Editor’s Note: This article featuring AVI-SPL’s Julian Phillips and his 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.
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 Julian Phillips, SVP, global business development, managing director, XTG at AVI-SPL.
Julian Phillips 2025 Reflections
Julian Phillips, senior vice president at XTG in AVI-SPL, reflects on the year’s key developments, from the rise of enterprise broadcast and cultural markets to the rapid adoption of AI in content generation and display. As the industry evolves, Phillips highlights the importance of innovation, adaptability and the potential for major changes in 2026.
Commercial Integrator: What kind of year has 2025 been for the pro AV industry?
Julian Phillips: Overall, it was a good year, with some important lessons learned. For XTG in AVI-SPL, we grew very strongly because of our focus on emerging technology such as Enterprise Broadcast and also the cultural and entertainment market lit up.;
The primary lesson learned it that customers don’t buy “the old playbook AV” anymore. The innovators and adapters won in 2025.
CI: What has been the most surprising development in the pro AV industry this year?
Phillips: Although we have seen a few such as Yorktel and Kinly, I was expecting to see more M&A amongst the integration community. Perhaps 2026 is the big year!
CI: What has been the most important change we’ve seen this year in pro AV?
Phillips: The rapid awareness and adoption of AI in how we generate, distribute and display content. I believe that “datagentism” which is total re-imagination of how we display and interact with rich media together with AI agents will dramatically change the AV industry.
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])
