Top Five Workplace Trends for 2025 and What Communicators Can Start Doing Now

1. Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence

The unlimited potential for artificial intelligence (AI) will continue gaining momentum in 2025. We are not in the nascent stage of AI; for decades, businesses have been developing expert systems to support human decision making. But the certainty that AI will transform business has never before been so clear, wide and immediate. Communicators will need to focus on the infrastructure that supports this shift and carefully consider the possible disruptions and security challenges that come with it.

Tips for Communicators

• Use your network to build your knowledge. It is almost impossible to keep up with everything as options explode, so talk with everyone around you about how they’re using AI. Asking your fellow communicators, business leaders (not necessarily just your own), family and friends how they take advantage of AI for their jobs and their personal lives will spark amazing creative thinking.
• Deepen your understanding of how your company is implementing AI solutions. Build your communication strategies around educating employees, increasing the appropriate use of AI, and strengthening the collaboration possibilities across your organization to support business goals. Then, assess whether you have the right technologies to connect your employees across the workplace. For more on how to do this, see ROI’s guide to Evolving Your Digital Workplace: Top Five Considerations

2. Sustainable Business and Circular Economies

Sustainability can be very good business: Investors and customers demand it, employees are more engaged with companies who practice it, and Entrepreneur magazine reports that companies who communicate about their environment, social and governance (ESG) programs grow faster compared to those without such claims. Companies with circular economies that reuse, recycle and redeploy their resources could see significant potential cost savings and experience fewer external dependencies. Additionally, consumers are more likely to pay premium prices for products and services that align with their own focus on environmental issues.

Tips for Communicators

• Listen to employees’ point of view. ESG can generate strong, sometimes intractable, feelings. It’s important to understand the environmental concerns of employee sub-audiences and tailor your message to address them (see more about personalization below).
• Develop consistent messaging. To help create an inclusive environment that recognizes different perspectives, ensure your company’s internal messaging around sustainability practices aligns with external communications and claims. Employees are likely to disengage quickly if they see inconsistencies between what they see in the media and what they experience internally.

3. Navigating the Cross Talk and Pressure on DE&I Programs

As with ESG, opinions on the value of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) programs are increasingly divided in the public conversation. Activist investors and a small segment of consumers express frustration with what they see as corporate virtue signaling, with potentially negative side effects. While many companies have seen important business benefits resulting from a focus on building a more inclusive and diverse workforce and culture, some constituencies are vocalizing their disagreement and are pressuring companies to revisit their practices.

Tips for Communicators

• Stand up for your beliefs. Now is the time to clearly communicate a principled stand, however that looks for your company. Respond rather than react to negative feedback. Companies that are perceived to “shape shift” based on vacillating opinions will appear inauthentic and lose ground with their employees, as well as with their customers.
• Audit messaging across channels. Ensure what you’re saying both represents the values of your company (or that your business is trying to build) and highlights the benefit of your approach.

4. Shifting Demographics — Gen Z and Gen Alpha

The consumer base evolves each year, which also creates an evolution in target markets. Author and change strategist Michael McQueen predicts that by 2030, Gen Z will be 30% of the workforce and have $12 trillion in disposable income. Important for 2025 will be Gen Z’s priorities and potential impact on both the workforce and the customer base. According to a recent report, their successors in Gen Alpha — the oldest of whom is 14 years old — already command $140 billion in direct and indirect spending, with another $300 billion through influence on parental purchases, plus significantly higher brand loyalty than previous cohorts.

Tips for Communicators

• Start building tomorrow’s culture. Begin planning for the communication preferences and needs of your future workforce, particularly Gen Z. Understand where and how they get their information and design for how they are used to communicating.
• Learn from emerging forms of information consumption. Gen Alpha has been influenced by an increasingly individualized youth culture. Create communication strategies that recognize and support this lived experience within your organization.

5. Mass Personalization

Consumers are increasingly asking for — and responding to — more-tailored solutions, and they engage more deeply with brands who understand them and their specific needs. According to McQueen, 76% of consumers are more likely to buy, and 60% will become repeat customers through a perceived personalized experience. Employees are growing to expect this type of experience at work, as well.

Tips for Communicators

• Identify your sub-audiences. Take a fine-grained look at your employee base and develop communication that clearly addresses their priorities and preferences. As this group becomes more diverse across multiple facets, so too will their needs and how they respond and engage.
• Avoid “individual silos.” Build connections among atypical affinity groups to strengthen a sense of team and purpose, including across teams, remote and onsite, leadership and front-line employees.