This year’s SXSW wasn't just the melting pot where film, music and tech meet — it provided a glimpse into the future in which the world is heading. While AI remained a central topic, conversations evolved beyond simply showcasing capabilities, diving deeper into how it's reshaping daily life, redefining user safety and privacy, and fueling the next wave of innovation. Brands leaned into connection, impact, and experience. Here’s a look at the key media highlights and trends that shaped SXSW 2025.
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Society's Biggest Problems
Brand Connections
Evolving Influencer Marketing
Quantum computing, carbon capture, de-extinction and the evolving workforce— all big, complex topics that sparked new ways of thinking provided a glimpse into the future in which we are headed.
SXSW continues to be a valuable opportunity for brands to meet with their customers. This year saw some of the usual suspects who’ve been activating at SXSW for years—alongside a new slate of brands aiming to make a splash with experiential stunts.
Creators were a staple at brand and platform activations, highlighting their integral role within media and marketing strategies, as well as the broader entertainment landscape.
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About Quid
Quid is an AI tool that provides a news article network graph of articles that mention AI. The different clusters represent subtopics that make up the larger conversation. The subtopics are represented by the colored clusters, showing both the volume and the connectivity of the topics.
About Brandwatch
Brandwatch is a digital consumer intelligence and social media listening platform that helps businesses and organizations monitor, analyze, and derive insights from online conversations and social media activity. The platform collects data from various social media platforms, blogs, forums, news sites, and other online sources to give users a comprehensive view of what is being said about their brand, industry, or competitors.
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Day 1 Takeaways from SXSW
Day 1 featured previews and announcements for upcoming projects in Film and TV, with all eyes on Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick at the SXSW premiere of 'Another Simple Favor.'
Additionally, coverage explored AI's impact on social interactions and privacy at SXSW 2025. Concerns include AI companions diminishing real-life interactions and privacy risks, highlighted by Signal's Meredith Whittaker. Also, conversations surrounding startup funding in the Southeast, reflecting technological and macroeconomic uncertainty within the industry.
Day 1 of SXSW was brimming with excitement as attendees buzzed about cutting-edge tech breakthroughs—like small language models and quantum computing—while brands and marketers previewed the future of advertising and innovation. Films also took center stage, with premieres from high-profile creators like Michael Bay and new highlights on projects from Disney, NASA, and more. Amidst all the action, first-timers traded festival survival tips, Austin favorites (tacos included) held court, and everyone geared up for a jam-packed week ahead.
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Source: Brandwatch, March 7th, 2025
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SXSW Mentions
CES 2025 emotion development
Sentiment of the event remained fairly stable throughout, Joy being the main emotion driven from the audience. Most interestingly however, we saw a large increase in audiences showing an angry and ad response during the event – increasing by 321% and 509% respectively - this was seen in posts related to the potential negative impact of AI to society, regulation, and deepfakes.
HOW TO READ: This chart shows the volume of mentions associated with different emotions over the month, compared to the previous month. Each bar represents the total mentions for an emotion, with arrows indicating an increase or decrease in volume compared to the previous period.
Click for CES 2025 Day 1 emotion development >
Event Anticipation
Day 1 of the conference featured media anticipation of the events to fold, with coverage focusing on the sessions and trends they will be monitoring for, notable brand activations, and live-coverage recaps.
Entertainment Premieres
The conference featured splashy TV and film premieres, as well as large companies such as Amazon MGM and Apple TV announcing trailers and plans for releases over the coming year.
AI Sneak Peek
While the AI track is set to kick off on Sunday, the technology had entered the conversation as Signal President Meredith Whittaker presented a keynote on the privacy implications of agentic AI.
There’s a profound issue with security and privacy that is haunting this hype around [AI agents], and that is ultimately threatening to break the blood-brain barrier between the application layer and the OS layer by conjoining all of these separate services [and] muddying their data.
Meredith Whittaker – Signal
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Day 2 featured appearances from political figures including Elizabeth Warren during a live taping of the podcast On With Kara Swisher, as well as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice-presidential nominee, who had some thoughts about how last year’s election played out for his party: Democrats did not take enough risks, didn’t engage enough with undecided voters, were too cautious with the press and didn’t produce a message that resonated with voters.
Additionally, splashy trailers including The Last of Us, Accountant 2, and Michael Bay's parkour thriller, We Are Storer, generated buzz. Notably, alongside Disney’s generated news for its theme park expansion, with a surprise visit from Robert Downey Jr., to share Avengers Campus updates and a sneak peek at new rides.
