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Digital trend predictions for 2025

In our annual meeting of the minds, our industry experts dissect every angle of digital and predict what technologies and trends will shape the year ahead.

Clarice Greening

12 December 2024

8 minute read

The new age of hyper personalisation

Marty Drill, CEO

Marty Drill, Luminary CEO

The internet promised the ability to connect with customers more effectively. Personalisation has long been the dream of marketers everywhere. While products like Optimizely have provided the ability to tailor content to the specific audience, the advent of AI in marketing will provide the ability to analyse data and segment people more effectively. This will allow for improved personalisation, which should lead to increased conversation. 

Advertising will change in 2025, as AI will also hyper personalise ads. Fast analysis of available data will allow AI to generate tailored adverts on the fly. The human in the loop will be required to set the strategy and the robots will implement it and adjust quickly. 

With the increase in the number of people listening to podcasts, advertising on podcasts is likely to increase. However, it is likely to go beyond generic adverts for the podcast’s demographic, it is more likely that AI will be used to select adverts on a podcast that are more relevant to the individual. In 2025 we may even see audio ads that are created on the fly to include the listeners name. “Mary, come on down this weekend to your local Bunnings to get x% off that Ryobi line trimmer you have been looking at”. This will feel creepy, though it will become normal at some point. 

Digital will be extended to in-store in new and interesting ways. Imagine walking into a store (e.g. Nike) and technology identifying you are there. Your preferences could be displayed on a handheld device for the concierge or staff member. This could be matched with data about what stock is in-store and available. Imagine you could have a personalised shopping experience from a person or a digital screen. In-store tech will enhance the experience, though it may have spent more money! 

The agents are coming!

Andy Thompson, CTO and Andrew Radburnd, CIO

Andy and Raddo headshot in circle

2024 was the year that everyone, everywhere, utilised AI in some way. From taking meeting notes with Gemini or ChatGPT, to supercharging your coding speed with GitHub Copilot, AI tools have become common in just about everyone's toolbox by now. In 2025, we'll start seeing AI 'agents' carrying out some of these tasks on their own. 

Ask anyone about what they want from Generative AI and it’s nearly always the same answer: “I’d really want to automate [some task]”. The limitation with Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT is that this isn’t possible with just LLMs alone as it's essentially like having a brain with no hands. ChatGPT can write a great email, but it can’t send it. This is where AI agents help.

AI agents are characterised by: 

  • being powered by a large language model
  • the ability to use outside tools to complete tasks
  • the ability to plan and have chain-of-thought reasoning
  • memory and access to company data
  • the ability to carry out tasks on behalf of the user
  • the capacity to learn and adapt
  • the ability to act autonomously. 

Don't worry, we don't mean to say there will be malicious robots sitting around plotting world domination, just that we’ll be able to give AI more complicated tasks to go off and perform independently over time, rather than simple text prompts to respond to in the moment. For example, a straightforward but ongoing job you might assign to a junior team member with your support. If it's something simple but time-consuming that any person could easily do without having to use any real human creativity (such as downloading PDF attachments from your emails and recording the invoice amount in a spreadsheet), it's something an AI agent will be able to do and save you the bother. The applications and proliferation of these small, focused AI agents will explode and change the way we work yet again.

Microsoft and Salesforce have recently launched AI agents in their product suites and while users are just getting a grasp of what is possible now, the capability and adoption of AI agents will accelerate over 2025. As they become more common they'll help people and businesses get more done and change how we live and work significantly.

Last year we said "robots aren't coming to take our jobs (yet!)"... and we still think that's true for now. But 2025 is the year we will start giving them jobs of their own! Who doesn't want a personal assistant?

Zero-click content 

Adam Griffith, Managing Director

Picture of Adam Griffith

One of the trends we’re seeing in the digital marketing space is the rise of ‘zero-click’ content. This is where users find all the information they need – in search results or on social media – without having to click on a link. In the context of search, this phenomenon is being driven largely by the emergence of AI Overviews and featured snippets, while on social it’s playing out in the form of self-contained content like TikTok videos, carousels on Instagram, or X threads containing step-by-step instructions. 

