Are you ready to supercharge your engagement strategies and inspire your team, customers, or partners?

In today’s ever-evolving workplace, staying ahead of technological transformations and societal shifts is crucial for success. At BI WORLDWIDE, we’re passionate about helping organisations tackle their biggest challenges by driving positive behaviour change and engagement.

Our latest trend reports are packed with insights from our experts, offering trends, tips, and takeaways for 2025. In this article, we spotlight three exciting topics that are set to shape the future of incentives, recognition, rewards, and live events:

· Artificial Intelligence – Discover how to harness the power of AI to revolutionise recognition, incentives, and live events.
· Sustainability – Find out how to drive your strategic business objectives by incorporating sustainability into your reward and recognition strategies to boost success and reduce environmental footprint.
· Wellbeing – Learn how to leverage incentive and recognition programmes, events, and incentive trips to engage employees and partners, foster belonging, and improve wellbeing across your organisation and its wider ecosystem.

Artificial Intelligence

Have you gone a week in the last 12 months without hearing the word AI? Neither have we – and with good reason.

Sharyn Leaver, Chief Research Officer at Forrester, says, “The year ahead will be pivotal in positioning your company to win in a future increasingly shaped by AI.” Without a doubt, AI is here to stay.

The challenge is that AI capabilities are evolving rapidly, and it’s up to us to keep pace. The good news? The possibilities seem limitless.

In live events, AI robotics combined with facial recognition software can provide real-time feedback on audience engagement, enhancing content effectiveness and boosting attendee responsiveness. AI is also streamlining processes, reducing costs, and improving participant experiences through consistent voiceovers.

Incentives and recognition benefit from balancing AI integration with authenticity to foster a positive work environment. McKinsey predicts generative AI will boost labour productivity by 0.1% to 0.6% annually through 2040. BI WORLDWIDE’s New Rules of Engagement research indicates that frequent AI tool usage correlates with greater employee comfort.

Enhancing recognition programmes with AI can include:

• Supporting employees with digital assistants· Alerting managers to optimal recognition times.
• Recommending awards based on achievements.
• Detecting tone, sentiment, and unconscious bias.

AI is also optimising channel sales incentive strategies by improving incentive prediction modelling, target recommendations, and ongoing optimisations – increasing engagement and motivation. Forrester’s B2B Predictions 2025 report emphasises the importance of a long-term AI strategy.

Prioritising data security and the protection of PII and IP is essential while expanding AI capabilities to help organisations achieve their business goals.

Sustainability

Sustainability ranks highly on most companies’ agendas. Supporting sustainable initiatives or causes valued by both your organisation and employees/partners yields benefits that extend far beyond the strategic objective itself. It’s no longer just a trend but a critical component of modern business strategy.

In 2024, there was a noticeable increase in the use of employee engagement programmes to support Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) initiatives.

Examples include:

• Recognising and rewarding sustainable behaviours such as energy saving and recycling
• Providing employees and partners with the option to donate rewards to green causes
• Offering catalogues of sustainable products delivered by local fulfilment teams

Success story: One of our global banking clients launched a recognition initiative across 57 countries to spotlight behaviours supporting nine specific ESG objectives. Over 200,000 personal recognitions were made in just two months, accelerating their ESG communication strategy by nearly 18 months.

Incentive and reward programmes can also meet industry-specific sustainable goals. For example, in the high-tech sector, we identified a new incentive model that recognises sustainability behaviours throughout the product lifecycle – from initial purchase through reuse – driving collaboration and directing funds across the ecosystem.

Wellbeing

The importance of employee wellbeing has never been more critical. Organisations are adopting holistic approaches to mental health and wellness, focusing on creating workplaces that address personal as well as professional needs to foster belonging and maximise engagement.

For 2025, hyper personalisation will be the golden thread in incentive and reward strategies – critical to enhancing wellbeing and performance for employees and channel partners.

Research shows younger generations, especially Gen Z, are more motivated when they feel valued. Hillary Hoffower notes that 42% of Gen Z care more about company values and purpose than salary levels.

With a diverse, global workforce, personalisation at scale is challenging – but achievable with:

• Insight-led and data-driven programme design
• Reward choice flexibility
• Personalised objectives and communications

Strategies to support wellbeing in 2025:

• Equip leaders with tools to personalise notes of gratitude and celebration
• Embrace diverse needs and preferences across generations
• Prioritise connection with deskless and remote workers
• Align rewards with evolving workforce values
• Design events and trips so all attendees feel comfortable, valued, and included

About BI WORLDWIDE

With its EMEA head office in the UK, BI WORLDWIDE helps organisations solve critical business challenges by driving positive behaviour change and engagement.

We apply our expertise in behavioural economics to deliver recognition, rewards, incentives, and live event solutions. Our full-service portfolio offers clients a unique blend of consulting and proprietary technology – from programme design to implementation.

Working with over 2,000 organisations across 183 countries, BI WORLDWIDE has been inspiring people, partners, and customers since 1950.