2025 Predictions And 2024 Review: 10 Trends Marketers Need To Know For 2025 via @sejournal, @Kevin_Indig

The constituent of making predictions is not to beryllium close but to recognize world truthful good that you tin marque an educated conjecture astir wherever it goes and larn thing successful the process.

I besides bask the treatment I person based connected sharing my predictions. They ever marque maine smarter. So, delight stock your opinions successful the comments.

Previous predictions: 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023

2024 Predictions Review

2024 was a large breakthrough year:

• AI Overviews: from hunt results to AI answers.
• Starlink: from broadband to outer internet.
• SpaceX: From Earth to space.
• o1 and Gemini 2.0 Flash: from LLMs to reasoning.
• Waymo: from ride-hailing to self-driving.
• Meta Ray Bans: from smartwatches to astute glasses.
• YouTube: from substance to video.

I made eight predictions for this year:

A Wave Of AI Improvements

I expected factual features and diagnostic improvements from AI – and I got it right. A batch of large sites shipped amended experiences acknowledgment to AI: Tripadvisor, Booking, Expedia, Trip.com, Nextdoor, Ebay, Amazon, and more. As I highlighted successful my latest Travel heavy dive, we’ve seen the archetypal existent results from AI Features: TripAdvisors reappraisal pages doubled successful integrated postulation aft adding AI-generated reappraisal summaries.

The bigger picture: AI trickles done each aspects of Product. The cardinal to monetization is making it utile – not conscionable cool. And 2024 is the twelvemonth we’ve seen the archetypal prototypes, similar earthy connection hunt oregon AI reviews.

I recovered 11 publisher deals with LLM developers successful 2024, arsenic the accepted media scenery has continued to atrophy:

• News is simply a commodity unless you interruption it first, starring to a dogfight betwixt publishers successful the integer world.
• Trust successful accepted media is crumbling, reducing readership, particularly among younger generations.
• Google has slashed affiliate gross streams with its tract estimation maltreatment penalties, taking distant the past lucrative income watercourse for galore publishers.

Licensing mightiness not crook publishing into a flaming blistery manufacture again, but it throws a lifeline to starving companies.

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In 2024, the large SEO instrumentality vendors added aggregate AI features to their platforms:

Semrush (source):

• Demand forecast.
• Personal Keyword Difficulty.
• Keyword Strategy Builder.

Ahrefs (source)

• AI Keyword Suggestions.
• AI Search Intent.
• AI Content Helper.
• AI Translations.

AI doesn’t conscionable alteration the hunt acquisition but the tools SEOs usage each day.

In 2024, I expected galore companies to absorption much connected integrated maturation channels similar SEO, contented marketing, social, podcasting and email nurturing. And indeed, selling budgets person accelerated their diminution aft the pandemic from 11% successful 2020 to 7.7% successful 2024 of full revenue, leaving little country for advertising.

In November 2024, the CMO survey recovered that advertizing sees the lowest walk maturation portion marque gathering and merchandise selling gains the most.

👎🏻 Google/Microsoft Build Powerful AI Agents Based On Your Emails

In September 2023, Google’s Bard got entree to Gmail. I tried it out, and it was terrible. Hallucinations near and right.

Google sits connected a treasure trove of information arsenic it owns Android, YouTube, Gmail, Maps and is 1 of the 2 astir utilized one-tap authentication solutions adjacent to Apple. Microsoft has Outlook, GitHub, Linkedin, Edge, Skype and more.

None of the 2 companies – oregon immoderate company, for that substance – are capable to successfully integrate their idiosyncratic information with almighty AI agents. I person precocious hopes for 2025, though.

👎🏻 Google Continues To Prioritize Human Content And Launches An Update To The Hidden Gems Algorithm

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

Google has continued to prioritize quality contented successful the hunt results by giving forum contented a boost, but I haven’t noticed the betterment I expected successful 2024.

My anticipation was that Google could usage the Reddit API to prioritize threads based connected age, upvotes and Karma of contributors. That hasn’t happened. We’re inactive seeing questionable forum contented successful the hunt results.

👎🏻 Google Doesn’t Launch SGE Unless Someone Else Launches A Powerful AI Search Engine

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

Well, I couldn’t person been much wrong. My reasoning was that Google wouldn’t motorboat AI Snapshot, arsenic they were called earlier the nationalist release, since they’re excessively disruptive to their halfway advertizing concern exemplary unless a rival puts capable unit connected them.

That seems to person happened due to the fact that AI Overviews launched successful May 2024. You could reason I’m close due to the fact that they launched with tons of flaws and caused Google different PR headache. But I’ll instrumentality an L connected this 1 since determination is nary wide evidence.

