The Most Influential Disruptive Technologies to Watch in 2025
The past few years have presented unprecedented challenges, largely shaped by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, amid the turbulence, the pulse of technological innovation has never been stronger. As we advance into 2025, a host of cutting-edge technologies are not merely improving existing paradigms—they are poised to redefine industries, economies, and societies at large.
These innovations possess the rare ability to overturn established norms, create new markets, and engender entirely novel ways of living and working. To appreciate the magnitude of the upheaval ahead, it is essential first to understand the essence of disruptive technology, its historical context, and how today’s breakthroughs are laying the groundwork for tomorrow’s transformations.
What Is Disruptive Technology?
Disruptive technologies are those innovations that fundamentally change the way consumers, companies, or entire sectors function. Unlike incremental improvements that refine existing tools or processes, disruptive technologies dismantle the status quo, introducing new methods or business models that render previous solutions obsolete or less relevant.
Typically, these technologies encounter skepticism initially. Their radical nature challenges entrenched players who may resist change because it threatens long-standing business models. Yet, as history has shown, once these disruptive forces gain momentum, they can generate cascading effects that reshape entire industries. The personal computer, the internet, e-commerce platforms, and ride-sharing apps are all prime examples of disruption that redefined markets and consumer behavior.
The Underestimated Power of Disruptive Innovation
Despite the evident impact of disruptive technologies, their true power is often misunderstood or underestimated. Early on, they may appear as niche or incremental enhancements rather than revolutionary breakthroughs. This misperception can slow adoption and delay widespread recognition of their potential.
However, the hallmark of disruption lies not merely in innovation itself, but in the creation of new value ecosystems. Disruptive technologies can democratize access, reduce costs dramatically, improve convenience, or introduce functionalities previously deemed impossible. Over time, they force competitors to adapt or perish, driving an evolutionary leap in market dynamics.
Blockchain: Beyond Cryptocurrency to Universal Transformation
Often pigeonholed as the technology underpinning cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, blockchain is far more than a financial novelty. It is a decentralized ledger technology that records transactions across a network of computers in a way that is secure, transparent, and immutable.
The distributed nature of blockchain eliminates the need for central authorities, reducing points of vulnerability and fostering trust in data integrity. This has far-reaching implications beyond digital currency, extending to sectors like supply chain management, healthcare, real estate, and voting systems. For instance, blockchain can authenticate provenance in complex supply chains, ensuring transparency and reducing fraud. In healthcare, it can safeguard patient records, enhancing privacy while enabling seamless information sharing.
Although blockchain is still in a nascent phase relative to its vast potential, its capacity to revolutionize trust-dependent industries makes it a foundational disruptive technology to watch closely in 2025 and beyond.
Investing in Disruptive Technologies: Risks and Rewards
Entering the realm of disruptive technologies is not without peril. Startups and innovators operating in these domains often face considerable uncertainty and the absence of proven commercial models. Investments in such ventures require a high tolerance for risk, patience, and a strategic vision for long-term payoff.
Nonetheless, history demonstrates that early investments in disruptive tech can yield outsized rewards as these innovations mature and capture market share. Disruptive companies often evolve into industry titans, dominating new ecosystems and generating significant economic value. For investors and businesses alike, balancing risk with potential gain is paramount when engaging with disruptive technologies.
Additive Manufacturing: The Renaissance of Production
Additive manufacturing, more commonly known as 3D printing, represents one of the most tangible examples of disruption within the manufacturing landscape. Unlike traditional subtractive manufacturing—which removes material from a solid block—additive manufacturing builds objects layer by layer from raw materials, allowing for complex geometries and customized products.
While sci-fi notions of replicators that conjure objects instantly remain aspirational, practical advancements in 3D printing have already begun to reshape production lines globally. This technology enables localized, on-demand manufacturing that diminishes the need for extensive inventories and long-distance shipping, thereby reducing carbon footprints and logistical complexities.
The implications are profound: industries ranging from aerospace and automotive to healthcare are adopting additive manufacturing to produce lightweight components, custom prosthetics, and even bioprinted tissues. This trend threatens traditional mass production and centralized factory models by shifting towards distributed, agile manufacturing ecosystems.
