Market appears stable but cautious in July
Highlights
- As the tariff fog once again thickens going into the third quarter, the AV Index continues to reflect a relatively stable, but cautious market. July’s result, while slightly lower than June’s, is spot on the average for 2025 so far. Industry drivers remain, including AI, cloud computing, managed services, display advancements, and according to our recent demand studies, audio enhancements as well. Yet these technologies are evolving dependent on use case refinement and adoption considerations, factors supporting steady investment in an uncertain economic environment, but not driving high-percentage market growth.
The share of those who saw sales increase dropped from June (down 7.9%), counterbalanced by an increase in those that saw sales stay the same (up 11.5%), with a decrease experienced by less firms (down 3.5%). These results are reflective of the difficulty in taking risks for new projects when the pricing environment is uncertain, making investments hard to plan for the long term. Behind the scenes firms are doing everything they can to mitigate the effects of tariffs or take advantage of the short-term leverage they provide
The AV Employment Index showed even less variability than the sales Index, with a tenth of a point difference month to month. The index shift was similar, however, with more firms seeing the employment level stay the same (up 5.6%) than either increase (down 2.8%) or decrease (down 2.9%). While there is always demand for highly skilled Pro AV professionals, especially in the new technologies, the overall market appears stagnant largely due to the macroeconomic environment.
International Outlook
North America, where the economic uncertainty is greatest, showed lower results based on a three-month rolling average, with a billing Index of 58.8 (down 1.6 points) and an employment index of 57 (down a tenth of a point). While not as low as the beginning of the year (51.2 for January), the results are off the 60 marks, a notional positive signal. International increased slightly for billing (a half a point) and increased for employment (0.9 points). The results were essentially flat, indicating similar trends to North America.
1Due to the small sample, the North American and International indexes are based on a 3-month moving average. The July 2025 index is preliminary, based on the average of June and July 2025 and will be final with August 2025 data in the next report.
1AVIXA®, the Audiovisual and Integrated Experience Association, has published the monthly Pro AV Business Index since September 2016, gauging sales and employment indicators for the pro AV industry. The index is calculated from a monthly survey that tracks trends. Two diffusion indexes are created using the survey: the AV Sales Index (AVI-S) and AV Employment Index (AVI-E). The diffusion indexes are calculated based on the positive response frequency from those who indicated their business had a 5% or more increase in billings/sales from the prior month plus half of the neutral response. An index of 50 indicates firms saw no increase or decline in business activity; more than 50 indicates an increase, while less than 50 indicates a decrease.
Tariffs are hurting us. Prices increasing and general inventory becoming less available in a timely fashion.
Education, North America
Uncertainty with the economy continues to be a challenge as customers have pulled back spending for projects.
AV Integrator, North America
Clients are taking proposals but not finalizing due to budget constraints or delay of approvals from owners.
Integrator, Asia-Pacific
Methodology
The survey behind the AVIXA Pro AV Business Index was fielded to 2,000 members of the AVIXA Insights Community between July 29, 2025 and August 5, 2025. A total of 224 AV professionals completed the survey. Only respondents who are service providers and said they were “moderately” to “extremely” familiar with their company’s business conditions were factored in index calculations. The AV Sales and AV Employment Indexes are computed as diffusion indexes. The monthly score is calculated as the percentage of firms reporting a significant increase plus half the percentage of firms reporting no change. Comparisons are always made to the previous month. Diffusion indexes, typically centered at a score of 50, are used frequently to measure change in economic activity. If an equal share of firms reports an increase as reports a decrease, the score for that month will be 50. A score higher than 50 indicates that firms, in the aggregate, are reporting an increase in activity that month compared to the previous month. In contrast, a score lower than 50 is a decrease in activity.
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