The year 2024 will be remembered for several reasons. The global economy is slowing down, AI algorithms are influencing more and more areas of our lives, and we will soon see a change in the office of the US president. These factors have not gone unchallenged for web analytics, and we will feel their effects in the coming year. To try and get a handle on the changing realities, we asked six industry experts how the past year looked through their eyes and what we can expect in 2025.
2024: Redefining analytics in a privacy-first, cookieless world
Further migration to alternative solutions
During 2024, many attempted to shift from well-known tools to platforms that posed no challenges related to data sampling and maintained user privacy. This year, I've also seen many people encouraged to expand their knowledge with new skills like SQL and Python. The aim is to develop a strong set of competencies to navigate technological shifts and support clients and users with routine tasks. We also found it hard to combine data from different sources. With all the tech tools popping up, getting a single view of analytics is a lot tougher, particularly for larger businesses.
Juliana Jackson, Digital Marketing Leader
Deprecation of third-party cookies
Regarding third-party cookies, I think even though it's negative in the sense that it's a conversation we don't really want to have, it was also positive in the sense that it allowed analysts and people providing tools for analysts to rethink a little bit how we are collecting data and what we need to collect and what we don't need to collect. Many marketing teams were convinced they had all the data they needed, but this was not true. The launch of Consent Mode v2, alongside growing client adoption of consent mechanisms, has resulted in a rapid decline in tracking data, as not everyone is willing to consent.
Siobhan Solberg, Data Protection Consultant in Raze
What about data privacy?
The US election will undoubtedly have consequences, including regulatory agreements between Europe and the US, such as data protection rules. The new administration could reconsider or cancel certain agreements signed by the previous government. This could influence the data transfer framework, and the revocation of the previous Executive Order might cast doubt on the effectiveness of the data protection framework.
Piotr Korzeniowski, CEO at Piwik PRO
2025: Empowering businesses with AI-driven, server-side analytics
Better connection with business
One of the biggest challenges that constantly drives us is connection with business and showing the value of our work. Some companies have faced challenges because they neglected the importance of value generation. As a result, they were caught off guard by questions like, "We've built this big data stack, but how is it actually driving business?"
Frederik Werner, Director Marketing Technology in mohrstade
Economic pressure
With budget cuts due to economic strain, marketing teams are tasked with maximizing their output while minimizing costs, striving for solutions that deliver significant results for less. As a result, various organizations will evaluate their marketing resources and opt for solutions that deliver optimal cost-effectiveness. At Piwik PRO we are constantly adding new features to our freemium and enterprise plan to keep our exciting customers happy and attract new ones.
Piotr Korzeniowski, CEO of Piwik PRO
Broader adoption of AI
In 2025, IA and machine learning will integrate even more with tools and platforms, affecting how we analyze data. But what is going to be really interesting is the marketing mix modeling combined with customer journey analytics. At the moment, there is no easy way to understand what people do when they browse the website and then discover something on the television or the billboard on the street. I also expect to see new laws and regulations related to artificial intelligence in 2025, similar to the EU AI Act. Obviously, this could impact platforms that use open tools like ChatGPT, where we don't know if, where, or for what purpose our data will be used.
Enrico Pavan, Co-Founder & President, Analytics & CRO Director in Analytics Boosters
Increasing importance of server-side tracking
We will see more server-side tracking, especially because it can communicate with third-party and cloud-based systems without pushing the data to its final destinations. I am encouraged that this innovation will see increased adoption, regardless of its higher expense. This matter holds great significance since we constantly strive to meet compliance requirements.
Julien Coquet, Data Collection Expert