The Top 5 Trends from Meltwater Summit 2025

It was an electrifying two days at Summit, jam-packed with stellar speakers, thought-provoking talks, and game-changing announcements.

So as we look forward to the coming months, what does all this mean for marketing and PR pros? We’ve distilled some of the top recurring themes and trends we heard repeated at Summit into an actionable framework for you to continue the momentum with your teams and leaders.

• Trend 1: AI is Not Taking Your Job (But it Can’t Be Ignored)

• Trend 2: Encourage Agility

• Trend 3: Embrace Authenticity & Human Connection

• Trend 4: Influencers Are Essential for Growing Market Share

• Trend 5: Misinformation Drivers are Growing in Sophistication

• Audiences Loved Summit!

• Thank You To Our Sponsors!

• What Comes Next?

Trend 1: AI is Not Taking Your Job (But it Can’t Be Ignored)

43% of marketers don’t know how to get value out of AI. (Forbes)

Given this, we saw a strong desire among Summit attendees to get a practical view for how AI can be used to have more impact for their organizations, and make teams more efficient. 

Our speakers were more than ready to oblige, with a variety of sessions offering fresh ways to approach AI.

In particular, the audience was captivated by Stephanie Cohen Glass, Senior Director, Communications Strategy & Insights at Microsoft, who gave an in-depth look at using Microsoft Copilot for improving efficiency. She noted that, for those intimidated by AI’s prevalence or not sure where to start, “AI increases how positively today’s professionals feel about their roles, making them more informed and productive. Encouraging a feeling of happiness and confidence intensifies as they use AI tools more and more.” It might seem fluffy, but finding ways to up satisfaction at work is not just for the feels. 

In fact, Microsoft has conducted a Work Trends Index annually since 2020. They’ve found that:

• 80% of global workforce lacks the time or energy to do their jobs
• 53% of leaders say productivity must increase
• 82% of leaders are expected to use AI agents to meet demand for workforce capacity

Leaning into AI is the way to stem the tide of burnout and stress that marketing and comms professionals are feeling on the daily. As one of our other speakers put it: “AI isn’t coming for your job, it’s coming for your busy work.”

Of course, one of the biggest stories out of Summit was the launch of Mira AI from Meltwater.

Mira is more than just another dime-a-dozen generative AI tool. It’s designed to be a true extension of your team, built to answer your questions, write your recaps, summarize coverage, and help you understand what’s happening now. 

This latest innovation, integrated into the Meltwater Suite, learns from Meltwater’s 20+ years of data and expertise in the PR and marketing space, fitting seamlessly inside your current workflows, elevating your insights and reducing strain on your team's time.

New enhancements powered by Mira include:

• Mira Studio: This chat-based interface within our social listening solution does everything from uncovering consumer insights to compiling media lists, all with a quick prompt.
• Mira Companion: Integrated throughout the Meltwater Suite, these context-specific, pop-out companions streamline and accelerate existing workflows.
• Meltwater Copilot: Available for Microsoft-enabled organizations, this chat-based AI assistant within Teams brings Meltwater insights to broader internal audiences.

TIP: Want to learn more about Mira? Check out our Mid-Year Release 2025 blog for more information about Mira and the other innovations we've added to the Meltwater Suite!

Trend 2: Encourage Agility

The AI discussion is a natural lead-in to our next key trend. Even with AI helping ease burdens on time, teams are still being asked to do more with less. Agility is going to be a key asset for companies looking to grow, expand, and remain competitive.

Orgs are not starting from square one in this regard, however. Marketing and PR teams are getting more and more savvy with using social media and social listening for leveraging powerful insights and we’re seeing much more sophisticated and complex use cases. With that, teams will need to continue upleveling and taking advantage of the insights available. 

In a time of continually shifting news cycles and narratives, organizations can remain agile by compiling more useful reports that are easily adaptable. Additionally, we heard that teams and individuals have to be able to say no. And they have to understand the potential impact of both saying no, and be able to present their case for why another direction will have more impact, sooner. 

Do what’s going to drive business forward and rely on data to inform your use of the word “no”. If you can only do a few things, use data to guide you toward what’s really meaningful as a next step for your brand or business.

TIP: Don't miss our on-the-ground coverage of Meltwater Summit 2025! Check out our Day 1 and Day 2 recap blogs for even more insights and takeaways.

Trend 3: Embrace Authenticity & Human Connection

Authenticity and human connection in marketing were major themes at Summit this year, and we expect these to continue gaining momentum as we move closer toward integrating AI into our everyday lives.

Brands are under continued scrutiny by consumers, particularly younger consumers, to interact authentically, especially when jumping on trends. 

