Our top HR technology trends for 2025 and what they mean for HR
The year 2025 is poised to bring significant advancements in technology dramatically impacting organisations and HR. Here are our top HR technology trends we expect to dominate the HR tech landscape in 2025.
Published: December 3, 2024 | by Alicia D. Smith, JD, head of market planning at Brightmine
The year 2025 is poised to bring significant advancements in technology dramatically impacting organisations and the Human Resources (HR) function. As businesses strive to stay competitive and adapt to evolving workplace dynamics, understanding how these latest HR technology trends will shape the future workplace is crucial for HR professionals looking to stay ahead of the curve.
Here are our top HR technology trends we expect to dominate the HR tech landscape in 2025.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Building on 2024 trends, efforts to assess, implement and leverage the latest AI technology advancements continue to gather steam across organisations. Realising productivity gains through the automation of routine HR tasks as well as leveraging AI to provide real-time insights to support strategic decision-making provide enormous opportunities for HR teams to drive value for their organisations. By championing new AI-driven HR technologies and deploying them in the right way, HR can drive competitive advantages for their organisations with streamlined processes that increase speed to market and data driven insights that help secure the right talent to support business goals.
But is AI always the answer? How organisations set themselves up to answer this question and the internal processes they develop to experiment, assess quickly and either move forward towards implementation or fail fast and abandon is critical in ensuring AI will be a true enabler and not a distraction.
“But is AI always the answer? How organisations set themselves up to answer this question and the internal processes they develop to experiment, assess quickly and either move forward towards implementation or fail fast and abandon is critical in ensuring AI will be a true enabler and not a distraction.”
– Alicia D. Smith, JD, Head of Market Planning at Brightmine
Trends
Increased deployment of agentic AI
According to Gartner, the top AI technology trend for 2025 centres around increased deployment of agentic AI. These are AI systems that can make decisions and act autonomously with limited direct human supervision. Designed to operate more like a human employee, these systems understand context and instructions in natural language and are able to adapt their actions and outcomes to changing conditions. By 2028, Gartner predicts that agentic AI will make at least 15% of day-to-day work decisions, up from 0% in 2024.
AI governance platforms
Another trend in AI expected to gain more footing through 2025 will be the rise of AI governance platforms. These latest technology solutions can:
- Help create, manage and enforce policies for responsible AI use.
- Ensure a common understanding of how AI systems work.
- Build trust and accountability and avoid risk.
As HR executives look to upskill their workforces to innovate and thrive in a world of AI, prioritising these governance frameworks will be critical. 2025 will likely see an increase in AI review boards and ethical AI roles, embedding more and more into organisations to support oversight and balance rapid innovation with avoidance of risk with AI implementation. Gartner further notes that by 2028, organisations that implement comprehensive AI governance platforms will experience 40% fewer AI-related ethical incidents than those without.
Strategic decision-making
While AI has already been instrumental in automating repetitive HR tasks such as candidate screening or employee onboarding, its potential to contribute to strategic decision-making is also gaining momentum. Through advancements in AI and machine learning (ML), more and more organisations will leverage AI-powered algorithms to analyse large datasets, identify patterns, and generate actionable insights. This will enable HR leaders to make informed decisions related to workforce planning, optimising performance management, employee engagement and more.
Challenges and wins
As organisations increasingly integrate these AI-driven technologies, ethical considerations surrounding bias in algorithmic decision-making as well as privacy concerns related to employee data usage will continue to pose challenges for HR.
HR leaders have a clear opportunity here to chart the course for AI ethics within their organisations and in the process elevate employee trust and cross-functional coordination regarding responsible innovation. HR also has a clear role to play in change management — helping to overcome resistance from employees around AI adoption due to fear of job displacement or mistrust towards automated systems.
Despite these challenges, clear wins abound for organisations who successfully deploy AI, such as:
- Increased efficiency through the automation of repetitive administrative tasks.
- Enhanced employee and recruitment experiences through agentic AI and virtual assistants.
- Better-informed decisions based on comprehensive data analysis and insights.
- Improved HR services, as HR professionals will have more time to focus on key tasks requiring human interaction.
