With 2025 in full swing, several emerging digital trends will reshape how organizations connect with their audiences and impact their strategies for driving meaningful business growth.
Amid the global focus on AI and rapid technological advancements, recognizing other critical trends and taking decisive action are vital for anyone looking to compete for attention and relevance in the digital landscape.
This year, all digital trends evolve around one key priority: customer centricity.
With customer expectations being at an all-time high, brands must rethink their strategies and ensure they keep up with the emerging developments and prioritize their customers’ needs to establish loyalty and a competitive edge in the market.
We’ve spoken to six experts, who shared their insights on the most impactful digital trends shaping 2025 and how brands can leverage them to stay ahead:
#1: Digital Accessibility Is a Business Imperative
According to SmartSites Co-Founder Michael Melen, digital accessibility is no longer optional but a legal and strategic necessity in 2025.
“The 2019 Robles v. Domino’s Pizza case marked a significant milestone for ADA compliance in the digital space. The court ruled that Domino’s must make its website accessible, just as it is required to ensure accessibility in its physical locations.
Since then, there has been a surge in both litigation and the demand for compliance solutions. Unless a future ruling overturns this precedent, I expect this trend to persist and even accelerate as businesses prioritize digital accessibility,” he says.
As reported by McKinsey, consumer companies with no accessible websites lose $6.9 billion annually as consumers with disabilities turn to competitors who do have accessible websites.
Melen’s point is valid as this number indicates that not having accessible websites directly impacts revenue, competitiveness, and brand reputation.
#2: Video Becomes the Universal Currency of Attention
Colormatics Co-Founder Chris Marcus believes that video is one of the biggest marketing assets businesses must incorporate to stay competitive in 2025.
“Video isn’t just a trend — it’s the backbone of modern brand communication. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram are rewriting the playbook, making video the universal currency of attention. If your brand isn’t fluent, you’re not just behind; you’re invisible,” he says.
Marcus also highlights that the first three seconds are everything. That’s the window where the audience decides if a business is worth their time — or just another thumb swipe.
“Success isn’t about going viral; it’s about being unignorable. Brands need to master multi-format storytelling (vertical, horizontal, six seconds, sixty seconds) while staying ruthlessly consistent with their message and identity.
The future? Video that feels personal, authentic, and so sharp it slices through the noise. Think modular creative strategies powered by real-time performance data. Iterate or evaporate,” he adds.
Almost 90% of businesses leverage video as a marketing tool.
In fact, 95% of video marketers see video as a vital part of their overall strategy whereas 96% of them say video has helped them increase brand awareness, and 93% claim that it has given them a good ROI in 2025.
It highlights the crucial role video plays in brand growth, so businesses should prioritize video content in their marketing efforts.
#3: AI and Personalization Are Driving Mobile-First Growth
REPLUG Co-Founders Lorenzo Rossi and Luca Mastrorocco suggest that in 2025, businesses should embrace AI-driven personalization and a mobile-first approach to remain competitive.
"We’re seeing a big shift towards personalized, AI-driven marketing focusing on users' likes and actions. Mobile users do not respond anymore to unpersonalized advertising and communications, and the risk is to become invisible to them and get lost among the many competitors.
The future is about using data and machine learning to create specific marketing strategies. To stay ahead, businesses must invest in strong data systems, keep up with AI innovations, and be ready to change with new trends,” they say.
Variable Founder and CEO David Penna agrees that using AI and data analytics to personalize marketing efforts is a key digital trend that will dominate in 2025.
He also highlights that AI has become important for optimizing return on advertising spend (ROAS).
“If you’re not using AI in some capacity, you’re going to become less relevant than the competition, because those utilizing AI are going to find themselves floating to the top as they embrace new technology. You’ll start to notice that the top companies are going to integrate AI into their services.
