Tag: trends

  • Future of Professionals Report 2025 by Thomson Reuters

    Future of Professionals Report 2025 by Thomson Reuters

    About the paper

    Thomson Reuters’ Future of Professionals Report 2025 examines how AI and GenAI are affecting legal, risk, compliance, tax, accounting, audit and trade professionals, with a particular focus on strategic AI adoption and ROI.

    It is an original survey-based report, drawing on 2,275 responses gathered in February and March 2025 from professionals across firms, corporations, government and in-house functions.

    The geographic scope is international, with responses from the US, Canada, UK, Mainland Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Australia/New Zealand.

    Length: 31 pages

    More information / download:
    https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en/c/future-of-professionals

    Core Insights

    1. What is the central argument of the report?

    The report argues that AI adoption has moved from experimentation to strategic differentiation. Thomson Reuters’ core claim is that the decisive question is no longer whether professional organisations should adopt AI, but whether they do so deliberately, visibly and in alignment with broader business goals.

    The report frames a widening divide between organisations with a clear AI strategy and those relying on informal or ad hoc adoption. Organisations with visible AI strategies are presented as significantly more likely to experience AI-related benefits, including revenue growth, productivity gains and stronger operational performance. By contrast, organisations without a strategy are portrayed as at risk of falling behind within a few years.

    This is not just a technology argument. The report repeatedly emphasises that AI must be connected to organisational purpose, workflow redesign, leadership behaviour, talent strategy and individual professional development. AI is described as an enabler of broader transformation rather than a standalone tool.

    2. What evidence does the report provide that AI is already affecting professional work?

    The report provides several data points showing that AI has already become a major force in professional services and related corporate functions.

    Most prominently, 80% of respondents believe AI will have a high or transformational impact on their profession within five years. At the same time, 53% say their organisation is already experiencing at least one type of benefit from AI adoption. The most common benefits are efficiency, productivity, faster response times, reduced errors, cost reduction and freed-up time.

    The report estimates that AI could save professionals around five hours per week, or 240 hours per year. In the foreword, Thomson Reuters states that for legal professionals this represents an average annual value of around $19,000 per professional, contributing to a combined annual impact of $32 billion in the US legal and tax/accounting sectors.

    However, the report also identifies a gap between expected long-term impact and current organisational change. While 80% expect AI to have a major impact within five years, only 38% expect high or transformational change in their own organisation this year, and 30% believe their organisation is moving too slowly.

    3. What distinguishes organisations that achieve stronger ROI from AI?

    The report’s main explanatory model is the “AI Success Pyramid”, which identifies four layers required for stronger AI returns: strategy, leadership, operations and individual users.

    The strongest lever is strategy. Organisations with a visible AI strategy are described as 3.5 times as likely to experience at least one form of ROI compared with organisations that have no significant AI adoption plans. They are also almost twice as likely to report revenue growth from AI compared with organisations adopting AI informally.

    Leadership is the second layer. Respondents whose leaders lead by example are 1.7 times as likely to see AI benefits. Organisations investing in AI-powered technology are twice as likely to report benefits, while those adding new governance roles are also more likely to experience positive outcomes.

    Operational change is the third layer. The report argues that organisations need to redesign workflows, roles, delivery models, services and pricing structures. This is where AI moves beyond personal productivity and begins to change how professional work is produced and delivered.

    The fourth layer is individual adoption. Professionals with good or expert AI knowledge are 2.8 times as likely to see organisational benefits as those with basic or no knowledge. Regular users of AI tools are 2.4 times as likely to report benefits compared with non-regular users. This makes individual AI literacy a strategic issue, not merely a personal skill upgrade.

    4. What risks, barriers and tensions does the report identify?

    The report identifies several barriers to more robust AI adoption. The largest barrier to investment is demonstrable accuracy, cited by 50% of respondents. This is followed by available budget, data security, ethical concerns and implementation resources.

    Accuracy is especially important because professional work often carries high stakes. The report notes that 91% of professionals believe computers should be held to higher standards of accuracy than humans, including 41% who say AI outputs would need to be 100% accurate before being used without human review. This reinforces the report’s view that human oversight remains essential.