And, perhaps ironically, technology can help organizations improve how they connect with broader markets and find new audiences. Using consumer insights to augment surveys and other ways of gathering information, expands your understanding of who your customers and potential customers are on a deeper level. These insights can serve to help you craft more relevant campaigns.  

Emphasizing human connection was paramount to astronaut Dr. Jonny Kim’s approach to leadership — he returned to it often during our live Downlink with him from the ISS. He noted that the ability to work as a team, to be vulnerable, and to act with integrity are precious skills that we will need to continue to develop, especially with the proliferation of AI. 

David Oksman, Vice President of Marketing and Direct-to-Consumer at Samsonite also offered a powerful case for how marketing campaigns that appreciate the value of human connection have longevity, even if (or perhaps because) they don’t focus on product-first. Instead having a perspective on “what’s really important” can go a long way toward inspiring powerful brand loyalty.

Trend 4: Influencers Are Essential for Growing Market Share

Speaking of brand loyalty, building it through influencers is another extremely useful channel. This is especially true if your audience spans multiple age ranges or other demographics, or if your brand struggles with finding ways to expand your social presence due to strict guidelines for your corporate account.

Influencers have a unique ability to help these brands and organizations tap into new audiences, easing the burden on brands to stretch their content thin, trying to appeal to different groups — thus allowing them to maintain a much stronger identity. A great example of this came from Gareth Crew, Social Media and Digital Communications Lead at Canon, who noted that an initial challenge the company faced when trying to grow their social media presence — and drive new purchases — was the wide range of skill levels interested in Canon products.

Canon serves everyone from complete amateurs new to photography to professionals, but their social media pages skew toward pros and serious hobbyists rather than beginners. So they decided to tap into an influencer network to bring more newbie practitioners into the fold.

Influencers know their own audiences better than brands, full stop. And it’s important that brands understand this if they want their influencer partnerships to be successful. Insisting on a particular style or format that the influencer knows won’t appeal to the following they’ve cultivated means engagement will be low as will conversions. 

And brands should be thinking long-term when approaching potential influencers — as Wendy Nguyen on our Content Creator Panel noted, organic posts almost always perform better than sponsored, so if brands want to extend their ROI, they need to consider the ripple effect that comes from more organic posts around their products or services. This kind of longevity can inspire more purchases, followers, and other important success metrics.

Trend 5: Misinformation Drivers are Growing in Sophistication

The threat of misinformation has unfortunately remained a fierce one, and it’s only growing in sophistication. Thanks to AI, narrative attacks are becoming more complex, going after the very fabric of human perception, creating fissures in trusted sources, and taking on lives of their own. These attacks result in real-world consequences for businesses and their stakeholders, such as sudden drops in stock prices or threats against individuals. There now exists tradecraft and a framework behind the manipulation of emotion, said Wasim Khaled of Blackbird.AI on our  Future of MarTech Panel. 

There are a few key strategies that large organizations need to consider to combat these bad actors and prevent future attacks. Increasing user trust in data is a big one. With more unstructured conversations becoming structured, more advanced technology use-cases are emerging, reducing complexities in automation — and AI solutions are getting better at understanding sarcasm and slang. But no matter how accurate data insights become, organizations need to remain vigilant and proactive with a range of strategies, from fostering employee advocates to mapping out crisis plans.  

From a technology standpoint, it’s important to have a framework that looks specifically at risk. Use investigative tools and models to show which actors or agendas are the drivers behind groups who are propping up that narrative. And be aware that sometimes it's knowing when not to react at all. Having these frameworks in place can assist you in identifying these times  — maintaining trust with your stakeholders.

Audiences Loved Summit!

Summit is where the best and brightest in PR, comms, and marketing gather for important insights on the big ideas impacting our industry, perspectives on new technology shaping our workday, and to network with peers. We got some wonderful feedback from our attendees! 

Don’t miss out on 2026 — early bird tickets will be announced soon!

Thank You To Our Sponsors!

Our biggest-ever Meltwater Summit would not have been possible without the support of our many valuable sponsors. Please join us in thanking our Premier Sponsors, Cyabra and Snap Inc., as well as the following sponsor organizations:

• Airadis
• Audiense
• Blackbird.ai
• Carrier
• Converseon.ai
• dig.human
• Havas Red
• Kinetiq
• Legend Labs
• NICE
• Point 600
• Relo Metrics
• Social Factor
• Trajaan
• We.Communications
• Winvale

What Comes Next?

Meltwater Summit is more than another conference. It’s a highly catered event for those leaders and rising stars in PR and marketing who know that success and longevity means staying in-the-know and ahead of the constantly evolving trends affecting our industry.  

We’ll soon be releasing the first ever Summit Playbook — a detailed overview of the top sessions and takeaways from our most impactful speakers. 

We’re also looking ahead to Summit 2026! Stay tuned for more information including early bird tickets, keynote announcements, and more. See you next year!