow: Economic volatility from the USA means folks continue to keep the powder dry with value and volume of deals not doing more than 10% on most metrics from this year

• ✅Yep we were were spot on regarding the market sentiment, deal volume, and the driver (US volatility). However, if you look strictly at "deal value" (total dollars invested), we were likely wrong statistically, but only because of a massive distortion caused by Artificial Intelligence.

Workplace and AI

• More companies will follow suit from Amazon and demand everyone returns to the office

• ✅Yep - 

• AI: The trough of disillusionment is here as newer models don't do much to impress us or change the way anyone does anything in 2025. Some of the text-to-video tools will produce impressive moments and worry the folks at the big advertising agencies as they move into production more (We'll say it again haha)

• Ok ish. We did see some pretty viral text to video which did make some moments, but i wouldnt say people are disillusioned although the market is skeptial of the bubble bursting

Individual companies 

• Meta: Meta will quietly go about its business, trying to avoid the crosshairs of scrutiny as first signaled by its change in policy head from Nick Clegg to Republican Joel Kaplan.

• ❌ I wouldn't say they were quiet as they cosied up to the new administration and went on the attack to the EU whilst sidelining the metaverse 

• Microsoft: Microsoft will be the key focus of regulators' eyes, with more scrutiny on its bundling of cloud, productivity, AI, and workplace solutions.

• ❌ Not yet

• Google: Google will spend a lot of the year fighting its Monopoly judgment while continuing to push its dominance from search into shareholder-happy earnings reports as they start to become more skeptical about its AI spend.

• ❌ Google has had some pretty good pefromnaces off the back of its AI fueled results without too much talk on the Monpoly status 

• Nvidia: Nvidia won't see 2022 or 2023 growth, but we think it will still be one of the best-performing stocks, outpacing the market in general as spend on AI continues to grow.

• ✅Yep - 

• Tesla: Tesla will find it hard as Chinese competition and traffic eats into its prospects outside of the USA. It'll ship a cheaper model as the Cybertruck fails to take sales to a new meaningful level and will discount, hitting profitability. Elon will have his work cut out shaping government policy to help Tesla and not its competitors.

• ✅Yep - Yep and it tuned out DOGE didnt work out that greatly  

DEI

• We'll see some big-name CDOs depart big-name companies
• ❌ Not really
• The fuss will die down as people quietly get on with business without branding or doing things that are seen as overtly DEI
• ✅Yep althoguh Folks have tired to keep it on the agenda blaming plane crashes and the like on DEI

🎉Our predictions 🎉

Our predictions for 2026

Business of tech

• MAG 7 continues to rise: Defying gravity and surprising analysts we predict the Mag 7 will still be more valuable companies than last year albeit at different paces and with a big astrix next to tesla which we think will struggle under consumer's considering cheaper Chinese EV's as state subsides subside

• Another company will try and ban social media for kids: Inspired by the Australians another country will announce their own ban on social media for kids and this will be perhaps a forward sign as social media use starts to peak out and possibly decline in mature markets 

• VC will continue to be slow: We predict an even larger drop in underrepresented founders starting businesses and getting funded by VC 

• Self driving cars - This one is a London story but the trails for Waymo's and other's will start but they will face delays as well, a non grid system and narrow European streets cause issues for the vehicles to navigate 

• Creators take on platforms - creator led channels will continue to buy the rights and find innovative ways to engage with traditional media such as the world cup, or live events causing a self refection crisis in traditional media companies 

• Smart-glasses - Actually become something people want as the in screen tech underpinning the Ray - Ban Display smart glasses becomes useful enough 

Workplace and AI

• An increase in "spy-tech" or surveillance culture in the workplace, normalising tools that monitor employee activity, location and output under the guise of security 

• AI: More lawsuits and content licensing agreements as the hype dies down, people question the money involved and want a slice for themselves

• Conscription will be flagged as the silver bullet to reduce youth unemployment and upskilling needs

DEI

• Not much will change as DEI for many is dead and for those who care, it stays in a largely a comatose state, Despite the roll back's the world wont suddenly revert to the perfect meritocracy that many folks with a vested interest want you to believe it is 
• Racism will become politically acceptable. We've already seen Xenophobia, ableism, and elements of Sexism become more socially acceptable and we thing this is the year where we see a political party openly and unashamedly racist announce a racist policy

🪦 RIP to the Tech We Lost in 2025 🪦

(Gone too soon… or honestly, right on time.)

