2025: An Exciting Year Ahead for HR Professionals

In 1983, in the early days of Apple, the iconic Steve Jobs was invited for a talk at the International Design Conference at Aspen, Colorado. In his characteristic fashion, he started by joking that the only reason he wore a tie was because he was paid $60.

He spoke about the transition of knowledge predominantly from books to radio and television and, the latest invention at the time, computers. This was even before the Macintosh was launched and laser printers had just been introduced.

As usual, one of the key points Jobs made—a trait that he consistently demonstrated—was his ability to think from the point of the end customer. No matter how great any technology or product, its success depends on how well it solves customer problems. (Incidentally, this approach is what drives our own Activation AI suite of offerings.)

Jobs spoke about reading Aristotle but lamented that books can’t talk back, so he couldn’t ask a question to Aristotle. He envisioned a day when all such ideas and thoughts, in fact the entire lives of great minds, would be stored in a computer and people would be able to ask questions, and—sometimes—get the right answers.

Way back in 1983, before most people used or even saw a computer, Steve Jobs was already talking about AI models!

You can watch the video of his speech here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHB_5WmRbho

?It is impossible to match the visionary ability of someone like Jobs, but today as we stand at the cusp of a new era, powered by AI, it is natural to wonder what the future may have in store.

What does 2025 hold for us?

Some common macro trends have been growing in resonance globally and will likely play a key role in how the year plays out.

• Adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

This is almost a no-brainer—AI is here to stay, and the only question is: how is it going to affect us? Irrespective of the industry you are in, or the field you work in, be sure that AI is going to exert its disruptive influence there.

Having said that, much of the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) about AI taking away jobs is unfounded. AI cannot replace humans, but—to repeat a cliché—people who have AI skills will replace those who don’t.

Here are some interesting statistics about AI adoption globally.

To summarize the result of various studies:

• Consultants at Boston Consulting Group produced 40% higher quality results by using AI.[1]
• Marketing departments lead the way in regularly using AI with a usage rate of 34%.[2]
• HR is potentially missing out on opportunities, with only 12% of HR departments using AI [3] and about 34% still considering potential use cases. Meanwhile, an overwhelming majority (76%) of HR professionals feel they will lag behind without an urgent AI adoption strategy. [4]

?Our take:

There is no “one-size-fits-all” AI solution for ANY business. As one of the pioneers in the AI space, our Activation AI approach is designed to address specific departmental issues (including HR) of specific industries.? We see great potential for AI in resource-intensive processes, to eliminate routine tasks, talent screening (taking care to ensure no biases), and even emotion detection through audio and video analysis.

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• Skill development and employee engagement

Closely associated with the rapid progression of AI is the need for skill development. Additionally, over the past few decades there has been a growing lacuna in the level of engagement of employees with their organizations.

The combination of these two trends can prove to be a critical inflection point for companies—those that manage to address them will get ahead of the pack by leaps and bounds.

With US $8.8 trillion [5] lost due to low productivity and lack of engagement, HR departments worldwide need to wake up and take note of these numbers.

The key takeaways from these statistics are:

• Skill development is going to be a game-changer and 44-60% of the current workforce[6] will have to up their skills quickly. Organizations need to determine career pathways and create or open up opportunities for developing their people, while employees need to relook at their skill levels, decide what roles they would like to play in the years ahead, and upskill themselves accordingly.
• Engagement levels on the other hand have stagnated at around 33% for the past twenty-five years! [7]While HR efforts have risen exponentially in the same period, the results on the ground tell a different story. The need is clearly for an evidence-based approach instead of a top-down one, where employees’ voices will be heard and taken into account.

?Our take:

Learning should be a part of every organization’s culture and not a knee-jerk reaction to external circumstances, technological advancements, or market changes. Our approach has always been to provide employees with every support they need to develop their skills and knowledge. Till last year, we used to provide 50% financial support to facilitate higher learning, which we have increased to 80% from this year on. On the engagement front, we provide multiple avenues to allow for the diversity of interests that each individual brings to the organization.?

• Ensuring employee health and wellbeing

Another trend that has grown over the years is the focus on health and wellbeing. Organizations have long realized that success cannot be measured in bottom lines alone but need to encompass a larger social and environmental view as well. Of these aspects, the human angle is of prime importance to HR professionals, as it deals with the nurturing and development of talent. One way to look at the state of affairs in the health and wellness space is to consider the growth of the sector as a whole.

* Projection based on average annual growth rate

?The global health and wellness economy is expected to reach US $8.5 trillion in two years.

