True Trend or Tall Tale? 2025

In what has now become an annual tradition, we’re back with another year of “True Trend or Tall Tale” - where we cut through the BS of all of the lofty Talent and Tech Trend predictions you’re seeing this time of year. Before we dive into 2025, let’s go back and review our predictions from 2024, to see how on-the-money we were.

Recap on 2024 trends

Generative AI in Talent Acquisition: 2024 prediction: Red hot. Actual result: Red Hot

We can absolutely say that 2024 saw the continued adoption of Gen AI across pretty much every industry, including TA. From job advert generation, interview guide creation, feedback summaries and personalised communication, Gen AI features are now virtually ubiquitous across the ATS / CRM and we are certain that trend will continue with more nuanced and powerful features coming soon.

Skills Based Hiring: 2024 prediction: Red Hot. Actual result: Warm

The amount of hype around skills based hiring intensified but for all the talk, the rate of adoption across enterprises was surprisingly slow. There are some incredible tech solutions like Gloat, Phenom and others which are enabling us to move towards skills based hiring but the critical factor preventing adoption seems to be organisational readiness and the heavy change management required to make these programs successful.

Employee Experience/Wellbeing: 2024 prediction: Warm. Actual result: Cooling

Companies continued to prioritise employee experience, focusing on digital-centric approaches to enhance engagement and satisfaction. However, the decrease in fully remote work arrangements could be seen by some as a detriment to employee experience.

Tech Stack Integration: 2024 prediction: Warming. Actual result: Hot

Once considered a luxury only available to the largest companies, a fully integrated TA tech stack is now the rule not the exception. Driven by integration and automation platforms like Zapier, Make, Workato, Joynd, Boomi etc and maturing pre-built connectors made available from many vendors, system integration is now faster and cheaper than ever before. This trend has been nudged along by compliance requirements (data security), employee experience (double handling info between systems sucks) and shrinking budgets.

Evolving Role of HR Professionals: 2024 prediction: Warming. Actual Result: Warming

HR professionals increasingly embraced data-driven strategies, utilising data and analytics to inform decision-making processes. This shift required HR teams to develop competencies in data interpretation and leverage insights to enhance talent management practices.

Data-Driven Insights: 2024 prediction Warming. Actual Result: Warm

The adoption of data analytics in HR functions grew, enabling organisations to predict hiring needs and assess talent pool health more accurately. Despite advancements, some companies faced challenges due to skill gaps in data analysis, highlighting the need for specialised training or managed analytics services.

Flexible/Hybrid Work: 2024 prediction Cooling. Actual result: Cooling

We predicted that hybrid work would start to cool in 2024, following from the massive adoption of it during the pandemic, and we were right. 2024 saw the first decrease in the % of people working from home (https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/will-australians-be-forced-back-to-the-office-in-2025-or-will-they-return-of-their-own-accord/hw3gww7sr) since 2020. While it’s unlikely we’ll ever put this genie fully back in the bottle, we can probably expect more discouragement of remote work going forward.

Pre-pandemic TA Team Sizes: 2024 prediction: Cooling. Actual Result: Cooling.

Talent Acquisition (TA) teams experienced restructuring, with a notable increase in the hiring of contractors and freelancers to manage specific projects. This approach allowed organisations to maintain agility and control costs, reflecting a shift from traditional, larger in-house TA teams.

DE&I: 2024 prediction: Cold. Actual Result: Frozen

You only need to turn on your TV and take a look at world politics to see how the climate towards “DE&I” has changed. While we wouldn’t go so far as to say DE&I initiatives are now seen as a “negative”, they are clearly no longer the massive focus that they were just a few years ago.

2025 Predictions

Robots Join the Workforce

Trend prediction: Hot

2025 is set to be the year where robots—both humanoid and AI agents—truly step into the workplace spotlight. This shift is driven by three significant global trends:

1. Aging Workforces: Populations worldwide are aging, leading to a decline in the number of working-age individuals.

2. Localised Manufacturing: Nations are prioritising supply chain security by bringing production closer to home.

3. Tightened Immigration Controls: Reduced migration has further strained labour pools.

These pressures are pushing employers to adopt robot workers to fill gaps. Early deployments of agentic AI are truly exciting and agents are already handling complex processes, freeing up human employees to focus on creative problem-solving and relationship-building. Meanwhile, humanoid robots will step into roles that demand manual tasks, from manufacturing to logistics. The traditional barriers to domestic production—such as labour shortages and higher wages—are being outpaced by the growing feasibility of robot workers.

Economic Optimism Sparks TA Tech Stack Investment

Trend prediction: Hot

2024 was a challenging year across many industries, with recruitment feeling the brunt of rising interest rates, geopolitical tensions, and economic stagnation. However, 2025 is looking brighter. With clearer political outcomes in key markets, the possibility of peace in Ukraine, and potential interest rate reductions, confidence is slowly returning.

As hiring volumes rebound, the gaps in outdated recruitment processes and neglected systems will become too painful to ignore. TA leaders will be under pressure to act decisively, fast tracking new investment in TA tech and wider transformation.

Notes:

• I do not anticipate dramatic increases in recruiting headcount to offset increased hiring activity. Rather teams will need to 'do more with the same' compounding the need to streamline ways of working and leverage automation and AI to pick up the slack.

• TA tech sales cycles will quicken. In 2024 sales cycles increased (by as much as 2-3x) as additional sales personas were introduced and painstaking due diligence around AI was done. Time savings will be achieved as a result of vendors being better prepared to handle AI related questions.

Unicorns and the Circle of Life

Trend prediction: Hot

Improved market conditions and renewed tech sales are likely to fuel M&A activity in 2025. While the days of cheap, easy capital are behind us, the focus will shift to vendors with strong fundamentals—those that are profitable and fiscally disciplined.

Expect to see a new wave of AI-native platforms achieving unicorn status, alongside marquee acquisitions. For instance, SAP might acquire Eightfold.ai, and SmartRecruiters could be poised for a successful IPO (if I were a gambling man, more likely 2026). But where there are winners, there will also be losers. Vendors struggling to find product-market fit, like Beamery, may face a bleak future, potentially ending in a fire sales or dissolution within the next few years.

In-Person Hiring Makes a Comeback

Trend prediction: Warm/ Hot

Trust will be a critical theme in 2025. As candidates increasingly leverage AI tools to craft CVs, complete assessments, and even attend video interviews, employers will turn to in-person interactions to verify authenticity. This trend will dovetail with the broader return-to-office movement, as co-located recruiters and hiring managers expect candidates to meet face-to-face.

TCO Becomes a Must-Have Metric

Trend prediction: Warm/ Hot

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is set to gain prominence as a critical metric in tech procurement decisions. Often overlooked, TCO is a calculation which estimates the total cost to procure, implement and maintain your chosen solution and helps organisations make smarter decisions when evaluating multiple solution options. For TA leaders, evaluating TCO will become an essential step in new a business case for new technology. 

Pro tip:

• Read our more about Total Cost of Ownership in our article "Building a Business Case for new Talent Tech"

• TCO is a valuable metric to demonstrate to your CIO the advantage of selecting a best of breed ATS / CRM compared to an all-in-one, HCM (Workday, Successfactors, Oracle etc) including the recruiting module.

About us

Based in Australia with a global reach, TalentTech is an independent Talent Operations and HR Tech Consulting firm known for delivering exceptional results. We augment your team by adding the capability and capacity needed to ensure your Talent Operations run seamlessly and your HR Tech is implemented and optimised effectively.

Our expertise spans Tech Stack design, Implementation, and Talent Operations as a Service, offering a comprehensive suite of solutions tailored to your needs.

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