Furthermore, the ability to prototype rapidly accelerates innovation cycles, empowering designers and engineers to iterate with unprecedented speed. By 2025, additive manufacturing is set to expand its reach from niche applications to more mainstream production, fundamentally altering supply chains and industrial strategies.
The Expansion of 5G Networks and the Promise of Enhanced Connectivity
The rollout of fifth-generation wireless networks (5G) is another catalyst of disruption poised to redefine connectivity standards. Building on the limitations of previous cellular generations, 5G delivers lightning-fast data speeds, drastically reduced latency, and significantly increased network capacity.
This leap enables real-time communication for billions of devices, laying the groundwork for transformative applications across industries. Enhanced connectivity accelerates the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), where everyday objects—from household appliances to city infrastructure—are embedded with sensors and intelligence.
With 5G, smart cities can operate more efficiently, monitoring traffic flow, energy usage, and public safety with granular precision. Remote healthcare can leverage high-definition video and connected devices to monitor patients in real-time. Autonomous vehicles benefit from ultra-low latency communications that are critical for safety and coordination.
Moreover, 5G facilitates the continuation and evolution of remote work, which has surged dramatically since the pandemic. High-quality video conferencing, cloud collaboration tools, and virtual desktop environments rely heavily on the robust bandwidth and reliability that 5G networks provide.
In sum, 5G is not just an incremental network upgrade—it is a disruptive force that reshapes how data moves, how devices connect, and how industries innovate on a global scale.
The Interplay Between Additive Manufacturing and 5G
Interestingly, the convergence of additive manufacturing and 5G connectivity exemplifies how disruptive technologies do not operate in isolation but often amplify each other’s impact. For example, 5G’s low latency enables real-time monitoring and control of distributed 3D printers, allowing factories to orchestrate decentralized production networks with minimal delays.
This synergy enables manufacturers to respond swiftly to changing demands, customize products to local markets, and maintain quality control remotely. Such interconnectedness marks a departure from monolithic supply chains toward dynamic, adaptable manufacturing ecosystems—ushering in a new industrial era.
The Foundation for Future Disruptions
The technologies explored here—blockchain, additive manufacturing, and 5G—are pillars supporting a broader landscape of innovation. They serve as foundational enablers for numerous downstream applications that will be covered in subsequent parts of this series.
In 2025, we stand at an inflection point where these emerging technologies move beyond experimental phases and begin to disrupt traditional systems comprehensively. As their adoption expands, they will drive efficiency, sustainability, and agility across sectors, creating opportunities and challenges for businesses, governments, and individuals alike.
Understanding the nature of disruption and these key foundational technologies provides crucial context for appreciating the full scope of the technological upheaval unfolding now and in the near future.
Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and Cybersecurity — The Triad of Transformation
As we progress through 2025, the technologies that stand out for their profound transformative potential include artificial intelligence (AI), automation and robotics, and cybersecurity innovations. These three pillars form a triad that not only redefines operational efficiencies across industries but also reshapes workforce dynamics, decision-making processes, and the very fabric of digital trust.
The Expanding Horizon of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Artificial intelligence has moved well beyond its early incarnations as simple rule-based systems or basic chatbots. Today, AI encompasses a wide array of technologies, including advanced machine learning algorithms, deep learning neural networks, natural language processing (NLP), and computer vision.
These technologies collectively enhance machines’ ability to learn from data, recognize patterns, understand human language, and make decisions—often outperforming humans in specific tasks. The acceleration of AI research and the exponential growth of available data are fueling this expansion, positioning AI as a fundamental disruptor in 2025.
AI in Business: Anticipating Needs and Driving Personalization
One of AI’s most visible impacts lies in its ability to transform customer experiences. Businesses now deploy AI to anticipate consumer needs with unprecedented accuracy. By analyzing massive datasets encompassing behavior, preferences, and trends, AI-powered systems create highly personalized interactions that were unimaginable a decade ago.
This hyper-personalization manifests in recommendation engines for streaming platforms, tailored marketing campaigns, and dynamic pricing strategies. Companies that leverage AI insights gain a competitive advantage by engaging customers more meaningfully, improving retention, and optimizing resource allocation.
Beyond Automation: AI as a Strategic Partner
While AI-driven automation of routine tasks has been well-documented, the emerging paradigm envisions AI as a strategic partner to humans. Advanced AI systems now assist in complex decision-making across finance, healthcare, and supply chain management by providing predictive analytics and scenario modeling.
