2025: The Year of Critical Thinking

I love the New Year’s eve tradition I learned in Switzerland, to open all the doors and windows at midnight to clear out the old and start fresh. I think it is also important to reflect on the previous year and decide what to let go of and what to carry forward into the new year. While the past can inform the future, I always want to be open to thinking differently and questioning what I think that I know. 

2024 was defined by two major trends for me:

1.  The politicalization of ESG, DEI, and the rest of the alphabet soup 
2. The proliferation of AI tools for us mere mortals 

The acronyms of DEI and ESG entered the common vernacular and have become lightning rods in political rhetoric. These are complex issues that need to be thought of in the context of the business imperative and purpose. A score is the dumbing down of the information when really we need the opposite, a smartening up of how to use this information to make your business more resilient and more profitable. 

The explosion of AI tools requires every company, big or small to consider what tools could enhance their work. They exist and can, but not without guardrails. To be successful first it is imperative to question the purpose, accuracy and safe integration into existing processes. 

AI tools can help in almost every aspect of businesses but not without flaws. They get you 90% of the way there in a lot of tasks, but success will be found in the last 10%. That will require upskilled employees working with tools, not being replaced with them, catching errors and bias, imbuing the company perspective, protecting trade secrets and privacy. 

I don’t typically make predictions because we never know what is to come. For this coming year, I anticipate that there will be a separation between entities and people that can integrate new information and skills. Keeping the big picture in mind and questioning why we are doing things will help us keep our eyes on the prize. 

At Tablecloth, we aim to collect data and turn it into information so our clients can take action to better their businesses. Data collection is getting easier every day, but making sense of that data and ensuring we are interpreting it accurately is critically important. Every business is different so implementing changes needs to be customized. 

The upcoming year will be filled with lots of change, so as my Grandmother used to say, “Let’s all keep our wits about us!”