As a company, we’re not even considering working with 3rd party partners that don’t utilize AI because it’s a risk we can’t afford. Our most effective advertising campaigns utilize AI, and it’s the new standard to maximize ROAS,” David says.
Back in 2016, Think with Google found out that 89% of U.S. marketers who incorporated personalization on their websites or apps saw an increase in revenue.
9 years later, businesses have access to much more advanced AI tools they can leverage to offer hyper-targeted experiences, increase customer engagement, and drive more conversion rates and sales.
In 2025, there are also many more ways you can use AI the smart way for business success, including:
- Create accessible, mobile-optimized, and emotionally engaging websites
- Keep up with emerging threats and predict threat actors' moves
- Transform workplace processes by enhancing planning, execution, and scalability
#4: Enhanced Email Guidelines Are the New Trend for Deliverability
Tom Wozniak, chief operations officer at OPTIZMO emphasizes that businesses must comply with domain authentication, faster opt-out processing, and specific unsubscribe options to meet updated email provider guidelines in 2025.
“One of the larger trends in email marketing in 2025 involves the changing requirements of inbox providers. In efforts to improve the experience of their users, email providers like Gmail and Yahoo! have updated their guidelines for companies sending larger volumes of email (5,000+) on a daily basis.
In order to have their emails delivered, these companies now need to adopt stricter domain authentication processes, offer specific unsubscribe options, and process opt-out requests more quickly than current federal law requires.
Many email marketing platforms have adopted the new guidelines for all their clients, rather than just higher volume email senders. The guidelines are all fairly straightforward for companies to follow, but ignoring them could have negative impacts on your email marketing program,” he explains.
Mailgun’s State of Email Deliverability 2025 report shows that 78.5% of organizations rated email deliverability as highly important, with 46% assigning it a perfect 10 out of 10.
How Businesses Rate the Importance of Good Email Deliverability | Source: Mailgun
Businesses must comply with updated guidelines to maintain high deliverability rates. Failing to do so risks emails being marked as spam or going undelivered damaging the sender’s reputation This can easily lead to lost revenue opportunities and weakened customer trust.
#5: Automation and Data Integration Transform Dealer Networks
Stephanie Shreve, CMO at PowerChord, highlights that businesses in the dealer network sector should integrate automation and real-time data integration to improve the collaboration between brands and dealers.
“The two key trends that we're watching in the dealer network space are increasing automation and the availability of data.
Data sharing between brands and dealers has historically been challenging as business systems don't integrate easily. But of course, shared data is vital for all parties to understand and have insights into local customer prospects and sales.
With proper data about customers, brands, and dealers can work together to deliver messaging that will convert shoppers into buyers, and importantly, that data can be used to find look-alike audiences to build a local sales base.
Newer technology allows for the transfer of data to be automated, and ideally, real-time. Armed with these insights, brands and dealers will be poised for the path to success,” she says.
#6: Social Platforms Transform into Revenue-Generating Marketplaces
According to eComchain Founder and CEO Sandeep Kuttiyatur, businesses should leverage social media as a direct sales channel in 2025.
“Social media platforms are rapidly transforming into direct shopping hubs, with features like shoppable posts, live shopping events, and built-in checkout options.
To capitalize on this trend, businesses should incorporate these tools to drive sales. This involves integrating shoppable posts and live-streaming into your social media strategy while creating engaging content that encourages consumers to make purchases directly through these platforms,” he notes.
In 2024, 68% of shoppers bought products directly from social media apps as reported by Grin.
The platform also discovered that the younger customers are, the more likely they are to use TikTok over traditional search engines for product discovery.
How Consumers Discover New Products Online | Source Grin
This is important for businesses to acknowledge as they must meet their potential customers where they are.
As consumer needs change and technology advances, businesses should be on top of their customers’ expectations and the latest tools to stay relevant.
Implementing these trends effectively can empower organizations to capitalize on new opportunities, strengthen their brand positioning, and enhance customer experience which can ultimately drive business growth and profitability.
