How our 2025 predictions really played out...
At the end of 2024, I shared four predictions for what 2025 would bring across brand, marketing, technology, and customer experience. When I wrote this article, my intention was to provide a postion on some practical signals for where organisations needed to focus their energy if they wanted to stay relevant and competitive.
Now, with 2025 behind us, I've taken a pass at revisiting those predictions and given a pass or fail on what I think has transpired.
1. Rapid acceleration of AI for brand and marketing
Result: Pass
This prediction largely came true.
Across marketing teams, AI moved quickly from curiosity to day to day utility. We saw widespread use of AI for content creation, workflow acceleration, insight generation, and process improvement. Importantly, this was not limited to experimentation. It became embedded in how teams worked.
Platforms such as Jasper, Blaze, and BrandHalo gained strong traction, particularly where they helped teams scale output while maintaining some level of brand control. For many organisations, AI became the lever that helped teams do more without increasing headcount.
Where this fell short was not adoption, but consistency. Usage varied widely by team, role, and leadership confidence. Even so, against the original prediction, this comfortably earns a pass mark.
2. Organisations spring cleaning their technology stacks
Result: Semi pass
Most organisations recognised the need to review and rationalise their technology stacks in 2025. Rising cost pressure, underutilised platforms, and operational complexity forced the conversation.
In practice though, progress was uneven. While many organisations paused to assess their stack, far fewer followed through with decisive action. Internal governance, slow review cycles, and competing priorities often stalled momentum. In many cases, the intent to clean existed, but execution lagged.
As a result, we saw partial rationalisation rather than true simplification. Enough to acknowledge the problem, but not enough to solve it.
This earns a semi-pass because the awareness was there, but the depth of change was limited.
3. Leveraging existing in house applied knowledge alongside AI
Result: Fail
This was the most under delivered prediction.
The opportunity was clear. Organisations already had deep applied knowledge sitting inside their teams. The expectation was that AI would amplify this expertise, not replace it. In reality, most organisations failed to activate this properly.
Legacy operating models continued to dominate. Talent identification and development remained slow and conservative. In some cases, fear played a role, with individuals worried that codifying their knowledge through AI would make them redundant.
The absence of a clear AI champion also mattered. While some organisations appointed or promoted people into these roles, the function itself remained immature and poorly understood. Very few companies connected applied knowledge, AI enablement, and operating change into a single, coherent approach.
Based on the original prediction, this area did not land. It is a clear fail mark, and a major opportunity heading into 2026.
4. Meeting or exceeding customer expectations through AI enabled CX
Result: Half pass
This was always the most ambitious prediction.
Exceeding customer expectations in a competitive environment is difficult at the best of times. Doing it while organisations were still adapting to AI, changing tools, and evolving operating models made it even harder.
That said, many organisations did manage to meet customer expectations. Some even lifted experience quality through better personalisation, faster response times, and more consistent interactions. However, genuinely exceeding expectations remained rare.
Given the environment, this earns a half pass. Solid effort in many cases, but limited breakthrough performance.
How 2025 played out in reality
In reflection, I think 2025 was a year of clarity rather than a yearof transformation.
It brought exposure to where organisations were genuinely ready to change and where they were still relying on legacy thinking. It showed the gap between adopting AI tools and redesigning how work actually gets done. It demonstrated how much untapped value still sits inside teams.
Momentum existed but it was uneven, and adoption moved faster than capability. Technology advanced faster than operating models, and intent outpaced execution.
Most importantly, I think that 2025 clarified that progress is no longer constrained by access to tools or ideas. It is constrained by how willing organisations are to rethink process, decision rights, and ways of working.
So in summary, the past 12 months was a necessary one, and one where foundations were tested, assumptions were challenged, and the real blockers became hard to ignore.