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About Quid
Quid is an AI tool that provides a news article network graph of articles that mention AI. The different clusters represent subtopics that make up the larger conversation. The subtopics are represented by the colored clusters, showing both the volume and the connectivity of the topics.
Day 2 of SXSW brought major buzz around Disney’s theme park expansions, with Robert Downey Jr. surprising fans to share Avengers Campus updates and a sneak peek at new ride systems—like the Cars off-road attraction and Monsters, Inc. vertical-lift coaster. Star Wars fans celebrated news that The Mandalorian and Grogu would be joining Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run in 2026, while film premieres (including Another Simple Favor) kept the spotlight on big-name talent like Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick. Across Austin, the festival crowd balanced futuristic tech demos with Hollywood glitz, underscoring SXSW’s mix of innovation and entertainment.
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Source: Brandwatch, March 8th, 2025
SXSW Mentions
Click for CES 2025 Day 1 emotion development >
CES 2025 emotion development
Sentiment of the event remained fairly stable throughout, Joy being the main emotion driven from the audience. Most interestingly however, we saw a large increase in audiences showing an angry and ad response during the event – increasing by 321% and 509% respectively - this was seen in posts related to the potential negative impact of AI to society, regulation, and deepfakes.
HOW TO READ: This chart shows the volume of mentions associated with different emotions over the month, compared to the previous month. Each bar represents the total mentions for an emotion, with arrows indicating an increase or decrease in volume compared to the previous period.
i
Learn more about
Brandwatch>
About Brandwatch
Brandwatch is a digital consumer intelligence and social media listening platform that helps businesses and organizations monitor, analyze, and derive insights from online conversations and social media activity. The platform collects data from various social media platforms, blogs, forums, news sites, and other online sources to give users a comprehensive view of what is being said about their brand, industry, or competitors.
Technology is going to allow us to serve consumers where they are and bring the Disney brand to consumers that may not be familiar with us, and create that generational effect.
Josh D'Amaro — Disney
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Day 2 Takeaways from SXSW
Political Insights
Discussions at SXSW covered tariffs' effects on travel, podcast industry growth, and child wellbeing. Conversations also explored Democratic campaign tactics and tech CEOs' influence in politics, with insights from political figures like Tim Walz and Elizabeth Warren.
Disney
Disney film studios held a keynote highlighting how it develops the characters and franchises and turns them into real tangible experiences, building the emotional connection toward Disney that helps define the company.
SXSW Activations
Conversations highlighted brand activations that transformed Austin into a living, breathing playground for customers to interact with brands to not just observe, but to participate.
Day 3 featured conversations around key societal issues including business' role in abortion access, a panel with McCann highlighting macroeconomic uncertainty and its impact on the American Dream, as well as Colassal Biosciences CEO outlining the ethics surrounding society's role in de-extinction efforts.
Additionally, the event featured large brand activations such as Whataburger opening its doors to a museum of art, potential TikTok buyers Bluesky, the Onion, and Project Liberty throwing its “Good Party for Bad Times" party.
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About Quid
Quid is an AI tool that provides a news article network graph of articles that mention AI. The different clusters represent subtopics that make up the larger conversation. The subtopics are represented by the colored clusters, showing both the volume and the connectivity of the topics.
Day 3 of SXSW centered on Hideo Kojima’s “Death Stranding 2” panel, unveiling a June 26, 2025 release date and a collectible edition that had gamers abuzz. Meanwhile, the UFO documentary “The Age of Disclosure” sparked debate among festival-goers, and star appearances (including Jenna Ortega, Lili Reinhart, and more) continued to dazzle on the red carpet.
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Source: Brandwatch, March 9th, 2025
SXSW Mentions
Click for CES 2025 Day 1 emotion development >
CES 2025 emotion development
Sentiment of the event remained fairly stable throughout, Joy being the main emotion driven from the audience. Most interestingly however, we saw a large increase in audiences showing an angry and ad response during the event – increasing by 321% and 509% respectively - this was seen in posts related to the potential negative impact of AI to society, regulation, and deepfakes.
