Developing soft skills and leadership, alongside practical applications of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), will be the main focus for employers in 2025.
Udemy’s 2025 Global Learning & Skills Trends Report, which explored business priorities for the year ahead, identified these three central areas of investment for organisations shaping the future of learning and work.
The online skills marketplace and learning platform analysed data from nearly 17,000 companies. It found they are moving their learning from GenAI fundamentals to more practical applications that allowed teams to implement the technology across operations and focus on real-world integrations into workflows, with GenAI for productivity learning growing by 859% year on year.
Companies are also investing in skill sets such as problem-solving (103%), team building (79%), and business communication (41%), the research showed.
Soft skills
Employers face a ‘soft skills crisis’
A-level results: employers say soft skills are of more value
According to the Udemy, this shift enables employers to ensure new technologies are paired with human creativity and innovation as they enhance key soft skills in tandem with GenAI’s growth. They also free up employees’ time to focus on more strategic, human-centric work.
The platform believes the development of soft skills will also help bridge communication gaps, boost collaboration and increase face-to-face mentorship opportunities as teams adjust to more in-person working with more mandatory returns to the office anticipated in 2025.
Greg Brown, president and CEO at Udemy, explained that GenAI would continue to be closely watched next year, as employers expected it to drive significant productivity gains, speed up skill-building and fuel business growth faster than ever before.
He said: “Our data shows enterprises are looking for practical GenAI solutions that can be applied to daily operations, while also investing in soft skills and leadership development to help support the massive behaviour change that this technology represents. Organisations best positioned for success will be those that embrace GenAI’s positive impact on business outcomes, accelerating human potential, and closing key skills gaps to stay competitive.”
The research also showed leading by example will advance leadership’s position in change management and how their guidance is viewed by employees.
Udemy says leaders must invest in these areas of change management and soft skills development, as well as GenAI skills, to ensure the “AI-enabled era of work” is successful.
Its study found that nearly nine out of 10 workers think their leadership team is critical in ensuring GenAI transformation programmes are successful, yet fewer than half (48%) claim their leaders are prepared to lead these initiatives.
Jim Hemgen, principal and director of talent development at technology company Booz Allen Hamilton, said: “Learning and development leaders are moving beyond whether or not GenAI will transform enterprise learning; now, we’re focused on how we can harness the power of GenAI across diverse use cases to realise immediate business impact and uncover each employee’s potential.”
He added that investing in key skills like applying GenAI and leadership will help AI and human expertise work together to accelerate upskilling, make informed strategic decisions and empower workforces to thrive in a rapidly changing world.
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
