2025 SXSW Interactive Roundup: Finding a Session Not About AI

You’d think having attended the annual SXSW Interactive for the better part of a decade would lead to a fool-proof strategy for maximising your time at the conference. How to find hidden gem sessions amongst seemingly endless options. Tracking down the best parties. Finally taking your own advice and going to Barton Springs one afternoon instead of tuning out your sixth session of the day.

But the one thing I’ve learned from many SXSWs is that it’s never going to be perfect. In fact, far from it. There will be sessions you don’t get into. Severance mugs given out at the end of the session you left five minutes early. Benson Boone will play a set without you realising. And after taking it all in, you won’t be convinced you got all that much out of it.

But then, like a film you weren’t sure you enjoyed, you’ll dwell on those little disparate pieces of info you gleaned, happy hour conversations and chatter in line behind you, and they’ll impossibly begin converging into meaningful takeaways. In that spirit, here are some of those nuggets from this year’s conference.

Work BFFs boost productivity

Those who regularly get hugs are far less likely to get sick when exposed to the cold virus, yet 20% of adults say they don’t have anyone they can count on for regular support. When looking at a photo of a loved one, people reported less pain when being electrocuted. (Also, who is volunteering for these studies!?) Having a best friend at work quantifiably boosts productively. Kasley Killam, in her opening session with Amy Gallo, discussed how Social Health is 10-15 years behind Mental Health in being the next multi-billion dollar industry, and an area of well-being we aren’t nearly focused on enough.

FOMO has become FOMA

There was the typical Saturday morning pilgrimage to see futurist Amy Webb and the unveiling of her annual Emerging Tech Trends Report. She whips the crowd into a frenzy (“Where are my Brazilians at?!”), captivates with stories of computers made from lab-grown human brain cells, and coins new acronyms with reckless abandon. Including ‘FOMA’ (Fear of Missing Anything), which she says is because (in the words of Lenin), "There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen." And we are in the exhausting weeks where decades happen, and the pace at which technology, politics, the world is changing is making it impossible to even blink. DeepSeek changed everything we thought we knew for what’s needed to develop a Large Language Model. And then Stanford’s S1 did it again only days later. “What’s bleeding edge today, might be old news… later today.”

Can we look past agentic AI?

It’s fitting to continue on the topic of AI since it seemed to move from a track to a tentpole at this year’s conference. During SXSW 2023 GPT-4.0 was released and set off an AI arms race. Now, just two years later, AI no longer feels like one topic amongst many being discussed. It’s the singular topic that permeates everything else. Whether it’s a session about space exploration, artistic expression, energy, smart cities, or psychedelics – it’s all about AI. Many speakers contended that agentic AI as the most public-facing aspect of this AI revolution is merely a sideshow for how AI will really be impacting our lives, and potentially solve the toughest environmental, health, and socioeconomic issues of our time.

New is Done

My fun panel pick of the week featured Liquid Death CMO Dan Murphy, Meow Wolf co-founder Benji Geary, and Aaron Tichenor (aka Boyabaddie), talking about how nonsense is the only way to break through. That we’re over-saturated with new, and it’s the juxtaposition of things that don’t belong together really standing out. Murphy claimed the days of being mildly memorable are over – the biggest risk to a brand is being boring. Drawing inspiration from the Dada movement, the panel concluded that people are paralysed by being forced to choose between the expected options, and seek out the 'third' anti-establishment choice. That the white space exists in the absurd.

Are you caught up?

As in, have you seen the latest episode of Severace? SXSW continues to be the place where the hottest media franchises launch new seasons, generate buzz through elaborate activations, and host some of the most coveted panels, courtesy of the stars they bring along. Apple VP of Services Eddy Cue and Severance's Ben Stiller teased the crowd with unreleased snippets of an upcoming episode. Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. surprised the audience of Disney’s session on the collaboration between Imagineers and show creators to bring real-life experiences to theme parks. And the cast and creators of HBO’s THE LAST OF US talked about their upcoming second season, sparking a frenzy of Pedro Pascal sightings around town.

Picking just five is nearly impossible, so here’s some honourable mentions: All things robotics, including GALBOT the pharmacist, wearables for neurons, a Google DeepMind-enabled shoe-tying robot. AI + healthcare, biology, and…literally everything. AI accurately recreating what people are looking at from their brain scans. Blackrock Neurotech’s brain implant enabling a man with paralysis to fly a virtual drone. Small Language Models and increasingly effective ML with far less training data (aka lower cost/energy). Deregulation, and if it helps or hurts industry. Elon Musk-bashing. And to wrap up on a Walt Disney quote from one session, “I resent the limits of my own imagination.”

See you next year…maybe at Barton Springs.