With the new year just around the corner, we interviewed Gateway’s IR and PR department leads to discuss anticipated trends for 2025.

Here are their predictions for what we’ll be seeing more of next year.

Public Relations Trends in the New Year

Podcasts

The rise of podcasts has changed how people consume their news and information. As a result of this increase in popularity and saturation, our PR Managing Director, Zach Kadletz, is expecting to see a more prominent role of podcasts in thought leadership campaigns in 2025.

With less structure and a more relaxed forum than traditional media, podcast interviews create the ideal atmosphere for executives to inject their personality into the conversation. And similar to how PR teams pitch a range of publication sizes from national to trade, podcasts provide the ability to target niche or wide audiences.

While podcasts have been around for years, we saw their influence and capabilities come to fruition with the 2024 election as candidates appeared on popular podcast shows for the first time in history. Candidates were able to reach and connect with previously untapped audiences in a way that felt authentic.

This will also mean Public Relations teams need to revisit media training materials to incorporate podcast-specific tips and prepare clients for a longer, casual style of interview. Skills such as tactfully asking to re-record an answer or navigating personal questions are just a few that clients may need help learning.

Anti-AI Content

Artificial Intelligence has dominated trend reports in recent years but we’re expecting a change in direction.

“We’re going to see a craving for human-sounding writing in 2025 as consumers become savvier to AI-created content that just never sounds quite right,” said Kadletz.

While AI has proven helpful for administrative tasks and drafting outlines, it doesn’t capture the message pull through needed for strategic communications. As today’s feeds have become flooded with poorly edited, surface-level AI social posts, companies will need to shift back to more thoughtful, in-depth perspectives to grab users’ attention and stand out from the pack.

Investor Relations 2025 Predictions

An Increase in Small Cap M&A

With the election behind us, many are expecting a rise of M&A in 2025. Senior Managing Director of IR, Cody Slach, takes it a step further and thinks we’ll be seeing an M&A increase among small caps specifically.

Why small caps? The promise of more business-friendly administration and lower interest rates means more money coming off the sidelines. Add this to the fact that there is still good relative value in small/micro-cap companies, and we think that’s a recipe for success in the upcoming year.

Adoption of Blockchain Technology in IR

Currently, public companies verify identities of shareholders and their proxy voters through a combination of multistep processes. Recent advancements in blockchain technology have fostered interest in using it to streamline these types of processes.

Public companies using extremely secure and transparent technology such as blockchain, could mean decreased fraudulent voting activity, reduced delays of clunky third-party identity verification, and a more secure, decentralized method of data sharing. Although there is nothing “broken” about the current processes for managing and verifying shareholders, blockchain technology would certainly increase efficiency and protection measures. We definitely think we’ll be seeing it used more commonly for this purpose in the near future.

AI Tools to Provide Realtime Feedback

While there are many ways and tools for using AI with investor communications, one primary use we think we’ll be seeing more of in 2025 is providing valuable, real-time feedback on earnings call messaging.

Senior Managing Director, Matt Glover, has seen investors and stakeholders using AI tools like ChatGPT to digest earnings materials and provide summaries.

“Forward-thinking companies and savvy IR teams leverage the same AI tools as investors to ensure outputs align with their messaging goals,” explained Glover.

As we’ve seen over the years, what’s intended is not always what is received when it comes to reporting to the public. Leverage today’s AI technology to analyze things like sentiment, ratio of numbers to words used in a call script, and so much more.

In 2025, we think we’ll be seeing innovative methods for improving processes and creating more authentic connections with audiences. From new avenues for media coverage like podcasts, a refocus on human-made communications, more business opportunities for small caps, and creative ways to implement advanced technology — the IR and PR industries are in for some exciting things this new year.

‍