Meta Fact-Checking

Pour one out for Meta’s fact-checking program — the thing that was supposed to protect us from your aunty’s WhatsApp misinformation pipeline. In 2025, Mark Zuckerberg finally pulled the plug, choosing instead to “community-notes” his way to truth.
The timing? Suspiciously close to Trump’s second inauguration — and right after Meta dropped $1M on the festivities and $25M settling a lawsuit about banning said president.
So yeah… RIP to official fact-checkers. Long live whatever the algorithm decides truth is this week.

Amazon Prime Try Before You Buy

The service that let you pretend you had a personal stylist? Gone.
Turns out AI sizing tools ate its lunch — virtual try-ons, personalised fit recommendations, smarter review summarisation… all cheaper to run than shipping half of ASOS back and forth.
Amazon said it wasn’t “economically sensible anymore,” which is corporate for people were trying on outfits for events and returning them the next day.

Meta Quest Pro

The $1,500 headset that wanted to be your work laptop, entertainment device, and spiritual guide? Yeah, discontinued.
To be fair, the Quest 3 is cheaper, faster, lighter and, well… actually good.
Quest Pro was loved by enthusiasts and expense accounts only. Meta quietly unplugged it in January like a parent sighing as they pack away an expensive toy no one used.

Skype (For Real This Time)

Microsoft finally did what we all assumed happened years ago: it ended Skype’s last ever video call.
It was the OG of internet voice chats, but Zoom and Google Meet iced it out.
Microsoft said it wanted to “streamline communications.” Everyone else said:
"Wait… Skype was still running?"

Windows 10

The 2015 legend officially hit end-of-life in October 2025.
The problem? Windows 11 demands hardware half the internet doesn’t have.
So millions of people are now choosing between:

• paying for extended security updates

• upgrading hardware during a cost-of-living crisis

• or living dangerously like it’s LimeWire era
  Whichever you pick… RIP Windows 10. You were beloved. You were stable. You didn’t force widgets on us.

DOGE (The Government Agency, Not the Coin… We Think?)

The Department of Government Efficiency — Elon’s chaotic attempt at reinventing the civil service — seems to have quietly evaporated.
Agencies stopped mentioning it. Officials said it doesn’t exist. DOGE’s X account said that was “fake news.”
Classic Schrödinger’s government program: both alive and dead depending on which billionaire is tweeting.

MKBHD’s Panels Wallpaper App

Marques Brownlee’s premium wallpaper app had a strong start — millions of downloads!
But after the dev team departed and no replacements were found, Panels is shutting down on Dec 31.
At least the code is going open-source, so someone out there can resurrect it… maybe as a screensaver for your VR house in the metaverse no one uses anymore.

So what?

What do you think will die next year? 

📈 The tools behind the tech📉

📦Product📦

• The year in LLM's
• Open source content

📏Design📏 

• Time's new roman

👩🏿‍💻Code👩🏿‍💻

• What are the best engineering blogs with real-world depth?
• You can make html tags

🏢The business behind the tech🏢

•  Head of preparedness at Open AI
• Open AI cash burn

🙌Resource launch🙌

We are ecstatic to share that our 2025 International Women's Day Resource is now officially published on the Colorintech website. This resource is designed to empower you with practical steps for personal and professional growth , encouraging you to celebrate your wins and embrace the power of your network. Take some time out of your week to check out our IWD resource and start charting your next steps for advancement!

Also, if you missed the IWD Resource Launch webinar or want to re-watch, the full recording of our "Accelerate Action" webinar is now available! You can hear directly from our phenomenal speakers and resource contributors:

• @MelissaBlokland (Founder at ZERANOVA)

• @ElisabethEweka (Founder at ENGRL & Principal Digital Consultant at Hoare Lea)

• @AjoaAkuamoah (Programme Delivery Lead at the Department for Science Innovation and Technology)

• @MoniqueCampbell (Strategic Account Executive at Salsify)

 They discuss the strategies and personal courage required to navigate unique paths to success. Their insights are the perfect complement to the actionable steps and words of wisdom laid out in the IWD Resource.

Click below to access both the Resource and the Webinar Recording:

[ACCESS RESOURCE & WATCH RECORDING]

We’d like to give a huge thank you to our webinar panelists and every individual behind the scenes who poured their expertise and time into making the 2025 International Women's Day Resource and its launch event a massive success.

😃What we are consuming😃

🚙 BYD overtakes Tesla

🔞 India, Malaysia and France threaten action against X over offensive AI images 

😧TikTok removes AI weight loss ads

🎷People like AI being used to create new work from musicians who have died

🚗Waymo sues Santa Monica