New York: Time magazine on Thursday named the “Architects of AI” as its 2025 Person of the Year, saying the past year marked the moment when the true power and inevitability of artificial intelligence became visible to the world.

Time described 2025 as the year artificial intelligence “roared into view” with irreversible momentum.

“For delivering the age of thinking machines, for wowing and worrying humanity, for transforming the present and transcending the possible, the Architects of AI are TIME’s 2025 Person of the Year,” the magazine said in a social media announcement.

Editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs said the selection deliberately honoured “the individuals who imagined, designed, and built AI,” rather than the technology itself, though Time has in the past chosen concepts and objects.

“We’ve named not just individuals but also groups, more women than our founders could have imagined (though still not enough), and, on rare occasions, a concept: the endangered Earth, in 1988, or the personal computer, in 1982,” Jacobs wrote, noting how the choice of the PC over Steve Jobs “later became the stuff of books and a movie.”

The leaders featured on the cover

One cover image, inspired by the iconic 1930s photograph Lunch Atop a Skyscraper, shows eight prominent AI and tech leaders seated on a steel beam:

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg

AMD CEO Lisa Su

Tesla CEO Elon Musk

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei

AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, now leading her startup World Labs

Another cover features scaffolding surrounding the letters “AI,” stylised as computer hardware.

Analysts say the recognition fits the moment

According to Thomas Husson, principal analyst at Forrester, AI’s selection reflects its transition into everyday life.

Husson said via email that AI moved from “a novel technology explored by early adopters to one where a critical mass of consumers see it as part of their mainstream lives.”

Time also highlighted the high profile of AI company CEOs, many of whom attended President Donald Trump's inauguration earlier this year, signalling the sector’s centrality to global politics and industry.

Jacobs added, “This was the year when artificial intelligence’s full potential roared into view, and when it became clear that there will be no turning back or opting out.”

Prediction markets had AI, Huang, and Altman among the frontrunners. Also in contention were Pope Leo XIV — the first American pope, elected this year, President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani

Trump was Time’s 2024 Person of the Year, following singer Taylor Swift in 2023.

Time has selected its Person of the Year since 1927, choosing the individual or group who most influenced global events over the preceding 12 months.