Action steps
According to consultant and author Brian Sommer, “The smart, strategic HR executive must be careful in choosing the pieces of AI technology that have compelling business value and solid economic and strategic contributions to make.” He further adds that it means that “the detail behind a great HR strategy must be nuanced and company-specific.” To adequately prepare for and leverage AI in the workplace, organizations should:
- Identify pain points in existing HR process and assess whether implementing AI can bring significant value.
- Place careful thought to AI value propositions and program design for AI innovation pilots to help assess opportunities quickly.
- Commit to AI governance, oversight and ongoing assessments.
- Given the SHRM report finding that 62% of full-time employees believe they don’t have the skills to effectively and safely use generative AI, invest in skills development on AI use, such as prompt training, and generally upskilling and reskilling employees to work alongside new technologies like AI with maximum effectiveness.
- Stay abreast of the latest AI technology developments. By keeping up with these developments, HR can play a key role in defining a structure and encouraging a culture that strikes the right balance between innovation and risk in its application to organisations.
Employee experience (EX)
HR technology advances enhancing the employee experience (EX) will also continue to gain traction in 2025 as organisations focus even greater attention on how technology can support the creation and maintenance of a positive and fulfilling work environment. Indeed, research recently conducted by Josh Bersin found that 87% of HR managers planned to increase their HR technology budget with their number one priority centering on EX. If successful, EX improvements are often directly linked to better performance, productivity and employee retention rates. HR teams and organisations who prioritise these initiatives increase their ability to attract and retain top talent in competitive job markets.
Trends
Personalised onboarding experiences
Here, HR technology trends reflect an even greater awareness that given the increase in remote and hybrid work, organisations need to prioritise the creation of more seamless and highly personalised onboarding experiences for employees to ensure they are set up for success.
Increasingly, findings around employee engagement in a work environment make clear that entrance and exit experiences are perhaps the most critical when it comes to lasting perceptions of employers. The application of AI to help HR teams analyse various touchpoints along the employee journey will increasingly be deployed as a tactic to uncover and assess friction and improve outcomes.
Here, technologies that gather and assess workforce analytics as well as tools like pulse surveys that support the collection of real-time feedback from employees, will more and more be leveraged as diagnostic tools. Throughout 2025, industry commentators predict that organisations will look to AI agents such as chatbots and personalised assistants over traditional employee portals to offer more tailored and immediate responses to employee queries.
“Technologies that gather and assess workforce analytics as well as tools like pulse surveys that support the collection of real-time feedback from employees, will more and more be leveraged as diagnostic tools.”
– Alicia D. Smith, JD, Head of Market Planning at Brightmine
Continuous feedback platforms
Building on 2024 HR tech trends, we will also continue to see organisations slowly but surely transitioning from more traditional annual performance reviews to continuous feedback platforms supported by technology. These AI-driven platforms will better facilitate more real-time feedback, goal setting, and performance tracking, promoting employee growth and development in the moment when it can drive the greatest impact.
As an example, Qualtrics has launched new AI features in its employee experience platform specifically to enhance manager and team effectiveness. Given how critical the relationship is between employee and manager and its link to EX, technology like this which supports more ongoing and regular communication can have tremendous impact on employee engagement.
Challenges and wins
As with all new HR technologies, implementation will be make or break whether it successfully improves workforce dynamics. This is particularly so when it comes to employee experience.
Importantly, in the quest to achieve greater personalisation during the onboarding experience, HR professionals should ensure they do not simultaneously introduce inconsistency across teams. They need to strike the right balance, as an overreliance on technology could potentially diminish personal connections between employees and managers. Ignoring these pitfalls can increase perceptions of unfairness and run counter to diversity, equity and inclusion goals.
For HR leaders, shifting organisational culture towards prioritising employee experience also will require effective advocacy, showing the direct impact investing in employee experience has on desired business outcomes. Agreeing to a common set of success metrics at the outset and committing to tracking and reporting leading and lagging indicators will be critical here to achieve the desired outcomes of improvements to EX. This includes — but is certainly not limited to — enhanced productivity and performance, talent attractiveness and positive employer brand sentiment.
Action steps
HR teams looking to leverage new technologies to support employee engagement in 2025 should prepare by:
- Mapping the employee onboarding journey and performing a technology needs assessment to identify technology solutions that best address the areas of friction in employee engagement.