👎🏻 More Creators Will Make A (Good) Living From Creating Content

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

Source

I assumed much creators would marque much wealth successful 2024 arsenic the tract matures and much platforms stock revenue. The other happened.

There are 27 cardinal creators successful the US, and 44% accidental creating is their full-time job.1 But the apical 1% of creators marque up implicit 50% of the revenue. 3% of YouTube creators get 85% of the views. The apical 1% of podcasts get 99% of downloads.2

The inequality wrong the creator system is staggering, and determination is nary betterment successful sight.

2025 Predictions

Every year, I effort to agelong my predictions to scratch the limits of what’s imaginable and underline my convictions. Anyone tin authorities the obvious, but predicting thing unobvious and being close is hard.

1. Agentic LLM Models Reach +100 Million Users

What

• It’s nary concealed that inference models, which are amended astatine reasoning, are the adjacent frontier arsenic the AI grooming information excavation is drained. Better reasoning opens the doorway to AI agents and LLM scripts that execute actions for us, similar buying a merchandise oregon downloading a whitepaper.
• So far, agents similar Shop Like a Pro oregon Google Mariner are inactive nascent and necessitate a batch of oversight. But successful 2025, I expect a breakthrough to thrust adoption done the 100m idiosyncratic ceiling.

Why

• Agents are easier to monetize due to the fact that they prevention users clip successful a overmuch much tangible mode than giving an answer. Doing implicit talking.
• The AI beforehand runners besides look acceptable for prototypes, arsenic we’ve seen astatine the hands of the agents that already launched.
• The monetary inducement is there: charging for clip savings oregon cheaper products is pay-worthy value.

Implications:

• Marketers volition person little power implicit the aboriginal stages of the idiosyncratic travel arsenic consumers and B2B buyers research LLM chatbots and agents. Clicks and hunt volumes for high-volume keywords volition apt commencement shrinking successful definite verticals.

2. More AI Victims

What

• In 2025, I expect a batch much victims arsenic AI destroys the margins of full industries and leaves slow-moving companies behind.
• Some industries I judge to beryllium successful a pugnacious spot: translation, dictionaries, tutoring, outsourced telephone centers.
• AI gives commencement to caller industries we cannot adjacent ideate yet and mightiness besides revive immoderate forgotten players similar Oracle.

Why

• In 2024, we’ve seen the archetypal AI victims: Chegg and Stackoverflow.
• New technologies ever make winners and losers. The much almighty the technology, the bigger the shuffle.

Implications

• We’ll spot much pivots arsenic companies connected the blistery spot request to find different maturation markets.
• We’re apt seeing layoffs, consolidation and acquisitions of companies with eroding margins.

3. AI Automation Becomes The Default For Marketing Teams

Screenshot: AirOps (Image Credit: Kevin Indig)

What:

• One inclination I’m precise bullish connected is system building, besides called GTM Automation successful the B2B world. The concept: AI and No-Code tools let Marketers to concatenation and automate workflows alternatively of manually performing them.

Why:

• Already today, we tin automate ample parts of pb funnels, post-purchase onboarding and parts of SEO oregon advertising.
• In 2025, strategy gathering volition go a necessity arsenic selling teams either enactment tiny oregon go smaller owed to fund constraints and economical uncertainty.

Implications:

• Smaller teams, freelancers and consultants go much powerful. The interaction of a azygous marketer grows importantly if they’re skilled, but mediocre marketers mightiness person to find different country of work.
• Marketers volition commencement Agencies that acceptable up automation systems for different companies.

4. AI Overviews Evolve

Image Credit: Lyna ™

What:

• Google’s AI Overviews volition morph arsenic the institution iterates connected the format.
• Some changes I could see: personalization based connected your searches and favourite websites, video answers oregon a NotebookLM integration.
• I besides deliberation AIOs volition amusement for +50% of queries.

Why:

• New models, particularly multi-modal ones that tin recognize and reply with much than text, unfastened the doorway to a amended idiosyncratic experience, which could fortify Google’s moat.
• Google has to find ways to support itself from LLMs similar Chat GPT oregon Perplexity, which are not nether the aforesaid unit to support margins and gross maturation rates.

Implications:

• SEOs request to proceed tracking, experimenting with and adapting to changes successful Google’s hunt landscape. Pressure connected Google extends to SEOs.
• This is not a clip of stability, arsenic we person had much oregon little implicit the past 2 decades, but a clip of agility, flexibility and adaptation.

5. Reddit Becomes Part Of The Default Channel Mix

What:

• Marketers volition leverage Reddit overmuch much for advertizing and assemblage insights successful 2025.
• Reddit’s advertizing gross volition support its maturation rate, and its banal terms volition support climbing (no investing advice).