In healthcare, for example, AI algorithms analyze medical images to detect anomalies earlier than traditional methods, contributing to faster diagnoses and personalized treatment plans. In finance, machine learning models assess credit risks more accurately, enhancing loan approval processes while mitigating fraud.
This symbiosis between human expertise and AI augmentation is a hallmark of the new technological frontier. Rather than replacing human intellect, AI often amplifies it, enabling faster, data-driven decisions that improve outcomes across sectors.
Automation and Robotics: Reimagining the Labor Landscape
Automation and robotics form another cornerstone of 2025’s disruptive technology ecosystem. Robots are no longer confined to factory floors performing repetitive tasks; they are increasingly versatile, intelligent, and integrated into diverse environments, including warehouses, hospitals, farms, and urban settings.
The Shift from Manual to Intelligent Automation
The rise of robotic process automation (RPA) exemplifies how automation has evolved from mere mechanization to intelligent task execution. RPA systems automate routine digital tasks—such as data entry, invoice processing, and customer onboarding—with speed and accuracy, freeing human workers to focus on higher-value activities.
More sophisticated robotic systems incorporate AI capabilities, enabling them to learn and adapt to changing conditions. For instance, warehouse robots equipped with computer vision can navigate dynamic environments, optimize picking routes, and collaborate safely with human workers.
The Future of Work: Job Displacement and Creation
The ongoing automation wave inevitably raises questions about the future of work. While some traditional roles are susceptible to displacement, history suggests that new categories of jobs emerge alongside disruptive technologies.
Robotics and automation create demand for roles in robot design, programming, maintenance, and supervision. Moreover, higher-skilled positions in data analysis, AI training, and cybersecurity proliferate as enterprises integrate these technologies deeper into their operations.
Importantly, robotics also offers societal benefits by taking over dangerous or monotonous tasks. In healthcare, robots can assist in surgery, sterilization, and delivery, reducing infection risks and improving patient outcomes. Drones deliver medical supplies to remote areas, enhancing accessibility and response times.
Innovations in Cybersecurity: Securing the Digital Frontier
As reliance on digital infrastructure intensifies, cybersecurity emerges as a critical domain of innovation. The evolving threat landscape—characterized by sophisticated attacks such as ransomware, phishing, and supply chain breaches—demands equally advanced defensive technologies.
AI-Powered Threat Detection and Response
Artificial intelligence is a double-edged sword in cybersecurity. While attackers may leverage AI to craft more convincing attacks, defenders are deploying AI-driven systems that analyze vast amounts of data in real time to detect anomalies and potential breaches.
AI-based security platforms use machine learning to identify patterns of malicious behavior, enabling faster threat detection and proactive defense. These systems evolve continuously, learning from new attack vectors and adapting their responses accordingly.
For example, AI-powered intrusion detection systems can isolate compromised endpoints swiftly, limiting damage and accelerating remediation. Automated incident response frameworks orchestrate containment measures, reducing reliance on human intervention during critical moments.
Zero Trust and Beyond: The New Security Paradigm
The cybersecurity industry is increasingly embracing zero trust architectures, which operate under the principle that no user or device should be inherently trusted, even within a network perimeter. Instead, continuous verification, least privilege access, and micro-segmentation govern security protocols.
Disruptive innovations in identity and access management (IAM), multifactor authentication, and behavioral biometrics strengthen zero trust implementations. These approaches limit lateral movement of threats and protect sensitive assets more effectively than traditional perimeter defenses.
Moreover, advances in quantum cryptography and post-quantum encryption are beginning to address the impending challenges posed by quantum computing, which threatens to break conventional cryptographic algorithms. Research and early adoption in these areas are vital to future-proofing digital security.
The Synergistic Impact of AI, Automation, and Cybersecurity
These three technologies do not evolve in isolation. Their interplay magnifies their disruptive power and complexity. For instance, as automation and robotics expand in enterprise and public domains, they generate enormous amounts of data and create new cyber-physical vulnerabilities. AI helps secure these environments by providing intelligent threat detection and dynamic response.
