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5 trends that will shape your career in 2025
We talked to hiring experts and CEOs to get their take on what could be waiting for us next year.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a crystal ball that would give you a peek into the future? Winning lottery numbers aside, knowing what lies ahead could give you insights to workplace trends that could propel your career growth.
Sometimes, though, there are clues hiding in the past and present that can point the way. We talked to hiring experts and CEOs to get their take on what could be waiting for us after the ball drops in Time Square.
1. HYBRID IS HERE TO STAY
“The full return has failed,” says Frank Weishaupt, CEO of the AI-powered video conferencing tool Owl Labs. “Our data shows full-time office work is down 6%, with remote roles up 57% year-over-year. The flexible ‘3-2’ hybrid model is set to become the norm, while companies still mandating five-day office work face the threat of increased employee turnover.”
Sam Naficy, CEO of the employee visibility and productivity intelligence software provider Prodoscore, agrees: “Hybrid work is the new normal,” he says. “Despite the push for in-office mandates, hybrid work is here to stay, driven by the need for flexibility. Few companies will fully revert to all-office models without risking talent loss.”
An Owl Labs survey found that employees rank flexible hours nearly as highly as healthcare benefits in evaluating prospective employers. “[This underscores] a shift toward autonomy and balance as key components of job satisfaction,” says Weishaupt. “To adapt, companies should embrace a more flexible approach, including meeting-free days and valuing outcomes over rigid hours.”
2. PAID LEAVE REQUESTS AND RESIGNATIONS WILL RISE
If your company is pushing for RTO, don’t be surprised by a mountain of paid leave requests or even resignations, says Deborah Hanus, CEO of Sparrow, an employee leave management platform.
“The push for a return to office will have unintended consequences,” says Hanus. “We expect to see a rise in disability and caregiving leave requests as employees seek ways to maintain remote or hybrid work arrangements in addition to an increase in resignations as people find ways to maintain their routines with employers who support the reality of their needs to work remotely.”
3. AI WILL ACCELERATE CAREERS
AI will move beyond being just a task helper to becoming a career enabler in 2025, predicts Danielle McMahan, chief people officer for academic publishers Wiley. “Organizations will focus on using AI to create personalized career pathways and helping employees align their skills and aspirations with future opportunities,” she says.
Shaji Mathew, group head of human resource development at IT-service provider Infosys, agrees: “AI itself has the potential to help employees enhance their skills and advance their careers through personalized and targeted training, he says. “It can help identify skills gaps, recommend new skills, and create tailored learning paths to continuous learning.”
To tap into the potential, however, leaders will need to develop upskilling and reskilling initiatives to prepare their people for the evolving future of work, says Mathew. “While AI can provide insights based on data, humans give it meaning and purpose,” he says. “In 2025, employers should focus on building this human + AI work model, integrating AI with human capabilities to amplify the latter while upskilling their employees so they can be the ‘I’ in AI.”
McMahan says AI training should be an urgent priority for the year ahead, referencing a Wiley Workplace Intelligence survey that found 61% of workers are eager for AI training. “This points to the growing role AI is playing in the workplace and the need for AI-driven development strategies,” she says. “I fully expect that the growing emphasis on AI learning and development will also help to shift AI from enabling tasks to enabling career growth.”
4. RECRUITERS’ CORE ROLE WILL CHANGE
AI will also impact the role of recruiters. In addition to being integrated into applicant tracking systems to match keywords, Felix Kim, CEO of the recruitment platform Redrob, predicts that AI will take over the interview process, either by serving as the sole interviewer or providing questions that maintain consistency and reduce bias.
“We still want the human in human resources—it’s an essential part,” he says. “But sourcing candidates and doing the initial phone screen calls aren’t the core aspects of recruitment. We’ll start to see a bigger difference between a great recruiter and a mediocre recruiter, because AI will be able to duplicate what a mediocre recruiter is doing. The core aspect of a recruiter is to get that human connection and get people pumped up about a job or an opportunity that might not be visible just through a job description.”
5. THE CONTINUATION OF ‘CONSCIOUS UNBOSSING’
“Conscious unbossing” became a popular phrase in the latter part of 2024 used to describe the current leadership climate. It describes the resistance newer generations are having when it comes to stepping into leadership roles. Stephanie Neal, director of research at DDI, leadership development and HR consultants, predicts that the trend will continue
“There’s different reasons that leaders are motivated to take on leadership roles,” she says. “We’re seeing some tension in the workplace around that. The biggest risk to us is that leaders who do take early first management roles, often regret it if they don’t get the support that they need.”
Neal says organizations must address if they want to attract leaders to their roles. “Keep them growing and keep them feeling like they have a purpose,” she says. “One of the biggest mistakes that organizations often make is taking top technical people that have done well in their individual contributor roles and advancing them into the management.”