    The report also highlights a new concern: overreliance on AI at the expense of professional skill development. Almost a quarter of respondents identify this as a negative consequence of concern. This is a subtle but important shift from earlier fears of job loss towards worries about deskilling, judgement and long-term professional capability.

    Another major tension is misalignment between organisational and individual adoption. Some professionals have personal AI goals but are unaware of any organisational strategy, meaning they are being encouraged to adopt AI without clear guidance. Conversely, some organisations have AI strategies but professionals lack personal AI goals, creating an implementation gap.

    The report also describes the “jagged edge” of AI adoption: uneven adoption across regions, functions, organisations and demographics. For example, some organisations invest heavily but see low individual usage, suggesting wasted investment and weak change management. Others see high individual usage but low organisational investment, which may create risks if employees rely on public tools without proper safeguards.

    5. What does the report imply for the future of professional work?

    The report implies that professional value will increasingly depend on the ability to combine domain expertise with AI fluency. It does not argue that AI replaces professional judgement. Instead, it argues that modern professionals will use AI to augment core abilities such as research, writing, analysis, communication, project management, technical expertise and higher-order thinking.

    The “modern professional” in the report is someone who can use AI as a working partner: to analyse patterns, compare regulations, draft documents, summarise complex material, explain specialist issues in accessible ways, manage deadlines and explore scenarios. The traditional professional skillset remains important, but the report suggests that it will increasingly be mediated and amplified by technology.

    The report also points to a significant skills gap. Forty-six percent of respondents report skills gaps within their teams, with the largest gap in technology and data skills. Technical domain expertise is also a concern. This means the future challenge is not only AI adoption but reskilling across multiple levels of the organisation.

    The report’s final implication is competitive: organisations and professionals that act deliberately are likely to gain advantage, while those that wait may lose relevance. For organisations, this means connecting AI to strategy, governance, workflow and value creation. For individuals, it means developing AI proficiency through formal training, experimentation, peer learning and active involvement in how AI is developed and used.

  • The Ipsos AI Monitor 2025 by Ipsos

    The Ipsos AI Monitor 2025 by Ipsos

    About the paper

    The paper is a 30-country survey about public understanding of AI, trust, perceived risks, and expectations for AI’s impact on work, content, brands, economies and everyday life.

    It is original survey research conducted by Ipsos via its Global Advisor online platform and, in India, its IndiaBus platform, between 21 March and 4 April 2025, with 23,216 adults across 30 countries; India used a mixed face-to-face and online approach.

    The methodology is clear, but Ipsos notes that some country samples are more “connected” than nationally representative, and that the 30-country average is an unweighted average across markets rather than a population-adjusted global figure.

    Length: 57 pages

    More information / download:
    https://www.ipsos.com/en-dk/ipsos-ai-monitor-2025

    Core Insights

    1. What is the central tension in public attitudes towards AI?

    The report’s central argument is that public opinion on AI is defined by a tension Ipsos calls the “Wonder and the Worry of AI”. People recognise AI’s potential and expect it to become embedded in many areas of life, but they also feel nervous about its consequences.

    At the 30-country average level, 52% say AI products and services make them excited, while 53% say they make them nervous. That means excitement and anxiety are not opposing camps so much as overlapping reactions: many people appear to hold both views at once.

    This tension is also geographically uneven. The Anglosphere — the US, Great Britain, Canada, Ireland and Australia — is described as more nervous than excited. European markets sit in a middle zone, with moderate excitement and less intense nervousness. Several South-East Asian markets are much more positive, while Japan is presented as an outlier: neither especially excited nor especially nervous.

    The broader meaning is that AI is not being received as a simple “innovation story”. People expect progress, but they are not automatically confident that the benefits will be fairly distributed, responsibly governed, or socially benign.

    2. How much do people understand AI, and how does knowledge vary by country?

    A majority say they understand AI at a general level, but fewer say they understand where AI is actually being used.

