Editor’s Note: This article featuring Alesia Hendley and her 2025 reflections kicks off a Commercial Integrator series that will run throughout the month of December. In this series, we’ll highlight 2025 reflections from some of the pro AV industry’s most notable luminaries.
As the pro AV industry reflects on the year 2025, it’s clear that this has been a period of both growth and transformation. To gain deeper insights into the trends, challenges and opportunities that have shaped the industry, Commercial Integrator turned to Alesia Hendley, multimedia journalist and content creator.
Alesia Hendley 2025 Reflections
The pro AV industry faced a transformative year in 2025, marked by tighter budgets, shifting customer priorities, and a fundamental shift in how business is done. Long-standing strategies and approaches were upended, forcing professionals to rethink everything from product design to go-to-market strategies. Hendley describes 2025 as a “wake the hell up moment,” where the focus shifted from hardware specs to delivering meaningful, experience-driven solutions. In this Q&A, she shares her insights on the year’s biggest changes, challenges and the path forward for AV pros.
Commercial Integrator: What kind of year has 2025 been for the pro AV industry?
Alesia Hendley: 2025 has been a shock to the system for the pro AV industry. Business is no longer being done the same way, and a lot of long-tenured professionals were forced to confront that in real time. Tighter budgets, shifting customer priorities, and evolving buying behavior have disrupted decades-old playbooks. The strategy has to be rebuilt. Products have had to be rethought. Go-to-market approaches can’t look like they did five years ago, let alone twenty. This year fundamentally challenged the idea that “how we’ve always done it” is still enough. 2025 was a wake the hell up moment, time to do things differently.
CI: What has been the most important change we’ve seen this year in pro AV?
Hendley: The most important change in 2025 has been the shift toward experience-driven AV instead of product-driven AV. The industry is slowly starting to realize we can no longer be centered solely on specs and hardware. It’s centered on outcomes, usability and integration into daily workflow. The integrators and manufacturers who win today are the ones who understand business goals, human behavior and operational efficiency, not just signal flow. And I’m here for it!
CI: What’s the single most pressing challenge that professionals in the pro AV industry must tackle right now? And how would you suggest tackling it?
Hendley: The single most pressing challenge in pro AV right now is talent. Attracting it, training it and retaining it.
We tackle this by:
- Investing in real mentorship pipelines
- Creating modern career paths (not just installer → senior installer, sales account manager → team manager)
- Valuing soft skills as much as technical skills
- Building cultures that people actually want to stay in
If we don’t solve the people problem, the technology won’t matter.
Stay tuned with Commercial Integrator as we gather year-end insights and reflections from the brightest minds in the industry. If you’d like to be featured, contact our editorial team (Alyssa Borelli, Amala Reddie and Dan Ferrisi, [email protected])
