Editor’s Note: This article featuring Althea Ricketts and her 2025 reflections is part of Commercial Integrator’s series that will run throughout the month of December. In this series, we’ll highlight 2025 reflections from some of the industry’s most notable luminaries. Be sure to check out our complete list of voices for a comprehensive look at the year’s key trends and insights.
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 Althea Ricketts, vice president, corporate initiatives at Shure.
Althea Ricketts 2025 Reflections
As 2025 comes to a close, Ricketts reflects on a year of normalization for the pro AV industry, marked by recovery from pandemic disruptions and supply chain challenges. In this exclusive Q&A, she highlights the rapid adoption of AI, the growing importance of AV in hybrid work environments and the industry’s ongoing evolution. Looking ahead to 2026, she predicts significant opportunities in AV-as-a0service (AVaaS) and warns of the challenges posed by staffing shortages and the accelerating pace of technological transformation.
CI: What kind of year has 2025 been for the pro AV industry?
Althea Ricketts: I’d say it’s been a normalization year. The industry is returning to normalcy after pandemic and supply chain crisis. It’s a little softer of a market than we’d like, but there has also been a number of consolidations happening as well. It’s normalizing and gearing up for the next phase!
CI: What has been the most surprising development in the pro AV industry this year?
Ricketts: I think the rapid adoption of AI in our industry in fundamental and meaningful fashion.
CI: What has been the most important change we’ve seen this year in pro AV?
Ricketts: Continuous recognition of the importance of AV for everyday work today as “modern/hybrid work” become the norm in various fashions.
Althea Ricketts 2026 Predictions
CI: Without getting into any specific vendor or particular branded solutions, what technology category or solution area do you see as 2026’s ripest, most profitable growth opportunity for pro AV integrators and installers? Explain your reasoning.
Ricketts: AV-as-a-service! Including remote monitoring, maintenance and operations relying on AI tools etc.
CI: Which emerging AV technologies do you think are overplayed?
Ricketts: VR and 8K Displays! Enough said 😊
CI: Which ones do you think will truly transform the practice of integration in the coming years?
Ricketts: Unquestionably AI! Can I say it louder for those in the back.
CI: What’s getting better about the pro AV industry these days?
Ricketts: Adoption of new technologies (e.g. AV would probably have taken years to adopt AI in the past).
CI: What seems to be getting worse?
Ricketts: Staffing shortages which cause project delays and increasing cost and unpredictability. WE need to start expanding our resource pool, and looking at new and different entrants to the industry.
CI: What’s liable to catch some pro AV industry integrators and installers off guard in the coming year?
Ricketts: The speed of transformation. AI will drive different workflows different ways of working. It already is…..
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).