Similarly, AI-driven automation streamlines cybersecurity operations, reducing alert fatigue for analysts and accelerating incident resolution. The fusion of these technologies enables organizations to build resilient, agile infrastructures capable of countering sophisticated threats while maintaining operational efficiency.
Challenges and Ethical Considerations
Despite the promise of AI, automation, and cybersecurity innovations, significant challenges remain. The ethical use of AI, concerns about privacy, the future of employment, and the digital divide are pressing issues that require thoughtful governance.
Ensuring that AI systems operate transparently, without bias, and respect user privacy is crucial to gaining public trust. Likewise, managing the socio-economic impact of automation demands policies that support workforce retraining, social safety nets, and inclusive growth.
In cybersecurity, balancing strong defenses with user convenience and accessibility is a delicate act. Overly restrictive measures can hinder innovation, while lax security invites breaches.
Governments, industry leaders, and civil society must collaborate to establish frameworks that foster responsible development and deployment of these disruptive technologies, maximizing benefits while mitigating risks.
Preparing for a Disrupted Future
For individuals and organizations seeking to thrive in this evolving landscape, continuous learning and agility are essential. Expertise in AI, robotics programming, cybersecurity analytics, and related fields is in soaring demand. Certification programs, professional development, and interdisciplinary education are pathways to acquiring the skills needed to navigate this era of rapid change.
Moreover, organizations must cultivate cultures that embrace innovation, experimentation, and resilience. Investing in research and development, fostering partnerships with technology providers, and prioritizing ethical considerations will position them to harness these disruptive forces effectively.
The Triad’s Transformative Trajectory
Artificial intelligence, automation and robotics, and cybersecurity represent a triad of disruption that will shape the fabric of 2025 and beyond. Their continued evolution promises to accelerate productivity, enhance safety, and unlock new business models while challenging existing social and economic frameworks.
Understanding these technologies’ capabilities, challenges, and interplay is fundamental for anyone aiming to comprehend or participate in the imminent technological revolution. In the this series, we will examine additional disruptive technologies such as edge computing, virtual and augmented reality, and emerging cloud models that are equally poised to redefine our world.
Edge Computing, Immersive Realities, Cloud Evolution, and the Future of Work
As the technological landscape continues its rapid transformation in 2025, several other key innovations are set to disrupt industries and everyday life in profound ways. This final installment explores edge computing architectures, immersive realities through virtual and augmented reality, headless commerce technologies, the growth of “as-a-Service” cloud models, the ongoing remote work transformation, and the rise of voice-activated search and interaction.
Together, these technologies form a nexus of innovation that promises to redefine connectivity, user experience, service delivery, and workplace dynamics in the near future.
Edge Computing: Bringing Intelligence Closer to the Source
Edge computing represents a paradigm shift in data processing. Unlike traditional cloud computing, which centralizes processing in massive data centers often far from the data origin, edge computing pushes computation closer to where data is generated—whether that be IoT devices, smartphones, or industrial sensors.
Reducing Latency and Enhancing Real-Time Applications
By minimizing the physical distance data must travel, edge computing drastically reduces latency. This capability is crucial for applications that require instantaneous responses, such as autonomous vehicles, real-time industrial monitoring, and telemedicine.
For instance, an autonomous car cannot afford delays in data processing from sensors; decisions must be made in milliseconds to ensure safety. Edge computing enables these rapid computations locally, without the bottleneck of distant servers. Similarly, remote surgical procedures facilitated by robotics rely on ultra-low latency to provide precise control.
Complementing Cloud Infrastructure
Edge computing is not a replacement but a complement to cloud computing. While cloud data centers handle massive storage and complex analytics, edge nodes perform initial processing and filtering, sending only relevant data back to the cloud. This division optimizes bandwidth use, lowers costs, and enhances security by reducing the volume of sensitive data transmitted over networks.
With the proliferation of IoT devices and smart city initiatives, edge architectures will be indispensable in managing the growing data tsunami expected in 2025 and beyond.
Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR): Redefining Interaction and Experience
Extended reality technologies, comprising virtual reality and augmented reality, are gaining momentum as transformative tools across various domains including education, healthcare, entertainment, and workforce training.
Virtual Reality: Immersion and Training
Virtual reality creates fully immersive digital environments that simulate physical presence. In education, VR enables students to explore complex scientific concepts or historical events firsthand, fostering experiential learning that transcends traditional textbooks.
