2025 Predictions

2025 predictions

As we approach the year’s end and enter a new era, we asked our leaders to weigh in on the largest changes shaping our industry in 2025.

Their insights reveal a common thread: Where others see chaos, we see the crystallization of value as the defining force of business success. Not abstract value, but value that’s personal, resonant, and measurable. Value that cuts through the clutter of an increasingly complex world.

The year ahead will demand a delicate balance. Corporate leaders will navigate heightened political scrutiny. Amid the swirling forces of AI integration, geopolitical turbulence, and shifting consumer and employee expectations, companies must demonstrate value more

precisely than ever before. And closer to our own four walls, agency-client relationships will continue to evolve from service provision to strategic partnership, embracing uncomfortable conversations in pursuit of genuine innovation.

Perhaps most telling is our leaders’ prediction of a collective pivot away from broad pronouncements toward targeted, measurable impact. ESG initiatives will shed their political baggage while doubling down on specific, achievable goals. Crisis management will lean into AI-driven predictive analytics. And brands

will recognize that, in an era of information overload, consumers are “zoning out to tune in”— retreating into smaller, more focused commu nities where authentic connection trumps algo rithmic reach.

No one has a crystal ball—but our predictions tell us that 2025 will reward those who can translate complexity into clarity, technology into tangible benefits, and corporate initiatives into genuine human and business value.

We’d love to hear yours.

SUSAN HOWE CEO

With so much change and innovation happening, what is the marcomm industry’s biggest opportunity—and biggest challenge—in 2025?

2025 certainly will not be less complicated than 2024, but I believe marketers and communicators writ large have a significant role to play in helping organizations navigate this increasing complexity.

And I believe we are made for this—with a depth of expertise and a range of capabilities to solve the toughest challenges, in the toughest environments, while also making meaningful connections with people.

As communicators, our biggest challenge and our biggest opportunity are the same: To operate at the intersection of brand building and brand protection.

And I personally believe the adoption of AI technology at scale will help us on both fronts.

JIM O’LEARY Global President

How will the role of the CEO evolve in 2025?

In the year ahead, CEOs will face unprecedented complexity at the intersection of business, society, culture and politics.

Risks will emerge at greater velocity, demanding faster and more decisive responses. Corporate affairs teams will need to rely less on intuition and more on data and tech

in decision-making, be more proactive in navigating issues, and focus more than ever on creating a genuine value exchange with stakeholders.

KAREN PUGLIESE Global President

How will companies and leaders manage evolving expectations to engage in hot- button societal issues in 2025?

While we are already seeing leaders reassess—and in some cases, dial down—their public stances on societal issues, they will continue to navigate the tension between how they communicate externally and how they engage their workforce.

Data shows leaders are still feeling pressure from employees, in particular, to engage on issues such as immigration, reproductive rights, racial and LGBTQ+ equity, and

geopolitics. Addressing concerns from particular stakeholder groups in a way that avoids reputational risk will continue to be a balancing act for CEOs.

JOY FARBER KOLO Chief Impact Officer

What will consumers value in 2025?

The supreme importance of personal emotional value—my safety, my security, my health, and my happiness—was the most prominent finding of The Weber Shandwick Collective’s 2024 global research study “What We Value.”

When the personal is paramount, earning a valuable place in the lives of consumers is the priority. It’s an expertise- and creativity-powered art, a data-fueled science,

and a dance that starts and ends with getting comfortable with the fact that the behavioral, cultural, technological, and behavioral ground beneath us will be constantly shifting.

PA U L M A S S E Y

President, Weber Shandwick South

What shape will ESG, purpose and sustainability initiatives take in 2025?

The C-suite will increasingly view sustainability as an embedded corporate priority, fully connected to business strategy—and no longer the work of one specific, distinct team. This will require new ways of integrating and collaborating across corporate functions and stakeholders.

We’ll see more focus on advancing specific, material goals on sustainability and social issues to avoid political fights and cultural flash points.

CHRIS PERRY

Chair, Weber Shandwick Futures

How will AI most tangibly shape society in 2025?

The big picture read on AI is we’re moving from “deployment” to “assessment.” If we’re to value the impact of AI, it’s important to see the beyond the tech narratives, which center on the fight among major players and ROI. We shouldn’t be swayed by hype cycles, the chatter of the boom and bust of AI. We need to assess how it’s being used in public, to what end, and have a sense of social implications beyond what’s under our noses.

More than tech invention, we need to watch social behavior and changing conventions. To do so, we need to see AI as an amplifier as much as an automator.

Transformation will be the operative term going forward. We need to pay attention to “little T’s” changing things, not just big “T’s” dominating headlines.

For leaders, this is not only important but urgent.