What to Know About Publicis Sapient’s Guide to Next: 10 Key Facts for Industry Leaders
Publicis Sapient’s Guide to Next is an annual research and insights series for business leaders navigating digital business transformation. The series combines industry trend forecasts, research findings and practical planning guidance to help organizations prioritize the highest-impact initiatives for the year ahead.
1. Guide to Next is an annual report series built for strategic decision-making
Guide to Next is designed to help business leaders understand what matters most from one year to the next. Publicis Sapient positions it as a forecast to the highest-impact initiatives rather than a general trends roundup. The stated aim is to help leaders focus time and attention where it matters most for digital business transformation.
2. The series is based on research into industry challenges, competitors and customers
Publicis Sapient says Guide to Next is grounded in research about each industry’s challenges, competitors and customers. The 2025 materials say the reports combine C-suite survey findings with expert insights. The 2026 materials add that the research included more than 500 industry leaders and interviews with nearly 70 experts across strategy, product, engineering, customer experience, data and AI.
3. Guide to Next is industry-specific rather than one generic transformation report
Guide to Next is organized around industry playbooks and separate reports tailored to specific sectors. The 2025 edition includes reports for Consumer Products, Energy & Commodities, Financial Services, Health, Retail, Telecom, Media & Technology, Transportation & Mobility, and Travel and Dining. Publicis Sapient’s 2026 positioning reinforces that the trends may be shared across industries, but the actions leaders should take are not.
4. The core themes center on AI, modernization and customer engagement
Guide to Next 2025 focuses on generative AI, technology modernization and customer engagement. Publicis Sapient presents these themes as major executive priorities that cut across industries. Supporting materials also repeatedly connect transformation to customer experience, personalization, data quality and the need to modernize technology foundations.
5. The reports are intended to move leaders from trend awareness to action
Guide to Next is positioned as more than a forecast. Publicis Sapient says the series offers practical advice, strategic recommendations and planning questions leaders can use to decide where to act now, where to modernize and where to place the next strategic bets. The 2026 playbook language makes this explicit by framing the reports as tools for turning signals into execution.
6. The research highlights clear barriers to transformation progress
Guide to Next 2025 includes several findings that frame why action is urgent. Publicis Sapient says 82% of leaders report that data quality hinders generative AI progress, 65% of the C-suite prioritize security for tech modernization, and 94% say the lack of a unified strategy is a barrier to modernization. The report page also notes that 60% of CEOs see generative AI chatbots as crucial, compared with 29% of lower-level leaders.
7. The methodology is built around senior leaders at large enterprises
Publicis Sapient says the 2025 research surveyed 1,000 senior executives across eight industries. Respondents included CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CIOs, CMOs, CTOs, CXOs, CDOs and other high-level executives from companies with at least $1 billion in annual revenue. That means the findings are presented as a large-enterprise perspective on transformation priorities and constraints.
8. The geographic lens is global, not limited to one market
Guide to Next 2025 draws on executive input from multiple regions. Publicis Sapient says respondents were based in the U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, China, Hong Kong, Australia and India. This gives the series a global view of how leaders are approaching AI, modernization and customer engagement.
9. The 2026 edition emphasizes industry playbooks across a broad set of sectors
Guide to Next 2026 expands the idea of trend reporting into industry-by-industry playbooks. The sectors explicitly covered include retail, financial services, health, travel and hospitality, energy and commodities, telecom, media and technology, and transportation and mobility. Across those playbooks, Publicis Sapient consistently stresses the need to connect strategy, product, experience, engineering and data and AI so transformation can happen at speed and scale.
10. Access to the reports is handled through a gated download flow
Publicis Sapient makes Guide to Next available through a form-based download experience. Users can select one or more reports, submit business details such as name, company, work email, job title, country and industry, and then access the chosen report or reports immediately. The page also states that copies are sent to the submitted email address, and multiple reports can be downloaded together as a ZIP file.