As 2025 approaches, businesses stand at a critical crossroads: Will they soar to new heights by embracing the future of work or stall in the face of emerging challenges? The last few years have been a roller-coaster ride, with a turbulent ascent into a seemingly bright future of work only to take a deep dive into the icy waters of layoffs, burnout, and disillusionment. And just when many thought the bottom had dropped out, we’re seeing faint signs of recovery — a bounce that will either propel companies forward or drag them further down. The fate of your organization depends on how you handle the critical choices coming your way. Among our future of work predictions for 2025, we predict big risks and opportunities such as the following:

  • Conditional EX will dominate the thaw that emerges from the EX winter. After an EX winter coming into 2024, many companies have recommitted to employee experience (EX), or at least a new, narrow definition of EX: treating EX as a carrot to dangle in front of employees rather than the foundation of a sustainable work culture. This “conditional EX” approach — where leadership promises engagement improvements only after they see results — is a shortsighted gamble. We predict that we’ll see a rise in milestone trophies and quick-fix gift card incentives or President’s Club trips to Cabo. But here’s the reality: that glittering surface hides cracks that will widen over time.
  • The return-to-office war will escalate for a small, embattled group of CEOs. The war over return-to-office policies is about to escalate, and not in the way you might expect. With Amazon setting the tone, mandating a full five days a week back in the office, embattled CEOs are lining up to copycat the move. Don’t be fooled, though — this approach will only work for a few giants like Amazon and JPMorganChase that may want the attrition it causes. But for most companies? Forcing the issue is a recipe for rebellion — quiet resistance, soaring attrition, and a hit to productivity. Here’s the reality that most CEOs need to accept: Hybrid is here to stay. With 43% of workers already hybrid in 2024 and the number rising, those who resist this trend will find themselves outpaced in recruitment and talent retention. Reject this fact, and you’re making it really, really easy to predict winners and losers in our 2026 predictions.
  • Organizations will rush to close skills gaps with AI-powered skills intelligence tools. The year 2025 will also mark a reckoning in AI adoption. Many companies have jumped headfirst into the generative AI (genAI) craze, but not all will make it out unscathed. One in seven firms will give up entirely, realizing that they lack the skills, training, and infrastructure to make AI work for them. The ones that get it right, however, will embed AI into their workflows at critical moments, driving productivity gains and preparing for an AI-powered future. In the long run, though, AI tools alone won’t save the day. While the number of organizations adopting these tools is set to jump from 35% to 50% in the next year, most users will still find themselves disappointed without a parallel shift in culture and governance to match the promise of the new tools.

Whether our predictions for 2025 come true for you is up to you. As we saw in 2024, even as the EX winter got colder, companies that zigged while the rest zagged emerged far ahead of their counterparts. We know one financial services company that has the highest employee satisfaction scores it has ever seen, despite the general chilly work climate, because it invested in employees and addressed organizational concerns. Conversely, we’re working with many firms — in media, consumer products, and more — who are dealing with stagnant work cultures, general distrust in executives, and lower confidence in organizational strategy due to letting EX slide for the past year. That’s why we say that the future of work doesn’t have to be your future of work. Whether you stall or soar is up to you.

Read our full Predictions 2025: The Future Of Work report to get more detail about each of these predictions and read additional predictions. Set up a Forrester guidance session to discuss these predictions or plan out your 2025 future of work strategy.

If you aren’t yet a client, you can download one of our complimentary Predictions guides, which cover more of our top predictions for 2025, and get additional complimentary resources, including webinars, on the Predictions 2025 hub.