Artificial intelligence (AI) will continue to absorb the focus of business and tech leaders in 2025.
And if 2024 was about experimentation with generative AI (Gen AI), 2025 is about proving value for the bottom line as leaders seek to understand the ROI of AI.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find any 2025 trends or predictions without a mention of AI – so we've dedicated this whole article to three AI trends shaped by the skills agenda.
Trend 1: Upskilling to address an AI talent shortage
The roles of AI engineer, data governance manager and AI researcher all feature in the top 10 fastest-growing jobs in the UK, according to LinkedIn’s 2025 ‘Jobs on the Rise’ research(opens new window).
A tightening labour market for in-demand AI and data skills will force leaders to consider their options.
The same study found that 45% of UK HR professionals feel their company doesn’t have a clear view of the skills it will need in the coming years. Responding quickly to new skills gaps will be a crucial challenge for people teams.
Yet, the answer may already sit within their four walls, with an opportunity to upskill and create new career paths for existing employees.
The appetite from staff is there: our ROI of AI research found that 83% of workers think AI skills will help them to drive more value for their employer in the next 12 months.
With AI on the agenda, leaders can capitalise on this appetite to learn new skills, while making cost efficiencies through employee upskilling.
AI upskilling is the best place to start – explore how to unleash productivity and make AI your competitive advantage.
Trend 2: Agentic AI experimentation on the rise
Agentic AI has been dubbed as the ‘new frontier in generative AI’ by PwC and called out by Gartner as one of its Strategic Technology Trends for 2025(opens new window).
In essence, this is where GenAI is used to create ‘intelligent agents’ which can make automated (or semi-automated) decisions on their own. Uses are emerging in trend analysis, resource allocation and real-time problem-solving.
With workers spending an average of 14.3 hours a week on data tasks – according to our Skills Intelligence report – there’s a clear case for AI agents to help boost productivity by tackling data-intensive jobs when guided by a human.
While this is the new frontier, it will be early adopters who have the right skills, data governance, and policies in place to push forward with experimental use cases in 2025.
We will see ‘customer service AI agents’ becoming more commonplace, but full-scale adoption of agentic AI is still a while away.
In 2025, expect proof of concepts to be a priority – and for those early adopters to move quickly.
Trend 3: Policy and regulation aims to keep pace with AI
In the UK, the Government launched its AI Opportunities Action Plan to push forward AI adoption and deploy AI across the public sector.
In January, it backed a report of 50 recommendations on how the country can best use AI, written by tech entrepreneur Matt Clifford.
Closing the national skills gap is highlighted as crucial for the UK to become an "AI superpower."
Meanwhile, the incoming EU AI Act will apply to any AI system used inside the EU. The legislation seeks to protect individuals and encourage investment, as well as put a welcome emphasis on AI literacy and skills development.
Businesses globally have found it a challenge to keep pace with the rate of technological advancement, due to a lack of workforce skills. In the UK and Europe at least — both these initiatives will provide additional structure for leaders with their long-term approach to AI.