HOW TO READ: This chart shows the volume of mentions associated with different emotions over the month, compared to the previous month. Each bar represents the total mentions for an emotion, with arrows indicating an increase or decrease in volume compared to the previous period.
i
Learn more about
Brandwatch>
About Brandwatch
Brandwatch is a digital consumer intelligence and social media listening platform that helps businesses and organizations monitor, analyze, and derive insights from online conversations and social media activity. The platform collects data from various social media platforms, blogs, forums, news sites, and other online sources to give users a comprehensive view of what is being said about their brand, industry, or competitors.
I think that we have a moral obligation and an ethical obligation to pursue technologies [that] undo some of the things that we [as a species] have done.
Ben Lamm — Colossal
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Day 3 Takeaways from SXSW
Ethics of De-extinction
A panel featuring Ben Lamm, CEO of Colossal Biosciences, a startup aiming to use gene-editing techniques to bring back extinct species, weighed society's responsibility in re-introducing previously extinct animals into the world.
Reproductive Rights
A panel featuring Chelsea Clinton and Bumble CEO Elizabeth Monteleone discuss how access to reproductive care extends beyond a social issue and is a business or workplace issue.
Brand Activations
Alaska Airlines unveiling the lobby of the future and burger chain Whataburger opening its doors to a museum of art were among many splashy activations for brands to interact and engage with customers.
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Day 4 featured conversations surrounding data privacy and management in the age of AI, including the CEO of Bluesky discussing a framework that provides users more control over how their data is used in training AI models, and a panel focusing on the role, benefits and risks of synthetic data in powering generative AI.
Additionally, day 4 featured the announcement of winners for the 17th annual SXSW pitch, which featured 9 startup categories and special awards including "Best Bootstrap Company" and "Best Speed Pitch."
Additionally, political momentum continued as conversations surrounding political uncertainty and its impact across industries, Michelle Obama announcing the launch of a new podcast with her brother, Craig Robinson.
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About Quid
Quid is an AI tool that provides a news article network graph of articles that mention AI. The different clusters represent subtopics that make up the larger conversation. The subtopics are represented by the colored clusters, showing both the volume and the connectivity of the topics.
Day 4 at SXSW celebrated the “Forever We Are Young” BTS documentary premiere, shining a light on the global ARMY phenomenon while Michelle Obama announced a new podcast with her brother. Meanwhile, Kojima’s “Death Stranding 2” continued to excite fans (with Woodkid’s newly released “TO THE WILDER”) and drew comparisons to the iconic “Metal Gear Solid.”
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Source: Brandwatch, March 10th, 2025
SXSW Mentions
Click for CES 2025 Day 1 emotion development >
CES 2025 emotion development
Sentiment of the event remained fairly stable throughout, Joy being the main emotion driven from the audience. Most interestingly however, we saw a large increase in audiences showing an angry and ad response during the event – increasing by 321% and 509% respectively - this was seen in posts related to the potential negative impact of AI to society, regulation, and deepfakes.
HOW TO READ: This chart shows the volume of mentions associated with different emotions over the month, compared to the previous month. Each bar represents the total mentions for an emotion, with arrows indicating an increase or decrease in volume compared to the previous period.
i
Learn more about
Brandwatch>
About Brandwatch
Brandwatch is a digital consumer intelligence and social media listening platform that helps businesses and organizations monitor, analyze, and derive insights from online conversations and social media activity. The platform collects data from various social media platforms, blogs, forums, news sites, and other online sources to give users a comprehensive view of what is being said about their brand, industry, or competitors.
This framework will allow users to decide how much of their content they want to be used to train AI. We trust that choice... The framework we're developing is similar to how websites can indicate to search engines whether they want to be scraped.
Jay Graeber — Bluesky
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Day 4 Takeaways from SXSW
Data and AI
Conversations centered around data privacy and management in the age of AI, user control and the role, benefits and risks surrounding synthetic data in powering generative AI.
Startup Awards
Startups powering the future of technology were highlighted with 9 winners being announced across a variety of categories with the annual SXSW pitch.
Product Releases
Day 4 featured announcements from brands such as Bluesky, Unilever, and JBL announcing product launches at the event, and how AI is baked into it all.
Day 5 included latest innovations in breakthrough technology including IBM predicting breakthroughs from AI working in conjunction with quantum computing in 3-5 years. Innovations in sustainability and plastic recycling were in focus, alongside Mark Cuban discussing AI's privacy concerns and business benefits. Additionally, Waymo announced expansion of its robotaxi services into new markets.