Why:

• The largest forum connected the web is present 1 of the largest sites, arsenic Google features it prominently for astir each query.
• Since threads are organized by topics alternatively of interests, Reddit tin amusement ads based connected what users sermon alternatively of their behavior.
• The institution keeps expanding and improving its advertizing stack, offering much and amended targeting.
• Reddit uses AI to construe its US contented into different languages to participate different markets. Together with Google’s ranking boost for forums, Reddit’s maturation volition continue.

Implications:

• Reddit grows arsenic an intent-based alternate to Google. Markets volition advertise connected some platforms, but truthful far, lone Google provided this benignant of show ads.
• Reddit volition besides supply much invaluable insights for marketers to assistance them recognize their people assemblage amended and make much invaluable content.

6. More Sites Cloak For LLMs

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

Source

What:

• In 2025, I expect a fewer salient companies to make “bot-only” versions of their sites that are optimized for LLM crawlers.

Why:

• LLMs are bare for accelerated sites with tons of structured contented but they don’t penalize cloaking.

Implications:

• The web could go a amended location for (good) bots arsenic much users instruct LLMs to retrieve accusation oregon marque purchases. Human enactment could shrink and beryllium replaced by bot activity. The question is whether this volition pb to net-negative oregon affirmative unfastened web activity.

7. The Current Google Shopping Tab Will Become The Default

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

What:

• The new, AI-personalized buying acquisition down Google’s buying tab volition go the default hunt acquisition successful the main tab for shopping-related queries.

Why:

• Google often treats tabs arsenic a beta situation for caller experiences. In 2020, Google already made the buying tab the default acquisition before.
• Google wants to interruption Amazon’s e-commerce dominance to unlock much gross growth, particularly arsenic AI disrupts the classical hunt results.

Implications:

• Personalized results are harder to track. If the existent buying tab becomes the default, mean hunt results mightiness go adjacent harder to way than they already are owed to merchandise grids. As a result, marketers request to optimize based connected the small information Google inactive provides oregon thin connected different ways to recognize whether they optimize successful the close absorption oregon not.

8. AI-generated Audio And Video Hits Mass Adoption

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

What:

• We’ll spot a batch much Youtube channels and podcasts usage AI-generated b-roll and ads.

Why:

• The exertion is getting there: Elevenlabs launched a caller dependable generator similar NotebookLM and Google’s Veo 2, and OpenAI’s Sora should soon travel disconnected the waitlist.
• If the occurrence of NotebookLM’s podcasting diagnostic has shown america 1 thing, it’s that multi-modal AI output is getting acceptable for showtime.

Implications:

• Production outgo of video and audio formats volition descend dramatically.
• Deception and clickbait could scope caller highs.

9. Google And Apple Divorce

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

Source

What:

• Google ends exclusivity agreements with Apple, Samsung and different suppliers amid the DoJ antitrust lawsuit.
• Even though the DoJ asks for a batch more, similar Google selling click & query data, the astir realistic result is simply a colony that breaks exclusive distribution.

Why:

• Google itself suggested loosening its agreements (source) successful an effort to mitigate imaginable remedies.
• The DoJ antitrust suit initially focused connected those agreements. The ruling justice (Mehta) made it precise wide successful his memo that he’s not a fan.

Implications:

• Google won the hunt game, truthful I don’t expect remedies to alteration that. Instead, immoderate remedies volition interaction Google’s presumption successful the AI game.
• Losing exclusive organisation agreements could mean that Google has to combat for its presumption alternatively of winning by default connected implicit fractional the market.

10. Apple Or OpenAI Announce Smart Glasses

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

What:

• Apple oregon OpenAI volition articulation the astute glasses marketplace with a instrumentality announcement to vie with Meta.
• I thin much towards OpenAI since Apple already has a secondary instrumentality with its watches, and OpenAI has officially started to enactment with Jony Ive, the decorator of the iPhone.

Why:

• Meta seems to beryllium moving distant with astute glasses. Meta Ray Bans marque up 60% of purchases successful Ray Ban stores.
• The astute glasses marketplace is connected way to deed $4 cardinal by 2030, offering a billion-dollar accidental for the winner.3

Implications:

• Owning a palmy hardware instrumentality with wide adoption could beryllium a invaluable defence to OpenAI oregon different fruitful concern to Apple.
• For marketers, the implications could beryllium a alteration successful user behavior, similar much unrecorded streams, oregon caller contented formats, similar astute glasses answers. However, adoption is inactive truthful acold out, and the implications are truthful unclear that it’s hard to foretell wherever things are going.

Where bash you dis/agree?