For the user, this caters to a demand for a frictionless experience that delivers immediate answers or entertainment; for social media platforms, it caters to the desire to keep the user on the platform. From a marketing perspective, it’s a trend that presents both a threat and an opportunity. Structure your content well – for example by leaning in to structured content and formats that deliver standalone value – and you have a chance to boost your visibility. Ignore it, and you risk your content being ignored.   

The evolution of integrative thinking

Emma Andrews, Strategy Director

Picture of Emma Andrews, Strategy Director

A key trend I predict for 2025 in strategy development is integrative thinking – the ability to draw from a wide range of data points simultaneously and create solutions that synthesise diverse (and sometimes competing) perspectives. This approach emphasises the need to move beyond siloed thinking and instead, craft strategies that are holistic and adaptive.

One major expression of this integrative approach will be in AI driven personalisation. The ability to harness real-time insights will allow organisations to dynamically respond to shifting consumer behaviours, emerging trends, and evolving market conditions. This trend will place businesses at the forefront of adaptability, where agility is not just a strategy but a necessity.

Aside from that more definitive prediction, what I hope to see more of in 2025, is strategy being integrated with sustainability, ethics, and social responsibility more often. This shift would see businesses go beyond viewing profitability and responsibility as competing priorities. Doing well and doing good will not be mutually exclusive.

AI powered design tools on the rise

Thom Bransom, Design Director

Picture of Design Director, Thom Bransom

In 2025, digital design trends will be heavily shaped by advancements in AI-powered tools like Figma and Builder.io, which continue to redefine our collaborative workflows and creative outputs. These tools leverage generative AI to automate basic tasks, suggest design improvements, and facilitate rapid prototyping, enabling designers to focus on higher-value problem solving and innovation.

The standardisation of design processes across industries will also continue to gain momentum, driven by frameworks that ensure consistency and scalability while accommodating unique needs. This evolution is reshaping our expectations of less experienced designers in the industry, who are now expected to not only possess foundational design skills but also demonstrate proficiency with AI tools, adaptability to standardised workflows, and a deeper understanding of user-centric design principles. The ability to collaborate seamlessly with AI and real teams has become a key differentiator in this increasingly dynamic field.

Generative engine optimisation (GEO)

Shayna Burns, SEO Specialist

Picture of Shayna Burns, SEO Manager

Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) will become an integral part of digital marketing strategies for businesses who want to be found in generative AI-powered search engine results, like SearchGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews.

Users are changing the way they discover information, using generative AI-powered search engines as a complement – or even an alternative to – traditional search engines. 

Brands can enhance their findability in this evolving landscape by defining a GEO strategy that goes beyond traditional SEO, focusing on structured content, entity relationships, interactivity and aligning content with user intent and long-tail queries.

GEO isn’t just a trend – it’s the future of search visibility.

The concern of synthetic users

Josh Smith, UX Director

Josh Smith, UX Director

Looking toward 2025, we are seeing AI push further into UX and research practices. One trend that I want to highlight with concern, is ‘synthetic users’. These are AI generated, with their decision making based on various LLMs. New AI companies are proposing that businesses skip research, and instead, use their models to gain answers to their big customer questions. The justifications given sadly continue a growing obsession with speed, cost reduction and quantity of output. This comes at the dismissal of quality, skipping the practice of deep thought and divergent thinking.

Other issues include bias, a lack of contextual depth and ethical dilemmas. Removing actual humans from research dehumanises research and makes bold assumptions on our behalf, while also missing out on the context, rationale and  empathy generated from spending time with actual human beings. As AI models are trained on internet data they also inherit and reflect existing societal biases. This is exacerbated by the use of online behaviour, which lacks social norms and is inherently negative.

Although, it can’t all be bad, right? There is some evidence to say that the use of such models can be useful in research planning and early needs analysis, and when providing quantitative validation in support of qualitative insights. However, it should never take the place of actual research. As we move into the new year, I encourage everyone to look deeply into the options put before you, and ask yourself one question. Is speed really the thing that matters most?

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