By Damandeep Kochhar, EVP, Chief Platform & Technology Officer at HERE Technologies

Damandeep Kochhar

How Artificial Intelligence is Set to Revolutionize Mapmaking in 2025

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the geospatial industry and unlocking new opportunities in mapmaking, vehicle navigation and essential capabilities to simulate the real-world for testing automated driving systems. In 2025 and beyond, AI will continue to transform our understanding of the world’s geography and how people and goods arrive efficiently and safely from point A to B.

For nearly a decade, advances in cloud computing and AI have played a critical role in transforming the field of mapmaking. At HERE Technologies, we have leveraged high-performance cloud infrastructures to deploy AI and machine learning (ML) models at scale, enabling unprecedented capabilities in automated, real-time map updates. We can process vast amounts of IoT sensor data – tens of millions of kilometers of vehicle sensor data per hour – to create and maintain highly detailed digital maps around the world.

In 2025, additional technologies will enhance AI-powered mapmaking. Semantically aligned maps, for instance, will allow for greater interoperability across systems by ensuring a consistent reference architecture for map attributes. Enhanced satellite and aerial imaging tools, combined with edge computing, will also enable faster data processing, reducing latency and improving real-time accuracy and map freshness.

By Max Leung, founding Solutions Engineer at Mach9

Max Leung

Accelerating infrastructure decision-making with AI feature extraction

From infrastructure modernization to climate resilience, geospatial insights are powering how infrastructure is designed, built, and maintained globally. As 2025 begins, geospatial data stands at the forefront of critical decision-making, empowering organizations to solve complex infrastructure and safety challenges. Here are the key trends shaping the geospatial industry and its broader implications.

1. Faster and More Accessible Geospatial Technology
   Recent advancements in automated geospatial data extraction processes are revolutionizing how industries leverage Geospatial Information Systems (GIS). These technologies, powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), enable organizations to process massive datasets faster than ever before. This speed unlocks quicker insights and makes continuous asset monitoring a reality. In the transportation and utility sectors, automated extraction tools are streamlining infrastructure inspections, identifying potential failures earlier, and optimizing maintenance schedules. Automated geospatial extraction is poised to impact all industries that require accurate digital models and spatial insights where it can enhance infrastructure assessments, predictive maintenance, and the integration of precise geospatial data into digital construction models for improved project planning and lifecycle management.

At CES 2025, NVIDIA Founder and CEO Jensen Huang delivered a keynote that marked a pivotal moment for the autonomous driving industry. Highlighting the company’s latest innovations, Huang laid out a bold vision that integrates artificial intelligence, simulation, and geospatial technology to redefine the future of transportation. From breakthrough hardware to cutting-edge AI systems, NVIDIA’s advancements promise to accelerate the adoption of autonomous vehicles while transforming the geospatial landscape.

By Boris Skoljak, Vice President, Geospatial Sector at Trimble

Boris Skopljak

Geospatial data is enabling digital transformation in nearly every industry. Connectivity and interoperability will play a critical role in2025 as innovative methods of sharing and analyzing data increase the value of geospatial applications. Broader access to services, software and data via the cloud, as well as the rapid development of artificial intelligence for improved productivity, will further expand the utilization of geospatial information in new markets. In 2025, I predict technological developments in the following areas will support modeling our physical world in an accurate and detailed digital format for improved results throughout a project’s duration.

1. Connectivity/cloud – enabling universal access to geospatial data

Further development of the cloud in 2025 will allow a broader utilization of geospatial data across a number of industries by making data more easily accessible to facilitate collaboration and drive productivity. Surveyors and geospatial professionals will benefit from maintaining a single source of truth, while providing their customers with appropriate levels of access. Even non-technical users will be able to open a web browser, view a 3D model, add annotations and ask questions, forming a path for efficient communication.

On-site connectivity and interoperability between advanced devices in the field and backend office solutions will create connected data environments that increasingly support model-based collaboration across project lifecycles. Using IFC and other industry standards, we are moving from 2D/3D CAD drawings or discrete point, line, polygon geometry into a model- and object-based world. Model-based workflows contribute to smart sustainable construction by facilitating communication between the field and office workers, including machine guidance for enhanced coordination that eliminates multiple site visits and provides better digital site management.