In 2024, the digital landscape saw significant developments—more and more companies embraced AI, augmented reality (AR) was increasingly used to create personalized shopping experiences, and digital accessibility became a greater focus.
Which topics will continue to shape the coming year? How will processes transform, and what new innovations and technologies will play a role? These are the key questions—and here are the answers, focusing on the most important trends and themes that will be relevant for businesses across all industries that offer digital products and services and aim to reach their target audience online.
Trend 1: The Digital Product Passport (DPP)
The Digital Product Passport (DPP) is a digital record that provides detailed information about a product. This passport includes relevant data such as material composition, origin, production process details, repair and recycling information, as well as sustainability features.
The DPP will become mandatory in 2027 and is designed to serve as a guide for businesses and consumers, enabling informed decision-making by ensuring transparency throughout the value chain. It helps trace a product’s ecological footprint, enhances material traceability, promotes reuse, and supports compliance with regulations like the EU's circular economy directives.
This topic is already becoming relevant for manufacturers today. For companies that produce or import products into the EU, the DPP offers an opportunity to stand out by implementing it early and integrating it into their marketing strategies. Early adopters that align their platforms with these new data sets ahead of the DPP’s official rollout can benefit from stronger customer loyalty and gain a competitive advantage.
Helpful Links:
Official Federal Ministry Page: A passport for the entire product lifecycle
German Institute for Standardization (DIN): All standards and norms for the Digital Product Passport
Technology & Architecture Consulting: Analysis of your system landscape and personalized services to enable DPP integration
Trend 2: Digital Accessibility
That's right - digital accessibility is not a new topic, as the EU legislation on the Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG) already brought accessibility into focus in 2024. However, it's important to mention this topic again because, starting in 2025, the new regulations will become mandatory. This means that by June 29, 2025, companies must ensure that their digital services and products are fully accessible.
Helpful Links:
Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG): Official page with all guidelines for implementing the EU directive
Whitepaper on Digital Accessibility: Overview of all regulations and new laws, tips for first steps, and code examples for key frontend elements
Accessibility Audit: Review of your online shop or website based on all necessary BITV test criteria
Trend 3: Cybersecurity through SIEM Solutions
SIEM stands for Security Information and Event Management and combines two security concepts:
SIM (Security Information Management): The collection and long-term archiving of security data from various sources, such as firewalls, networks, and endpoints.
SEM (Security Event Management): The real-time analysis of the collected data to identify and respond to threats or security incidents.
Cybersecurity is becoming increasingly relevant for several reasons: IT infrastructures in companies are growing more complex, cloud usage is rising, and hybrid work models are becoming the norm. This significantly increases the attack surface for cyberattacks. Additionally, changing laws and regulations, such as GDPR and the NIS2 directive, are putting pressure on businesses to ensure robust security monitoring and documentation. SIEM helps maintain compliance with these standards through continuous monitoring and reporting.
One reason SIEM solutions will become even more critical in 2025 is the increasing use of artificial intelligence in businesses. The implementation of AI tools can offer hackers new attack vectors and make platforms vulnerable to "adversarial attacks," where hackers intentionally use manipulative inputs to confuse the model and gain unauthorized access to sensitive data. To prevent such incidents, modern SIEM solutions are increasingly using AI and machine learning to detect anomalies more efficiently and enable automated responses to security events.
Key Requirement for SIEM Implementation: A scalable IT infrastructure. The existing IT infrastructure must be suitable and scalable to handle the data volumes collected from systems, networks, and applications. This includes server capacity, storage systems, and network performance.
Helpful Links:
KPMG/Lünendonk Study 2024: From Cybersecurity to Cyber Resilience
Gartner Report: Searching for a SIEM Solution? Here Are 7 Things It Likely Needs
Application Management Service: Strategic Alignment of Your IT Infrastructure
Trend 4: Innovative After-Sales Services
Digital after-sales services offer companies increasingly innovative ways to strengthen customer loyalty and generate additional revenue—here are a few examples:
Personalized Service Experiences with AI: By leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning, companies can offer personalized recommendations, maintenance tips, and support services. For example, customers receive proactive notifications about product updates or maintenance needs based on their specific usage history.