- Performing vendor assessments and pilots to ensure those areas are adequately addressed.
- Developing and/or reviewing policies and procedures to ensure compliance with data privacy and security regulations when rolling out new technologies to support employee engagement efforts.
Want to make smarter, more-informed decisions?
Workforce and people analytics
Across organisations, the collection and use of data to quickly gain valuable insights into employee behavior, engagement levels and performance metrics in support of talent acquisition, diversity and inclusion and employee engagement initiatives, continues to be a priority. Leaders should expect continued HR technology advances supporting these efforts in the coming year.
Trends
Predictive models
Specifically, predictive models will become even more prevalent in 2025 and will be leveraged to predict future trends related to attrition rates or identifying skill gaps within an organisation. These models will enable organisations to take more proactive measures like targeted training programs or personalised career development plans to drive retention.
NLP and sentiment analysis
More and more, Natural Language Processing (NLP) and sentiment analysis technologies will fuel advanced workforce and people analytics, better enabling HR teams to analyse employee feedback, sentiment, and engagement through surveys, social media and other channels.
Challenges and wins
As more and more data is gathered, HR will need to invest in building strategic skills within HR teams to be able to analyse and interpret data effectively. As teams become increasingly global, overcoming language and cultural barriers in sentiment analysis to ensure accurate insights will be an important area of human intervention when assessing data.
In addition, compliance with new and evolving privacy regulations and the increase in AI ethics oversight boards within organisations will drive even greater focus on the ethical use of employee data. HR technology vendor assessments will need to overcome these evaluations to move forward. Ensuring transparency while collecting sensitive information from employees and adhering to strict legal guidelines regarding its storage and usage etc. will be critical.
Despite these challenges, having access to real-time data, including employee sentiment analysis, through these technologies will allow organisations to proactively address concerns related to work-life balance and job satisfaction levels before they escalate further.
Action steps
Given the impact of real-time and continuous data insights in driving greater success for strategic outcomes, HR leaders should be:
- Laying the groundwork for a culture where data-driven decision-making is valued across all levels within the organisation.
- Prepared to provide training opportunities so that employees at all levels feel comfortable working with these new analytical tools.
Learning and development (L&D)
This coming year will undoubtedly bring with it evolving job requirements due to remote working, increased automation and AI adoption within organisations. New technology advancements in L&D can and should be leveraged to support these transformative changes within organisations and contribute to higher employee engagement and retention rates.
Trends
Personalised learning
Rapid advancements in HR technology in 2025 specific to L&D will focus on delivery of targeted and personalised learning experiences at scale, making them more efficient and cost-effective. This focus will also enable employees to access learning resources at their convenience.
AI will play a crucial role here, tailoring learning to individuals’ needs, learning styles and job roles. AI algorithms will analyse employee progress, preferences and performance to recommend relevant learning content and pathways.
Generative AI, virtual reality and augmented reality
Integration of AI into L&D systems is also rapidly transforming how training content is created and delivered with generative AI technologies allowing training content creation on the spot. We will also see increases in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies and, once again, agentic AI powering intelligent AI coaching interfaces and disrupting the traditional L&D systems. These integrations into learning programs will provide immersive, interactive and practical training experiences and allow employees to practice real-world scenarios and acquire new skills in a simulated environment.
Learning analytics
Through it all, robust learning analytics within platforms will empower HR teams to gather real-time data on employee learning progress, performance and engagement to optimise learning experiences.
Challenges and wins
Implementing next generation learning and development technology comes with challenges but can also deliver significant wins for HR where successful. Managing employee data collected through learning platforms while ensuring compliance with privacy regulations necessitates robust data security measures, policy development, training and oversight. Ultimately, however, these personalised self-directed learning experiences can directly contribute to higher employee satisfaction and lower attrition rates. They also improve knowledge retention and engagement, resulting in better learning outcomes for employees and driving greater success for the organisation as a whole.
Action steps
HR leaders looking to leverage these L&D technology trends will want to:
- Perform a skills gaps assessment of their workforce, taking into account the future skills and competencies required, particularly in an AI-driven world.