In professional settings, VR provides realistic training simulations for pilots, surgeons, and emergency responders, offering safe yet highly detailed practice scenarios. This approach enhances skills acquisition while reducing the cost and risk associated with live training.
Augmented Reality: Enhancing the Real World
Augmented reality overlays digital information onto the physical environment, enriching how users perceive and interact with their surroundings. For retail, AR allows customers to virtually try on clothes or visualize furniture placement in their homes, reducing purchase hesitations.
In industrial applications, AR assists technicians by projecting schematics or repair instructions directly onto machinery, speeding maintenance and reducing errors. As AR hardware becomes lighter and more affordable, its integration into daily life and work will continue to expand significantly in 2025.
Headless Commerce Technologies: Decoupling for Agility and Personalization
The rapid evolution of ecommerce has given rise to headless commerce, an architectural approach that decouples the front-end user interface from the back-end commerce engine.
Flexibility Across Multiple Channels
This separation allows businesses to deliver highly customized, consistent shopping experiences across various platforms—websites, mobile apps, social media, and even smart devices—without being constrained by traditional monolithic systems.
Retailers benefit from faster development cycles, easier experimentation, and more responsive adaptations to consumer preferences. Headless commerce facilitates seamless integration with emerging technologies like voice assistants and AR shopping experiences, driving customer engagement and loyalty.
Reducing Customer Acquisition Costs
By enabling personalized, context-aware interactions and streamlined workflows, headless commerce technologies help reduce the cost of acquiring and retaining customers. Companies can respond swiftly to market trends and consumer behavior, enhancing conversion rates and lifetime value.
Growth of “As-a-Service” Cloud Models: Scaling Innovation
Cloud computing continues to disrupt traditional IT paradigms with scalable, on-demand service models including Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS).
Democratizing Access to Technology
These models eliminate upfront hardware investments, allowing organizations of all sizes to access enterprise-grade infrastructure, software, and development platforms. This democratization of technology fosters innovation by lowering barriers to entry for startups and enabling established firms to experiment rapidly with new products and services.
Agility and Cost Efficiency
As-a-service models offer unparalleled flexibility. Businesses can scale resources dynamically in response to demand fluctuations, optimizing costs and performance. Furthermore, cloud providers continuously update their offerings with the latest security, compliance, and technological advancements, relieving customers of maintenance burdens.
The proliferation of hybrid and multi-cloud strategies, combining private and public clouds, reflects the nuanced needs of modern enterprises to balance control, security, and scalability.
The Remote Work Revolution: Redefining the Workplace
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a tectonic shift towards remote work, a trend that continues to evolve with profound implications for business and society.
Digital Infrastructure and Collaboration Tools
Robust digital infrastructure, including cloud computing, video conferencing, and collaboration platforms, underpins this ongoing transformation. Organizations invest heavily in these tools to support distributed teams, ensuring productivity, communication, and engagement across geographic boundaries.
Cultural and Structural Changes
Remote work challenges traditional notions of workplace culture and management. Companies are reimagining leadership styles, performance metrics, and employee well-being initiatives to foster trust and autonomy. Hybrid models that blend remote and in-office work are gaining traction, offering flexibility while preserving social connection.
The ongoing evolution also drives demand for technologies that enhance remote work experience—such as VR meeting spaces, AI-powered productivity assistants, and secure remote access solutions—making this domain a fertile ground for innovation.
Voice-Activated Search and Interaction: Natural Language as the Interface
Voice-driven technology is becoming an integral aspect of how users interact with devices and access information. Advancements in natural language processing (NLP) and speech recognition are making voice interfaces more accurate, context-aware, and conversational.
Transforming Search and Accessibility
Voice search changes how users find content online, moving away from keyword-based queries toward natural, spoken questions. This shift affects search engine optimization strategies and content creation, pushing for more conversational, user-centric approaches.
Voice interfaces also enhance accessibility, empowering individuals with disabilities to interact with technology more intuitively. Smart speakers, virtual assistants, and voice-controlled appliances integrate seamlessly into everyday life, from controlling smart homes to managing calendars and workflows.
