5 Takeaways from SXSW 2025

The South by Southwest (SXSW) conference combines technology, culture, education, and more to create a unique 8-day event where countries, corporations, and creators join together to discuss what’s new and next. SXSW blurs the lines between “enterprise” and “entrepreneur,” creating an exhibition hall and conference program that is as multidisciplinary as it gets (more on that and Deloitte’s contribution to it at the end of this newsletter)!

From our team’s presence at the 2025 conference, here are 5 takeaways to give you a sense of the exciting intersections and conversations only possible at SXSW.

Your next buzzword-du-jour: Physical AI

Similar to last year at SXSW, AI was a nearly ubiquitous theme—if you merely swap out the phrase “generative AI” for “agentic AI.” But in the 2050 Track of the conference, dedicated to futurism, a new type of AI was already center stage. Physical AI, or put another way, robotics, was the subject of many discussions and keynotes.

While robotics is not quite at its smartphone moment that will unleash consumer applications, several universities and corporations are building toward that future. Researchers at UT Austin and MIT, for instance, are studying the possibilities of long-term human-robot interaction, and aiming to combine (thus far) disparate developments in robot mechanics and social skills. They mentioned that a challenge has been set, as happened with games like chess and Go, for robots to compete against a World Cup soccer team by 2050. But if this year’s SXSW is any indication, the ideas we assign to the 2050 Track increasingly feel like goals we could reach by 2030.

In fact, autonomous vehicles (a major form of Physical AI) are already on display in the city of Austin and were a major feature of this year’s conference. Similarly, major tech companies and startups alike showcased their current progress in other fields. Diligent Robotics, for example, spoke about its semi-humanoid Moxi robot that saves significant time for nurses and doctors by ferrying medicines and prescriptions throughout hospitals. SXSW also featured Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, in a Physical AI panel. Given his experience, he acknowledged that paradigm shifts are hard and often require common committees for governance and visioning, as happened with the creation of the internet. He asked a crucial question: Who does the robot ultimately work for? And argued that both robots and AI should serve consumers instead of their creators.

Advertising product over (and potentially at expense of) brand

Pila, a company selling sleek coffee-table-book-sized-batteries in an effort to bring energy independence to residential homes, claimed that their product would work even if their company ceased to exist tomorrow. In the same vein, Jay Graber, CEO of the social media network Bluesky, spoke with a similar dissociation from brand. The platform, now 30 million users strong, is decentralized and open-source. Jay praised this setup as a means of giving power to the user to take their followers elsewhere if the platform ceased to meet their needs. Both of these examples pointed to a tech industry that’s tiring of silos and eager to open-source innovation and collaboration, akin to the remarks of Sir Tim Berners-Lee above.

AI is the new UI

In a main stage keynote titled “AI is the new UI,” a major chip manufacturer shared the increasingly common viewpoint that “our interaction with technology is shifting from an app-centric model to a human-centric experience — where AI understands our language and context to transform every device into an intuitive assistant.” These few words echoed the sentiment across SXSW, as technologists extolled agentic AI as the future of human computer interaction. The keynote also featured the musician and entrepreneur Will.i.am, who spoke about new developments in making AI more accessible and multicultural. His hyper-personalized and query-able tech is soon to be embedded in car entertainment systems through the new FYI RAiDiO app.

A calm before the storm for the expo floor

Compared to prior years, our team noticed that SXSW’s expo floor was less busy with exhibitors and attendees. We suspect that this is a result of the current startup market. With more money directed towards AI, which is harder to demo at a live booth compared to prior years’ metaverse technologies, there was less to display at the expo. Of course, that didn’t stop our team from seeking out whatever we could try:

On the other hand, the “spatial mouse” demoed by Haply Robotics at the SXSW expo floor also showed the accelerating potential of Physical AI. The pen-like contraption boasted intuitive 3D interaction and real-time force feedback, allowing users to physically feel and manipulate virtual objects. Using only motion from the spatial mouse, with no visible code or computer vision, a robot arm in Haply’s booth was programmed by a human user to move a ball around a workspace in less than a minute. The barrier to entry for automation has officially been lowered. We expect to see an expo full of such technologies in the years to come.

Breadth is the new Depth

Deloitte Consulting’s own Chief Futurist Mike Bechtel presented to over 1,000 attendees in a much-anticipated third keynote. Watch the talk here!

Mike’s talk, “Breadth is the New Depth: Why the Future Favors Learn-It-Alls Over Know-it-Alls,” was both an acknowledgement of shifting talent needs as AI begins to automate admin level tasks, and a call to action for executives to cross-train themselves and their staff to “build a broader base” from which intersectional opportunities will present themselves. It couldn’t have been more appropriate for the interdisciplinary nature of a conference like SXSW.

It’s worth noting that, upon the conclusion of SXSW ‘25, the conference announced it will be reducing the length of SXSW ’26 by 2 days, due in part to its inability to use the Austin Convention Center during its remodel, as well as declining attendance during the music festival portion of the conference. This likely indicates a further emphasis on tech & business being the beating heart of the event. With any luck, our futurists will be back next year to report on all the developments at the forefront and the background of emerging tech.

Until next time,

-Abhijith Ravinutala, Manager and Substack Editor, Deloitte Consulting LLP

-Hillary Umphrey, Consultant, Deloitte Consulting LLP