- Evaluate the existing L&D technology infrastructure and identify any gaps or limitations — this will better equip them to assess new technology solutions that can support the desired learning outcomes and engagement levels.
- Given a rapidly changing HR technology ecosystem, carefully determine the right integration points so new technology will truly enhance learning, through employee experiences delivered in the flow of work. Here, choosing a comprehensive learning platform that supports customisation and integration and provides features like AI-driven recommendations, mobile access and data analytics capabilities, is key, as is flexibility within that technology to allow for quick adjustments supporting more successful learning outcomes.
Recruitment and talent acquisition
With ongoing economic shifts and growing skills and knowledge gaps across organisations, HR technology will continue to be leveraged to drive efficiencies and deliver insights to support recruitment and talent acquisition efforts. Importantly, bringing brand new employees onboard isn’t always the answer when it comes to talent. The demand on HR teams to support analysis as to whether internal skills can be shared across teams, or current employees can be upskilled or reskilled, is increasing, as is the use of technology to aid in this analysis.
“Importantly, bringing brand new employees onboard isn’t always the answer when it comes to talent. The demand on HR teams to support analysis as to whether internal skills can be shared across teams, or current employees can be upskilled or reskilled, is increasing, as is the use of technology to aid in this analysis.”
– Alicia D. Smith, JD, Head of Market Planning at Brightmine
Trends
Key HR technology trends expected in recruitment and talent acquisition in 2025 centre around even greater automation of administrative tasks such as leveraging AI for candidate screening and matching and automating job posting distribution across multiple channels within the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Some key developments include the following:
Automated resume review
Advanced algorithms that can extract relevant information from resumes automatically, saving time for recruiters during candidate evaluation. Technology leaders predict that these will be standard features in ATS, enabling recruiters to focus on activities that bring higher value.
Blockchain technology
Trends around using blockchain technology to ensure secure storage of candidate credentials and allowing quick verification are poised to disrupt third-party background check services in 2025.
Customisable dashboards
Customisable dashboards providing real-time insights into key recruitment metrics such as time-to-fill positions or cost-per-hire will be used to help build cases for internal secondments versus external hiring.
Generative AI and other AI enhancements
Again, agentic AI-powered chatbots will help to streamline candidate interactions by providing instant responses to queries, scheduling interviews and collecting initial screening information.
AI-driven video interviewing platforms that analyse facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language to assess candidates’ suitability for roles and augmented reality (AR) technology, enabling potential candidates to experience a virtual tour of workplaces or perform simulated tasks before applying for a position, will also help streamline and drive efficiencies as well as consistency in recruitment experiences.
VR simulations will increasingly allow recruiters to evaluate candidates’ skills through immersive experiences tailored to specific job requirements.
Challenges and wins
With all this added automation, HR must be careful to ensure recruitment teams maintain the human connection in an increasingly virtual hiring process. However, driving efficiencies, collecting data and insights and enhancing the candidate experience in recruitment will inevitably support increased access to a diverse talent pool and improved quality of hire through advanced screening techniques powered by AI and other data-driven decision-making.
In addition, to foster inclusive hiring practices, specialised software solutions leveraging AI algorithms can help eliminate unconscious bias during candidate selection processes.
Action steps
HR leaders should:
- Remain continuously informed about emerging technologies relevant to recruitment objectives and look to implement pilot projects or proof-of-concepts before scaling up adoption across the organisation.
- Where they have moved forward into implementation, they should conduct regular training programs to upskill HR staff on utilising new technologies and continue to monitor industry leading practices and case studies for driving successful technology implementations.
About the author
Alicia D. Smith, JD
Head of Market Planning, Brightmine
Alicia D. Smith, JD, is the Head of Market Planning at Brightmine. In this role, she leads efforts to assess market trends, identify growth opportunities and align activities across the business to capture these opportunities effectively.
Alicia has over 20 years of award-winning B2B product management experience in highly-regulated industries for several RELX Group companies, including LexisNexis Legal & Professional and currently LexisNexis Risk Solutions Group (Brightmine). As a former practicing attorney, a large part of her career focus centers on delivering best-in-class data-driven products to legal, compliance and HR markets.
Connect with Alicia on LinkedIn.