On the positive side, it is great that more and more people worldwide are realizing the importance of health and wellbeing and embracing healthier ways of living. On the other hand, these staggering numbers are an indicator of the need for a global rethink on the contributing factors, such as workplace stress and the toll it takes on employees worldwide.

Our take:

Health and wellness are intrinsic parts of our organizational approach to our employees. We actively support and nurture our people during times of stress, emergencies, and crises, doing all that is necessary to alleviate their problems and promote wellbeing. The Amaha digital solution is one part of this supportive ecosystem and addresses mental health and trauma by providing expert counselling round the clock, to ensure that people have a safe space where they may voice their concerns and receive professional guidance.

• Increasing empowerment of women

Empowering women has long been in the works in the corporate sector. Sure enough, progress has been made, and women have an increasing say in corporate affairs, however, much more needs to be done. Consider these numbers.

What do these numbers tell us?

• The Fortune 500 list was first published in January 1955—exactly 70 years ago—and yet today, only about 10% of the CEOs on the list are women.[9]
• Merely closing the gender equity gap would raise global GDP by 20%, in effect, doubling global growth rate over the next decade. Dishearteningly, however, such reforms are slowing down rather than speeding up.[10]
• What is most telling is that almost all women (95%) believe that “requesting or taking advantage of flexible working opportunities” will affect their chances of a promotion! [11]
• Lastly, only about 28% of women hold management positions.[12]

Our take:

It is up to progressive organizations to lead the way on this issue. For instance, Starbucks achieved wage parity in the U.S. in 2018 and continues to set a strong example for others. At Zuci, diversity and gender equity are in our DNA—about 44% of our workforce comprises women, many of whom are in management roles. We continuously strive to nurture this diversity, recognizing that this is an ongoing effort. Organizations need to realize that gender equity is non-negotiable and an idea whose time is long overdue. If any incentives were needed, studies show that companies with gender diversity are 39% more likely to perform better than those that don’t.[13]

• Expansion of HR role

Organizations are looking at new approaches to the human resources function and “embedded” HR is one of them. While traditional or “corporate” HR focuses on inputs from top management, “embedded” HR is a part of functional teams and works on specific departmental issues. Thus, HR will become an integral part of the company business rather than play a mere advisory role. Take a look at these numbers based on a study of 2,200 C-suite leaders and 4,500 HR managers.[14]

These numbers tell us that most C-suite leaders believe in the value of HR in business and organizational strategy-formulation, however, there is a gap in the actual inputs received from HR teams worldwide. HR teams need to get more actively involved in the daily operations of various departments and work towards integrating HR policies more tightly within business process frameworks.

Our take:

At Zuci, HR teams are front and center—not just as active participants but as drivers of our larger organizational thinking. HR plays a key role in ensuring effective employee engagement and motivation and is involved in aligning business strategies with day-to-day activities.

?After the initial euphoria, companies are gradually settling down to a more practical view of AI and its applications. Correspondingly employees will need to upgrade their skills in the year ahead to keep pace. Organizations will have to accelerate their efforts in employee engagement, health and wellness, and gender equity if they are to succeed, because profit cannot be divorced from human wellbeing. HR will have to amplify and expand its role into organizational strategy formulation and alignment, along with people management.

Hope that these ideas resonate with you and help you strategize better in 2025. What do you think is going to define your priorities in the coming year? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Wish you all a productive and rewarding year ahead!?

Photo by Konsepta Studio on Unsplash

References:

1. One Useful Thing. (2023, September 16). Centaurs and cyborgs on the jagged frontier. ?
2. Quantum Black. (2024, May 30). The state of AI in early 2024. McKinsey.
3. Academy to Innovate HR. (2024). 11 HR trends for 2025: Embracing disruption.
4. Gartner. (2024). AI in HR: The ultimate guide to implementing AI in your HR organization.
5. Gallup. (2022, June 14). Employee engagement strategies: Fixing the world's $8.8 trillion problem.
6. World Economic Forum. (2023, May). Future of jobs report 2023.
7. Gallup. (2023, January 23). In New Workplace, U.S. Employee Engagement Stagnates.
8. Global Wellness Institute. (2024, November). Global Wellness Economy Monitor 2024. ?
9. Wikipedia. (2024, September). List of women CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.
10. World Bank Group. (2024, March 4). New data show massive, wider-than-expected global gender gap.
11. Deloitte. (2024). Women @ work 2024.
12. UN Women. (2023). Forecasting women in leadership positions.
13. McKinsey. (2023, November). Diversity matters even more.
14. Personio. (2023, June 6). We asked 2,000+ C-suite leaders what they want from HR – here’s what they said.

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