The Final Verdict: Did my 2025 Predictions Hold Up?

Episode notes

There’s a narrative that "nobody knows the future," and while that’s true, every January we’re flooded with experts claiming they do. Back at the start of the year, I resisted the urge to add to the noise with wild guesses and instead published 10 "Realistic Predictions" for 2025. For the final episode of the year, I’m doing something different. Instead of chasing this week's headlines or breaking down a new report, I’m pulling out that list to grade my own homework. This is the 2025 Season Finale, and it is a candid, no-nonsense look at where the market actually went versus where we thought it was going. I revisit the 10 forecasts I made in January to see what held up, what missed the mark, and where reality completely surprised us. In this episode, I move past the "2026 Forecast" hype (I’ll save that for January) to focus on the lessons we learned the hard way this year. I’m doing a live audit of the trends that defined our work, including: ​ The Emotional AI Surge: Why the technology moved faster than expected, but the human cost (and the PR disasters for brands like Taco Bell) hit harder than anyone anticipated.

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