Augmented Reality (AR) for Maintenance and Support: AR technology can be used to assist customers with troubleshooting and product maintenance by projecting real-time instructions and repair guides directly onto their devices, providing visual support without requiring an on-site technician.
Self-Service Platforms: More and more customers prefer to solve issues on their own. Digital self-service solutions, such as AI-powered chatbots, FAQs, tutorials, and interactive user manuals, make it easier for customers to quickly find answers and solutions.
Proactive Maintenance Services (Predictive Maintenance): Thanks to IoT, products can be continuously monitored to detect maintenance needs or potential issues early on. These proactive maintenance services extend product lifecycles and minimize downtime.
These are just a few examples of forward-looking after-sales services, highlighting the need for companies to move beyond traditional customer service in order to optimize the customer experience and foster long-term relationships.
Helpful Links:
The Digital Transformation of Aftermarket: Use cases from the automotive industry
HubSpot Report: The State of Customer Service & Customer Experience (CX) in 2024
5 After-Sales Trends Every Business Should Prioritize in 2024
Trend 5: Hyper-Personalization
Personalization has been a key focus across industries for quite some time. Hyper-personalization takes it a step further, and thanks to AI, it's receiving an additional boost: in digital marketing, the individual customer journey is increasingly tailored to the current needs, preferences, and behaviors of each customer. Unlike traditional personalization, which is based on segmentation and simple characteristics like demographic data, hyper-personalization leverages a variety of real-time data sources:
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to analyze user interactions and predict future behavior.
Big data from social media, websites, mobile apps, and email traffic.
Contextual data, such as location, time, or device type, to deliver messages at the optimal time and through the right channel.
This approach aims to provide users with content and offers precisely when and where they need them, improving customer loyalty and conversion rates.
Helpful Links:
Customer Data Platform: How to reach your customers at the right time, in the right place, with the right message
PwC Blog: How hyper-personalization and improved agent experience will impact customer service
DMEXCO Blog: Getting started with hyper-personalization!
Trend 6: New Applications of AI
It's already clear in 2024 that no one can avoid the topic of artificial intelligence—AI also plays a role in areas like after-sales services, data security, and personalization. AI will remain crucial for businesses in 2025 and beyond, as it significantly contributes to automating business processes, optimizing decision-making, and creating competitive advantages. AI enables the analysis of large data sets, the development of new business models, and the delivery of personalized customer experiences, particularly in the following areas:
AI-Powered Automation: AI will be increasingly used to automate complex business processes, including areas like supply chain management, marketing, and customer support.
Generative AI: Models like GPT and DALL-E allow businesses to generate creative content for innovative marketing campaigns, designs, and videos, and even develop products.
Supply Chain Optimization: AI can make supply chains more efficient and improve logistics processes. By predicting demand and delivery times, it helps prevent bottlenecks and reduce costs.
AI for Pricing Strategies: AI can also be used for dynamic pricing by analyzing real-time market data to automatically adjust prices, maximizing profits—this is particularly relevant in e-commerce and for travel providers.
Helpful Links:
AI Solutions for Various Use Cases: Customized applications for your business
Bitkom Report: The German economy accelerates on artificial intelligence
Statista Report: Use of AI models in German companies 2024
Conclusion
In summary, while there are some new trends emerging in digital business for the coming year, we are primarily seeing a strong evolution of already familiar approaches. Companies need to integrate new regulations, such as the Digital Product Passport (DPP) and digital accessibility, as well as strengthen cybersecurity in their strategies. AI will continue to be one of the most important tech topics in 2025, applied in innovative after-sales services, hyper-personalization, and creative as well as strategic processes.
Our experts at diva-e are happy to help you stay up-to-date with your digital initiatives and prepare your processes for the future.
