So, what awaits the digital world in 2025?
How exactly are technologies changing
Here is just a brief selection of processes on which the main changes in the industry are based:
● Development of artificial intelligence and generative AI: the global AI market may reach $1.81 trillion by 2030, and approximately 55% of companies have already integrated AI into their business processes.
● In-depth use of multi-channel strategies: 73% of companies already use a multi-channel strategy in their work.
● Authenticity and transparency: Zoomers and Millennials are 27% more likely to buy products from brands that care about social and environmental issues, and 30% more likely to choose companies known for their transparency in their work.
● Innovations in UX and personalization: personalization of user experience leads to an increase in revenue of 10-15%.
● Relevant content formats: 86% of companies used video in their marketing strategies.
● Integration with social networks: 73.8% of Internet users search for information about brands through social platforms.
Vivid examples of the growth of the markets of China, India and Indonesia show that in each country technologies fall on different "soil." Take, for example, the PRC, where ecosystem applications such as WeChat and Douyin are widespread, which combine social networks, messengers and e-commerce. It is also important that in the same China, 90% of Internet users access the Network from smartphones, and that is why we are talking about "super-apps" there, and not platforms like our State Services.
About global technological trends
The processes described above seriously change the communications industry. How exactly? I highlight here 5 key trends that are noticeable around the world:
- Technologies (specifically neural networks, "deepfakes" of all kinds and related tools) are changing the operating model of specific market players: agencies, holdings, PR services - creating "agencies of the future".
- The rapid development of the digital world and lagging regulation is changing the paradigm of interaction between the state and business, creating new challenges in the field of national and international law. The concepts of copyright are changing, chatbots are beginning to make judicial and enforcement decisions, the principles of content regulation are evolving, etc.
- Progress is restructuring global value chains and the work of the communications industry as a whole. The place of communications in corporate structures, the role of the reputation factor in making business decisions is growing: the deeper politics penetrates into the economy and the more biased institutions become (technological platforms that impose sanctions, Internet censorship to please "new sincerity", etc.), the more important it becomes to monitor the reputation even for the business for which it was previously among the secondary priorities.
- Progress creates new threats (fake news, ultra-precise AI imitators, "user-friendly" solutions for deepfakes, etc.), dictates the need to revise security policies. The costs of fact-checking (especially against the background of its cancellation by default, as some social networks have recently done) are growing globally, and every news item, due to the large number of fakes, has to be regarded according to the "presumption of fake" until its authenticity is proven.
- And, finally, the global technological revolution is accelerating "information entropy" - the process of degradation of user attention and audience perception of information around the world. It is no secret that analysts and psychologists around the world have long been sounding the alarm about the decline in "attention span" and the ability of young people to perceive longreads. But this problem is much broader: the more synthetic content there is on the Internet, the stronger "banner blindness" becomes and the lower global coverage falls. In terms of harm, this process is comparable to "global warming" - only online.
Each of these trends is large enough to devote a separate article to it. Therefore, in this article we will talk only about the first of them - the change in business models and the emergence of "agencies of the future" - and touch a little on the second topic on state regulation.
Trend No. 1: neural networks and "agencies of the future" The way digital and PR agencies actively use neural networks in their work today shows its effectiveness in optimizing "operations". In the first place in the sector today is the use of generative neural networks for texts, pictures and other creative materials.
Then - AI data analytics tools, search for newsbreaks and news, etc. Over the past 2-3 years, there is probably not a single large agency left on the market that would not use neural networks in its work - and 2 years ago there were only a few.
Most often, agencies use the most popular user models - Western and domestic. Own developments can be found in the field of web analytics and news monitoring, but they are very expensive and affordable only for large groups of agencies. Neural networks are becoming full members of teams - not replacing copywriters and designers, but helping them, increasing efficiency and improving the final product.
This process can be metaphorically compared to the transformation of small farms into large agricultural holdings: several years pass - and in place of dozens of disparate and differently cultivated garden plots, huge greenhouses with greenhouses, centralized fertilizer application and sensors at every corner are built. Yes, dozens of "farmers who did not fit into the market" (read: agencies) will be forced to leave the market - however, the winners will receive many times greater profits and involvement in the market on much more favorable terms. But what will such an agency look like?
The PR agency of the future is primarily an IT company with a very high level of automation. It will also be distinguished by complete personalization of content. Not feeds or blocks, but each unit of content, including the format and delivery time.
In the PR agency of the future, the structure of costs and the cost of services will change: from payments to dozens of content specialists (designers, writers, managers - whose salaries, moreover, are growing against the background of the personnel crisis), they will switch to strategic planning, fine-tuning IT systems and in-depth market analytics. The "employee of the future" in such an agency is not the final performer, but a "robot herder", who understands different AI models and knows how to work with client analytics to adjust the software online.
"Professional minimum"
Finally, "agencies of the future" will spend much more money on training personnel and cultivating internal highly qualified employees. Today, the entry threshold for new employees into agencies is quite low: many agencies in the market still adhere to the practice of "we will teach the main thing on the spot".
In the future, this will not work: the longer progress goes, the more relevant it will be for each agency to develop its own software and use in-depth analytical tools. Therefore, to enter the digital industry, it will be necessary to meet the "professional minimum" in digital literacy, data analytics and the ability to work with the necessary software.
In addition, over the years, each agency will develop its own internal practice on software and methods that it uses - and large agencies will develop their own models altogether. All this will require unification of the entry skills of candidates and current employees: after all, the market is accelerating and there is no longer enough time to train each trainee for 2-4 weeks.
There is still a lot of work to be done in this direction - and one of the main challenges here concerns the interaction of the industry with the state and joint work on regulating new technologies. States often react to new technologies primarily in the context of the threats they create - and too drastic measures can slow down progress in the industry. To prevent this from happening, it is important to develop a dialogue with government agencies on the basis of industry associations of the digital market. How exactly - we'll talk below.
What the state often misses
As I wrote above, we must not allow measures aimed against the illegal part of the market to hit the entire industry. The key idea here is this: there are two types of deepfakes - illegal (which are created and/or used for criminal purposes) and legal (which are used in advertising, production, creative fields, etc.).
A huge mass of what the term "deepfake" is often applied to is non-commercial user content, memes, video clips, etc. UGC (User-Generated Content). It is generated by the audience itself without commercial and criminal purposes, and simply tightening the punishment and regulation means destroying creativity and trying to stop the development of technology.
Therefore, the approach to regulation that we are currently developing with the working group should be comprehensive, and for its development it is necessary to invite representatives of the IT sector, professional lawyers, leaders of the creative and communication industries to the discussion as well.
AI and the state
I head the Committee on Digital Communications at AKOS (one of the largest associations of PR agencies), and in the activities of the Committee we pay great attention to the AI direction.
We act both proactively, offering an approach to industry regulation before it is adopted, and reactively, trying to make adjustments to existing regulations to make life easier for the market. In this regard, we rely on very constructive and regular interaction with the state in alliance with other industry associations.
Our activities in the Association intersect with what we are doing together with the working group of the Public Council of the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation to develop an approach to the regulation of deepfakes.
Valery Sidorenko
Now on home
