If I had to sum up 2025 in one sentence, it would be this: companies came to realize that customer communications must move from individual messages, to connected, intelligent, measurable journeys.
As someone who’s spent a career helping organizations engage customers in more meaningful, relevant ways, it was energizing to have these conversations with customers and many of these conversations formed the basis of our blogs for the year.
Across our blogs this year, a clear story emerged: businesses want to meet people where they are, guide them through complex moments, and cut through noise with communication that actually helps. And honestly, customers want the same thing.
Here’s the highlight reel of what came out of our 2025 conversations.
Journeys Became the Strategy
Early in the year, we talked a lot about moving from one-off messages to orchestrated journeys. What I loved most was seeing companies take that idea and run with it.
Blogs like What Your Data is Trying to Tell You and How Micro-Journeys Drive Immediate Impact weren’t just thought pieces, they reflected the real-world momentum we saw across industries. I spent a lot of time this year with leaders who finally said, “You know what? These touchpoints can’t live in silos anymore.” Additionally, we talked about leveraging behavioral data that facilitates driving a personalized and intelligent engagement.
When you connect your communications into a logical sequence, customers stop hesitating and start completing actions. Payments go through faster, onboarding feels smoother, and claims stop sitting in limbo. It’s such a simple idea, but the impact is massive.
And yes, I get genuinely excited when we release new predefined journeys in OSG JourneyConnect® because I know they make it easier for teams to modernize without months of IT cycles.
Timing Became the New Personalization
This theme came up again and again in our blogs this year: customers respond when the communication arrives at the right moment.
We dove into that idea in blogs like Delivery Orchestration: Intelligent and Impactful and Predefined Journeys: The Path Ahead, and it’s something I’ve become almost evangelical about.
The industry spent a decade obsessing over personalization. Names, segments, rules upon rules. But timing… timing is what gets people to actually do something. A payment reminder sent after a customer already paid is useless and renewal message sent too early is ignored. But a message triggered by real customer behavior is pure gold.
OSG JourneyConnect was built around this belief, and in 2025, we saw more companies embrace that thinking than ever before.
AI Found Its Purpose
2025 was also the year AI stopped being a buzzword and became a practical tool in regulated communications.
We talked about this in blogs like Smarter Bots, Smarter Docs and Unlocking the Value of AI in Insurance Customer Communications. The theme was clear: AI doesn’t replace humans; it gives teams the power to work smarter and deliver better experiences.
OSG JourneyConnect Orion®, our AI engine, was launched to help organizations with:
- Predictive insights
- Relevant messages
- Intelligent document experiences
- Opportunities for customers to self-serve
I’ve had a front-row seat to organizations discovering that AI can make regulated communications not just compliant but actually helpful. That’s a big win.
Digital Adoption Shifted From a Goal to a Strategy
One of the most encouraging trends of 2025 was seeing organizations stop forcing digital and start earning digital adoption with their customers. Our blogs Cracking the Code to Paperless, as well as the launch of OSG’s digital adoption practice in the blog, Accelerating Digital Adoption, both hit the same chord: digital adoption rises when customers trust your communications.
We saw companies rethink language, simplify layouts and call-to-action, and give customers more choice. Customers don’t resist digital, they resist frustration. Fix the friction, and adoption follows.
Print Reclaimed Its Seat at the Table
We have seen quite clearly that print isn’t going anywhere. When done right, it amplifies digital, supports lifecycle journeys, and drives response. Our Digital First Doesn’t Equal Digital Only and 5 Benefits of Direct Mail You Can’t Ignore blogs helped reframe print as the strategic CX lever we’ve seen it to be and not a legacy channel.
In 2025, multichannel finally meant multiple channels and not digital only.
Looking Ahead: Preparing for the Customer of 2026
If 2025 was the year organizations realized that journeys matter, 2026 will be the year they prepare those journeys for a customer who expects more than ever.
Customers want communications that help them take the next step without thinking, or the seamless transitions between channels. They want messages that reflect their actual behavior, not assumptions.
We also need to embrace what Agentic AI will hold for us in the CCM industry going into 2026, along with the scrutiny that will come with AI doing things for humans. We need to ensure it adds value while protecting the most valuable asset to our clients, their data!
Our expanding suite of solutions under OSG JourneyConnect are built for exactly this moment, because the customer of 2026 won’t wait. And the good news is, with the right tools, you won’t have to either.
Here’s to another year of building smarter, more human, more connected communications in the moments that matter.