Additionally, the event featured more splashy trailers including an appearance of Matthew Mcconaughey in “The Rivals of Amziah King," and Kate Mara's triple premiere with 'The Astronaut,' 'The Dutchman' and 'Friendship.'
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About Quid
Quid is an AI tool that provides a news article network graph of articles that mention AI. The different clusters represent subtopics that make up the larger conversation. The subtopics are represented by the colored clusters, showing both the volume and the connectivity of the topics.
SXSW Day 5 featured star-studded highlights from the iHeartPodcast Awards—which honored Sarah Spain, Mel Robbins, and Planet Money—alongside a surprise cameo by Robert Downey Jr. at Disney’s panel. Meanwhile, a controversial land acknowledgment “rewrite” by tech investor Joe Lonsdale stirred heated debate.
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Source: Brandwatch, March 11th, 2025
SXSW Mentions
Click for CES 2025 Day 1 emotion development >
CES 2025 emotion development
Sentiment of the event remained fairly stable throughout, Joy being the main emotion driven from the audience. Most interestingly however, we saw a large increase in audiences showing an angry and ad response during the event – increasing by 321% and 509% respectively - this was seen in posts related to the potential negative impact of AI to society, regulation, and deepfakes.
HOW TO READ: This chart shows the volume of mentions associated with different emotions over the month, compared to the previous month. Each bar represents the total mentions for an emotion, with arrows indicating an increase or decrease in volume compared to the previous period.
i
Learn more about
Brandwatch>
About Brandwatch
Brandwatch is a digital consumer intelligence and social media listening platform that helps businesses and organizations monitor, analyze, and derive insights from online conversations and social media activity. The platform collects data from various social media platforms, blogs, forums, news sites, and other online sources to give users a comprehensive view of what is being said about their brand, industry, or competitors.
AI isn’t about replacing culture... It’s about enhancing it, giving people AI that speaks to them in a way that feels natural.
Will.I.Am
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Day 5 Takeaways from SXSW
AI, AI, AI
AI was the center of conversations, with key conversations focusing around its impact on radio, movie creation and its impact on quantum computing.
Future Cities
Autodesk CMO Dara Treseder and San Jose mayor Matt Mahan discussed how governments can use technology to build the future of smart, thriving, sustainable cities.
Defense in Focus
Despite being the first year since SXSW ended sponsorships from the U.S. Army and weapons makers, defense tech still was present, more than 100 panels spread across 18 venues handling defense and space, with the vast majority having nothing to do with SXSW except timing.
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Day 6 included latest innovations in breakthrough technology , with a key session including Google's COO of Google Quantum AI emphasizing the need for government investment in quantum computing as well as the broader potential for the technology, the types of problems it could solve, and other mysteries and misunderstandings.
Additionally, coverage continued to amplify earlier conversations from the event, particularly Mark Cuban, highlighting his view that if he were Gen Z starting over, he would learn everything about AI in order to stay ahead of the game and unlock new business opportunities.
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About Quid
Quid is an AI tool that provides a news article network graph of articles that mention AI. The different clusters represent subtopics that make up the larger conversation. The subtopics are represented by the colored clusters, showing both the volume and the connectivity of the topics.
Day 6 at SXSW 2025 brought a splash of horror and star power, with A24’s blood-soaked Death of a Unicorn premiere and Eiza González leading the cosmic thriller ASH. Documentaries like Forever We Are Young and The Age of Disclosure continued to spark discussions, while panels on AI, quantum computing, and creative innovation kept the festival’s momentum rolling.
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Source: Brandwatch, March 12th, 2025
SXSW Mentions
Click for CES 2025 Day 1 emotion development >
CES 2025 emotion development
Sentiment of the event remained fairly stable throughout, Joy being the main emotion driven from the audience. Most interestingly however, we saw a large increase in audiences showing an angry and ad response during the event – increasing by 321% and 509% respectively - this was seen in posts related to the potential negative impact of AI to society, regulation, and deepfakes.
HOW TO READ: This chart shows the volume of mentions associated with different emotions over the month, compared to the previous month. Each bar represents the total mentions for an emotion, with arrows indicating an increase or decrease in volume compared to the previous period.
i
Learn more about
Brandwatch>
About Brandwatch
Brandwatch is a digital consumer intelligence and social media listening platform that helps businesses and organizations monitor, analyze, and derive insights from online conversations and social media activity. The platform collects data from various social media platforms, blogs, forums, news sites, and other online sources to give users a comprehensive view of what is being said about their brand, industry, or competitors.
