Editor’s Note: This article featuring Diversified’s Jared Timmins and his 2025 reflections and 2026 predictions is part of Commercial Integrator’s series that will run throughout the months of December and January. In this series, we’ll highlight reflections and predictions 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 Jared Timmins, SVP of Media Innovation at Diversified.
Jared Timmins 2025 Reflections
As 2025 draws to a close, Timmins offers a forward-looking perspective on the pro AV industry’s evolution. Reflecting on a year marked by the rise of AI-driven systems like the Agentic Flywheel and a shift toward hybrid infrastructure strategies, he highlights the industry’s growing maturity and alignment with IT and cybersecurity standards. Looking ahead to 2026, he predicts a transformative year where AI-powered operational layers will redefine how integrators deliver value, moving beyond hardware to create intelligent, composable spaces that amplify human expertise and accelerate digital workflows.
CI: What has been the most surprising development in the pro AV industry this year?
Jared Timmins: The most surprising development in 2025 was the emergence of the Agentic Flywheel, an AI system that captures work as it happens, feeds those insights back into the process and steadily improves the next cycle. It’s not a model; it’s an operational layer that reduces rework, tightens handoffs and begins to amplify employees instead of burdening them. The organizations investing in these foundations in 2025 are setting themselves up for a level of digital velocity in 2026 that will clearly separate them from companies still tied to the old operating model.
CI: What has been the most important change we’ve seen this year in pro AV?
Timmins: The most important change in 2025 was the industry’s move toward digital workflows and more decentralized, hybrid infrastructure strategies. It was also the year media vendors pushed heavily into enterprise AV, bringing higher expectations around automation, interoperability and operational discipline. At the same time, secure-by-design standards became mandatory for new builds, forcing AV to align with IT and cybersecurity practices. These combined pressures raised the industry’s maturity level and reshaped how systems are planned, delivered and supported.
Jared Timmins 2026 Predictions
CI: 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.
Timmins: The ripest growth opportunity in 2026 will be building Agentic Operations into customer environments — AI systems that continuously capture activity, reduce manual effort and support teams with real-time insight. Customers aren’t just buying hardware anymore; they’re buying velocity, reliability and reduced operational drag. Integrators who deliver environments that self-diagnose, summarize changes, forecast issues and support employee amplification will own the most profitable part of the market. The value is no longer in the boxes, it’s in the smarter operational layer that compounds over time.
CI: What’s liable to catch some pro AV industry integrators and installers off guard in the coming year?
Timmins: What will catch many integrators off guard in 2026 is how quickly customers expect AI systems to be part of the experience. They will assume their environments can explain themselves, surface issues early, support staff with insights and reduce dependence on constant human intervention. The shops still tied to manual processes and tribal knowledge will suddenly feel slow, not because the technology changed overnight, but because the operating model did.
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?
Timmins: The most pressing challenge in pro AV is the industry’s inability to operate at the complexity required by today’s composable spaces — environments that blend AV, IT, media workflows, automation and AI into one adaptive experience. Success now requires repeatable excellence, employee amplification and a seamless partnership between human and machine intelligence. Integrators must adopt AI systems that capture work, enforce standards and expose risks early. The firms that combine human judgment with machine-guided clarity will be the ones capable of delivering and sustaining the next generation of media-rich, intelligent spaces. Those who don’t will be overwhelmed by the very complexity they deploy.
CI: Finish this sentence: 2026 will be remembered as the year that the pro AV industry…
Timmins: 2026 will be remembered as the year the pro AV industry crossed the threshold from hardware-first thinking to truly intelligent, composable spaces, where human expertise and AI systems worked together to deliver a level of digital velocity and consistency the old operating model could never reach.
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).
