The second volume of the L+R Applied Imagination Review is here. When we published the first edition in 2024, we saw it as a way to document what we were learning at the intersection of business strategy, technology, and design. What we did not anticipate was how widely it would travel. Over the past year we heard from readers who told us a specific insight had helped them structure an AI strategy, make the case for experimentation, or bring interdisciplinary teams together on a hard problem. That response is the reason we kept going, and it shaped how we approached this edition.
We have also expanded what the Review covers. Volume Two adds new sections, including a candid look back at last year's forecasts under the heading "Predictions That Delivered," where we examine what we got right, where we were surprised, and what we took from it. We hold ourselves to the same standard of accountability we ask of the businesses we work with. Our production capacity has grown alongside the publication, which let us go deeper on both the data and the applied examples drawn from our work at L+R.
The throughline of this edition is that AI is no longer an emerging tool. It has become a fundamental force in decision-making, automation, and the design process itself, with agentic systems beginning to reshape how organizations operate. Alongside that, spatial computing moved from concept to working platform, changing how we think about presence, interaction, and the line between physical and digital experience. The volume sets out six guiding principles for 2025 and the pioneering trends we see across technology, strategy, and aesthetics, again anchored in real projects rather than abstraction. If there is a single lesson behind it, it is that the challenges ahead will be met by teams that combine technical capability with creative problem-solving and business judgment, not by any one discipline working alone.
I led this edition as editor-in-chief, with associate editor Sonia Shah. Peggy Chen and Aldana Medina led the design and art direction, working with creative director Chris Martinié, and gave the volume its visual identity. Our thanks also go to the contributors whose perspectives run through it, including Sonia Shah, Joe Taylor, and Brooke Paxman, and to the wider L+R team and the partners and collaborators who made it possible.
Like the first edition, the 2025 Review is published only in print, with no digital version, and you can request a copy at magazine.levinriegner.com. Now that there is more than one edition, we are also able to share archival volumes, including the 2024 Review, for readers who would like to see how the perspective has developed. As always, we encourage you to engage with the ideas, challenge the assumptions, and apply imagination.
— Alex Levin
Editor-in-Chief, L+R Applied Imagination Review
