Speak Masterfully Word of the Year 2025

Want to hear something that might make you mad? 

Oxford recently came out with its word of the year, and that word is… (DRUMROLL):

RAGE BAIT (n)
online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media 

(Honestly, feels like a solid pick for 2025.)

I LOVE the word of the year tradition. As a lifelong word nerd, I think it’s such an incisive reflection prompt.

Think about it.

What would your personal word of the year be for 2025?

If you had to boil this whole year down to one word or phrase, what would you choose?

Look, I love a five-page journaling exercise as much as the next gal, but I do think there is something super clarifying about forcing yourself to narrow the focus this dramatically.

I do this for Speak Masterfully every year. I narrow down what word or phrase came up again and again in my coaching sessions.

Sometimes, it’s easy. Here are a few from recent memory… 

Speak Masterfully “Word of the Year” Archive

2020-“Zoom” 

There was a sudden and urgent need to learn how to present virtually: how to make eye contact, how to share a screen, what to do if your dog starts scratching at the office door in the middle of your big pitch.

2021-“Zoom Fatigue” 

A close cousin of last year’s winner. The main questions this year were, “How do I keep people engaged?” “How do I get the audience to turn on their cameras so I’m not presenting into the void??”

2022-"RTO" (Return-to-Office)

This was the year the pendulum began swinging back. As many people resumed in-person activities, it became painfully clear how much in-person communication skills had atrophied during lockdown.

Eye contact felt weirdly foreign.

Seasoned presenters suddenly found themselves feeling anxious about presenting without their notes on the screen.

Junior team members who had been hired during lockdown realized they didn’t know how to project their voices to the back of a conference room.

The lesson of 2022 was pretty clear:

When it comes to communication skills: Use it, or lose it.

And it’s with this lesson in mind that I’d like us to flash forward to 2025.

Because I have a feeling many of us are about to learn that lesson again the hard way.

What is the Speak Masterfully word of the year this year, and what does that portend for 2026?

My undisputed champion for this year is: 

2025: Artificial Intelligence

I know, I know. You’re probably sick of talking about it. (Frankly, I am too, but that’s what makes it the word of the year.)

I cannot think of a term that has had a bigger impact on the landscape of public speaking in 2025.

Many of the impacts are immediately visible.

I know plenty of speakers who use AI as a tool to create slide decks, polish outlines, brainstorm talk titles, generate interview questions, and a million other tasks.

(I have complicated feelings about many of those applications—but that’s a blog for another day.)

I’m actually more interested in looking at the invisible ways AI has affected the public speaking landscape.

Because throughout the year, I’ve been noticing an interesting shift in the individuals and companies hiring me…

This year, I’ve had a large uptick in clients wanting to work on delivery and improvisation skills.

In past years, my workshops on storytelling and elevator pitches have been my bread and butter.

This year, I’ve had far more interest in my workshops on improv and presentation skills.

It’s pretty clear why there would be an extra focus on delivery in the AI age.

I always say that public speaking is both "what to say" and "how to say it." You might be able to outsource the writing of your presentation to ChatGPT, but it’s not going to stand up in front of the conference room to deliver it for you.

The reason behind the increased interest in improv skills is perhaps not as clear, but I do have a theory:

Improvisation feels human.

When I ask you a question that you weren’t expecting, and you breathe, listen, process, and respond, your answer may be imperfect—but it will also be genuine.

The Q&A portion after your presentation is the one part of the presentation that I, as the audience member, know for certain was not written by a chatbot.

In 2025, those human moments matter more than ever.

What will 2026 have in store for us? I couldn’t possibly say!

But I do have a couple pieces of advice based on the trends I’m currently seeing:

The Opportunity: Double down on the uniquely human parts of communication.
(Specifically: improvisation, body language, and vocal delivery.)

The Pitfall: Don’t outsource your creativity to ChatGPT.

Remember that lesson we all learned about in-person communication skills in 2022?

Use it, or lose it.

The same is true for creativity.

AI tools exist that can assist you with the “what to say” part of the public speaking equation. But I’d strongly urge you not to make that your first stop. Don’t let those storytelling muscles atrophy.

Making predictions about the future is a fool’s errand, but I will just say… pendulums do have a way of swinging back.