[U.S. government investment] is what has given rise even to a lot of the advances we have in quantum computing today — it’s all based on basic science … No one company is going to do this on their own. No one team can do it on their own. You’ve got to have a whole community of researchers. And government investment in this is critical.
Charina Chou — Google
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Day 6 Takeaways from SXSW
AI Thought Leaders
Coverage continued to highlight previous sessions such as IBM's CEO Arvind Krishna highlighting AI supercharging quantum computing, Signal's CEO Meredeth Whittaker highlighting the privacy implications of AI, and AI's impact on the future of the workplace.
Sector Digitalization
Local media from publications such as Axios captured conversations surrounding technology's impact on industries such as housing development and personalization within retail.
AI Sneak Peek
Conversations highlighted large players including MGM committing to foster growth for the theater industry, and how the big screen plays a role in wider strategy once films hit streaming platforms.
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As the tech portion of the event came to a close, conversations reflected on key moments from earlier in the event, with tech media publishing event recaps of the wider themes of the event, including cross-industry AI trends for the year, top brand activations and other surrounding events.
Key sessions included conversations around how companies, brands and the medical community can bridge the growing communication gap between tech, science and the public during an era of information overload and viral misinformation.
Additionally, conversations shifted to planning for next year, in which the format will change featuring a trimmed-down schedule that is two days shorter, along with plans to spread the festival out across town as the Austin Convention Center undergoes renovations over the next four years.
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About Quid
Quid is an AI tool that provides a news article network graph of articles that mention AI. The different clusters represent subtopics that make up the larger conversation. The subtopics are represented by the colored clusters, showing both the volume and the connectivity of the topics.
SXSW wrapped up with a mix of major music, film, and tech moments, including live performances from artists like PSYCHIC FEVER, Megan Moroney, and Jack’s Mannequin. AI, hiring trends, and sustainability took center stage in panels, while high-profile guests like Michelle Obama and Hideo Kojima drew massive crowds.
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Source: Brandwatch, March 12th, 2025
SXSW Mentions
Click for CES 2025 Day 1 emotion development >
CES 2025 emotion development
Sentiment of the event remained fairly stable throughout, Joy being the main emotion driven from the audience. Most interestingly however, we saw a large increase in audiences showing an angry and ad response during the event – increasing by 321% and 509% respectively - this was seen in posts related to the potential negative impact of AI to society, regulation, and deepfakes.
HOW TO READ: This chart shows the volume of mentions associated with different emotions over the month, compared to the previous month. Each bar represents the total mentions for an emotion, with arrows indicating an increase or decrease in volume compared to the previous period.
i
Learn more about
Brandwatch>
About Brandwatch
Brandwatch is a digital consumer intelligence and social media listening platform that helps businesses and organizations monitor, analyze, and derive insights from online conversations and social media activity. The platform collects data from various social media platforms, blogs, forums, news sites, and other online sources to give users a comprehensive view of what is being said about their brand, industry, or competitors.
If we build the right data and AI models, we can better understand specifically what is making us healthy and what is making us sick... Health and medicine, it moves in leaps. There are decades when research gets stuck, and then someone invents a new technology that completely changes how we see the human body.
Dr. Priscilla Chan — Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
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Day 7-9 Takeaways from SXSW
Access to Healthy Food
Kernel CEO Bryan Johnson held a keynote highlighting his goal to test food and create a public database where people can donate money to have certain foods and brands tested for toxins such as heavy metals or microplastics.
Event Recap
Tech media began publishing event recaps of the wider themes of the event, including cross-industry AI trends for the year, top brand activations and other surrounding events.
A Sweet Farewell
As the event closed out, attendees reflect on the changes coming in the future, including, less music, less days and a new venue as the Austin Convention Center will be closed for renovations over the next 4 years.
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Speculative Adoption
While agentic AI continues to generate hype, many brands are cautious that incorporating AI systems into the workplace will introduce errors in internal processes, negatively impacting employees, clients, and business goals.
Impact on the Workforce
The rise of AI has stoked alarm as a potential force that would make humans replaceable. However, leaders agreed that it will actually provide new opportunities and skills to emerge that supercharge workflows.
Focus on Quantum
Quantum computing has immense potential to solve complex problems that AI and supercomputers can't solve, and leaders highlighted its true potential once married with AI.
Top AI Takeaways from SXSW 2025
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