Editor’s Note: This article featuring HETMA’s Joe Way and his 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 Joe Way, PhD, CTS, Cofounder of HETMA + Higher Ed AV.
Joe Way 2025 Reflections
Known for his forward-thinking perspective and deep understanding of the intersection between technology and education, Way offers a candid look at the trends, surprises and pivotal changes that defined the year.
In this exclusive Q&A, he delves into the industry’s embrace of AI, the growing recognition of AV as critical digital infrastructure, and the cultural shift toward collaboration between AV, IT and leadership.
Commercial Integrator: What kind of year has 2025 been for the pro AV industry?
Joe Way: From where I sit, 2025 has been a “quietly pivotal” year for pro AV with less fireworks than the post-pandemic rebound, but a year where the foundations for the next decade really started to lock into place. We started to see a true move to cloud-first, open-AV, and managed services, where the end user can start to see true value. While tariffs and AI were the two buzzwords that dominated the news, we actually saw little actionable impact, though it’s still too early to evaluate the long-term effects. This year has felt less like “boom times” and more like disciplined growth under constraint with projects still happening, but with sharper pencils, longer justifications and more pressure to prove value. Yet, all with an eye for new technologies appearing on the horizon.
CI: What has been the most surprising development in the pro AV industry this year?
Way: The most surprising development this year has been how AI and data governance moved from marketing lingo to reshaping our daily work. Manufacturers, of course, focused on “smart” AI-enabled technologies, but they truly did so responsibly, and not just rebranding much of what we always had, like video tracking and sound tracking, without actually integrating “AI” itself.
AI likewise defined how we operate to simplify our administrative lives, especially in higher education. I expected a lot of marketing noise and a few flashy demos. I did not expect my world to be redefined by things like cameras that actually auto-frame, self produced shots and integrating true accessibility features… at least not this fast. AI is showing it can be interoperable, for example, with cameras that register to occupancy and analytics so we can make real decisions about our spaces, or management platforms that can tell us not just what’s failing, but why… and even use that information to be self-healing.
Related: UCLA’s Joe Way: AV Living Legends #37
CI: What has been the most important change we’ve seen this year in pro AV?
Way: The most important change we’ve seen this year, especially in higher ed, is that we’ve quietly crossed a threshold where AV is finally being treated as critical digital infrastructure, with governance, data and user experience at the center instead of “just hang and bang” from the “TV-cart pushers.” We’ve earned, and now have, a critical spot at leadership tables. We have the ear of the decision makers, and often may now be the true expert decision makers ourselves that the rest of institutional leadership leans on.
The other surprise is cultural: AV, IT, and academic leadership are starting to sit at the same table much earlier in the process, and the conversations are less about “what box are you buying?” and more about “how does this space support pedagogy, accessibility and hybrid engagement five years from now?” As someone who has been shouting for years that AV is about people and pedagogy first, it’s encouraging to see the industry catch up and embrace it. It’s what we’ve been asking for, and we got it. So let’s not prove it was deserved.
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.
