Experts predict the three biggest enterprise hiring trends for 2025, and they’re bound by one common theme.
The 2025 enterprise hiring space is shaping up to be one of the most dynamic we’ve seen in a while.
After last year’s blue-collar boom, white-collar gloom, and AI fervor, it’s hard to imagine talent acquisition (TA) getting any hotter—but it is. We scarcely made it to the middle of January before the new administration announced major policy shifts on DEI programs, rescinded 60-year-old executive orders on equal employment opportunity, and signaled new stances on remote work.
Is the world moving towards more employer-friendly practices or could these policy shifts turn out to be a double edge sword?
With the year looking about as clear as mud so far, we wanted to get some sensible predictions for the year ahead. To do this, we talked to the enterprise hiring experts over at the TA & HR think tank, CareerXRoads, and our broader network of TA leaders.
Here are our top three predictions for enterprise hiring 2025.
Diving deeper: Watch the full roundtable Everything But AI: What’s In Store for Enterprise Hiring in 2025.
ENTERPRISE HIRING TREND #1
Ethical and Fair Hiring Under Scrutiny
Data will help organizations redefine how they promote fair hiring in this divisive climate.
The conversation around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has already reached a fever pitch this year. President Trump has been firing out Executive Orders designed to end what he calls “woke” hiring practices aimed at increasing the number of underrepresented employees. He’s actually late to the party in his DEI resistance. Companies like Facebook, McDonald’s, Lowe’s, John Deere, and Target among others, having been rowing back their DEI efforts for months.
How will this current iteration of DEI as we know it play out in 2025?
Despite the noise, numbers don’t lie. No matter how we label these programs, there’s tons of evidence showing the positive impact of DEI on business performance. Data is going to shine light on DEI’s value, and also identify disparities in pay, promotions, and opportunities and areas where interventions are needed.
If an employer is committed to fair and ethical hiring — and candidates are paying attention — they’ll want to get ahead of these issues and make sure they have the data to back up their claims. Our experts are already seeing companies re-committing to their DEI programs, because they have the data to show how their efforts are delivering shareholder value. Gary Crispin of CareerXRoads says these companies need as much publicity as those that are reframing DEI practices:
“We need to highlight the champions; those that are doubling down on DEI and fully able to use their data to defend their initiatives. As a profession, we need to be supportive and collectively influence some of our laggards to step up and be counted in terms of where we want to go.”
We predict: This new season of DEI will include a sharp-eyed focus on data, and practitioners will adapt to center metrics in their efforts.
ENTERPRISE HIRING TREND #2
AI Gets an Integrity Check
Training is key to reaping AI’s automation benefits while ensuring fairness in the recruiting process.
Lots of enterprises have placed bets on AI to turbocharge their recruiters’ productivity, but it isn’t the silver bullet many thought it would be. Within the profession, there’s a disconnect between the “automation” benefits of AI (streamlining repetitive tasks like writing job descriptions and résumé screening, which is a workflow issue) and “true AI” (machines making intelligent decisions, which is a compliance issue).
AI tools must have guardrails. They struggle with issues like bias, and using AI without human oversight can lead to legal trouble.
Chris Hoyt of CareerXRoads is optimistic about TA leaders wrapping their arms around the differentiation between automation and AI in 2025. He advocates for more centralized decision-making over the current ad-hoc approach to govern what AI tools recruiters should be using and why, and upskilling TA teams on the fair use of these tools:
“We’re going to see less tech buying for the sake of buying tech, and more people leaning in to solve real problems within TA, many of which get solved presently by AI, with communication, strategy, planning, and engagement.”
Peeking over the AI fence are candidates. As much as commoditized AI tools, like ChatGPT and DeepSeek, are enabling recruiters to handle high volumes, they’re also allowing candidates to apply en masse with AI-generated résumés—or even have bots do the applying for them. Recruiters are getting uncomfortable with this fast. 2025 will see a directional shift towards behavioral-style interviewing to get a clearer picture of the candidate behind the résumé.
Again, the theme here is ethics. Crispin predicts a future where everyone comes to the table with clean hands:
“Companies have to say to candidates, “Here’s how we’re using AI in a positive way, to give you more opportunity to compete for this job. And here’s what we expect of you in terms of your use of AI that can’t be perceived as cheating.””
We predict: By 2025, you’ll see more decision-making around AI tools centralized to teams, upskilling for TA leaders to use tools ethically, and a shift in interview style to stop candidates gaming the system.
ENTERPRISE HIRING TREND #3
Recruitment Operations Get Centralized
Companies will build centers of excellence to cope with rapid changes in how talent is sourced and managed.
2024 was the year the chickens came home to roost for recruiting organizations. After years of being ghosted by recruiters, candidates started no-showing to interviews and even first days of work in alarming numbers. Candidates are way ahead of recruiters in their use of AI and see nothing wrong with using bots to optimize (or game) the job search and application process. The balance of power is shifting fast.
Our experts blame our own profession for these trust problems. After years of failing to do the right thing—such as communicating realistic response times and what it’s actually like to go through the recruiting process—we have unintentionally trained candidates not to trust the process, and now it’s biting us.
For Job Sync’s Leah Daniels, the combined effect of compliance, AI, and the changing state of candidate sentiment itself will prompt employers to centralize their recruiting operations in 2025:
“There’s going to be a bigger investment in centers of excellence for organizations to solve these issues. A lot of decentralized organizations are going to pull back into a centralized model to try to tackle the waves of change that are happening far too fast for a decentralized organization to keep up with.”
What that looks like will differ from company to company. But as employers grapple with issues around their tech stack, directional changes on DEI, and ethical process automation, the ultimate goal must be to reach a point where trust is returned to the recruiting experience—not just for candidates, but recruiters as well.
We predict: Employers will centralize in a bid to optimize talent acquisition processes, creating a seamless and strategic approach focused on building trust with candidates and improving hiring outcomes.
Diving deeper: Read about Hiring Operations and its role in creating operational excellence in recruiting.