Integration Across Devices and Platforms
The ubiquity of voice assistants across smartphones, wearables, cars, and IoT devices highlights a future where voice is a primary interaction modality. Emerging multilingual capabilities and contextual understanding will further expand voice tech’s reach globally in 2025.
The Interconnected Future: Harnessing Disruptive Technologies Together
The disruptive technologies explored throughout this series are not isolated forces; rather, they interconnect and amplify each other’s impacts. For example, edge computing supports low-latency VR and AR experiences; as-a-service cloud platforms enable scalable AI deployments; voice-activated interfaces integrate with headless commerce systems to create seamless shopping journeys.
Organizations and individuals prepared to navigate this interconnected technological ecosystem will unlock unprecedented opportunities for innovation, efficiency, and engagement.
Embracing Disruption with Vision and Responsibility
The technologies set to disrupt 2025 carry immense promise alongside notable challenges. The path forward demands visionary leadership, ethical stewardship, and inclusive strategies to ensure benefits are widely shared and risks mitigated.
By cultivating adaptability, investing in education and skills development, and fostering collaboration across sectors, society can harness these innovations to build a future that is not only technologically advanced but also equitable, sustainable, and human-centered.
Unlocking Unprecedented Processing Power
Quantum computing represents a monumental leap in computational capability, leveraging the principles of quantum mechanics to perform calculations far beyond the reach of classical computers.
Potential to Revolutionize Complex Problem Solving
In 2025, quantum computing remains largely experimental but is rapidly progressing toward practical applications. Its ability to process massive datasets and solve complex problems at unprecedented speeds could transform fields such as cryptography, materials science, pharmaceuticals, and financial modeling.
For example, quantum algorithms promise to crack cryptographic codes that currently secure digital communications, posing both opportunities and challenges for cybersecurity. Additionally, quantum simulations may enable the discovery of new drugs or novel materials by modeling molecular interactions with unmatched accuracy.
Challenges and Future Outlook
Despite its promise, quantum computing faces significant technical hurdles, including qubit stability and error correction. However, investments by governments and tech giants signal confidence that viable quantum processors will increasingly influence industry breakthroughs in the coming years.
Sustainable Technologies and Green Innovation: Shaping the Future of the Planet
As environmental concerns intensify globally, sustainable technologies are becoming critical disruptive forces in 2025. Innovations that reduce carbon footprints, improve energy efficiency, and enable circular economies are reshaping industries from energy to manufacturing.
Advancements in Renewable Energy and Storage
Breakthroughs in solar, wind, and battery technologies are accelerating the shift away from fossil fuels. Energy storage solutions, including next-generation batteries and hydrogen fuel cells, are making renewable energy more reliable and scalable.
Smart grids powered by AI optimize energy distribution and consumption, reducing waste and enhancing resilience. Additionally, emerging materials and manufacturing methods, such as bio-based plastics and carbon capture, are fostering eco-friendly production processes.
Economic and Social Implications
Green innovation not only addresses climate change but also drives economic growth and job creation in emerging sectors. Governments and corporations increasingly prioritize sustainability, embedding environmental criteria into investment decisions and operational strategies.
Sustainable technologies, combined with digital transformation, create a powerful synergy that will define competitive advantage and social responsibility in the coming decades.
Conclusion:
The year 2025 stands at the confluence of extraordinary technological disruption. From the rapid adoption of edge computing and immersive realities to the evolution of commerce and cloud services, alongside groundbreaking advances in quantum and sustainable technologies, the landscape of possibility is expanding exponentially.
These innovations do not simply augment existing paradigms—they reimagine them, offering solutions that are faster, smarter, more personalized, and more environmentally conscious. Yet, such disruption also demands careful navigation: ethical considerations, workforce transitions, cybersecurity resilience, and equitable access must remain at the forefront of development and deployment efforts.
For individuals, businesses, and policymakers alike, embracing a mindset of continual learning and adaptability will be paramount. Investing in skills, fostering innovation ecosystems, and championing responsible technology use will unlock the full potential of these transformative forces.
Ultimately, the cutting-edge technologies shaping 2025 offer a remarkable opportunity to create a future that is not only more efficient and connected but also more sustainable, inclusive, and human-centric. The journey ahead is complex and challenging, but with vision and collaboration, it promises to be profoundly rewarding.