    Across the 30 countries, 67% agree that they have a good understanding of what artificial intelligence is. However, only 52% say they know which types of products and services use AI. That gap matters: people may feel familiar with AI as a concept while still being unsure where it is embedded in everyday services.

    There are large country differences. Indonesia, Thailand and South Africa are among the highest on claimed understanding of AI, while Japan is lowest. For knowing which products and services use AI, Indonesia and Thailand again rank high, while Belgium, Japan and Canada are at the lower end.

    This suggests that “AI literacy” is not just a question of awareness. The public may know the term, recognise the general idea, and still lack practical understanding of where AI is operating in search, marketing, recruitment, news, advertising, disinformation, customer service or workplace tools.

    3. What does the report reveal about trust in AI, companies and governments?

    Trust is one of the report’s most important fault lines. People are not simply asking whether AI is useful; they are asking who controls it, who regulates it, and whether organisations using it can be trusted.

    Only 48% across the 30-country average say they trust companies using AI to protect their personal data. Trust is much higher in countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and India, while Sweden, Canada, Japan, France and the United States sit much lower. The net trust measure is only slightly positive at the global country average level, which signals a fragile trust environment for brands and platforms.

    Governments are trusted somewhat more than companies in this context: 54% say they trust their government to regulate AI responsibly. But this also varies dramatically. Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are high-trust markets, while the United States, Japan, Hungary, Great Britain and Canada are much lower. Ipsos suggests that low trust in government regulation may help explain higher nervousness in some markets, especially the US.

    One striking finding is that people say they trust AI more than people not to discriminate or show bias. At the 30-country average, 54% trust AI not to discriminate or show bias, compared with 45% who trust people not to discriminate or show bias. That does not mean people think AI is neutral; rather, it suggests that public trust in human fairness is also weak.

    The strongest trust-related consensus is disclosure. Seventy-nine per cent agree that products and services using AI should have to disclose that use. This is one of the clearest implications for organisations: transparency is not a niche concern but a mainstream expectation.

    4. How do people feel about AI-generated content, advertising and brand use?

    The report shows a clear public distinction between expecting AI-generated content and preferring it. People believe AI will be widely used, but they still prefer human-created content in most cases.

    For example, 79% think AI is likely to be used for online search results, and only 28% say they are uncomfortable with that use. That suggests search may be one of the more socially acceptable AI applications. By contrast, people are much more uncomfortable with AI-generated political ads, AI-written news stories, AI screening job applicants, and AI used to create or target disinformation.

    When asked about content preferences, the public consistently favours human-driven content. Seventy per cent prefer human-driven online news articles or websites; 71% prefer human-driven photojournalism; 67% prefer human-driven movies; 62% prefer human-driven advertising; and 60% prefer human-driven customer marketing websites.

    For brands, the picture is mixed and potentially risky. People are split on whether AI use would make them trust companies more or less. At the 30-country average, AI-enhanced product images produce 34% more trust and 38% distrust; AI-written product descriptions produce 33% more trust and 42% distrust; AI-created advertising images or video produce 30% more trust and 38% distrust; and AI-written product reviews produce 29% more trust and 36% distrust.

    The implication is that AI use in marketing is not automatically reputationally damaging, but it is not automatically efficiency-positive either. Brands may gain from AI where it improves usefulness, speed or relevance, but they risk distrust when AI is perceived as deceptive, synthetic, manipulative or insufficiently disclosed.

    5. What future impact do people expect AI to have on jobs, economies and everyday life?

    People expect AI to become more important in daily life, but their expectations are uneven across domains.

    A majority already feel AI has affected them: 52% say AI products and services have profoundly changed their daily life in the past three to five years. Looking ahead, 67% say AI will profoundly change their daily life in the next three to five years. So AI is not viewed as speculative; it is already part of people’s lived experience and expected to intensify.

    On work, the findings are ambivalent. Globally, 59% think AI is likely to change how they do their current job in the next five years, but only 36% think it is likely to replace their current job. Even more importantly, people are more optimistic about their own job than about the wider labour market. Among those with a job, 38% think AI will make their own job better, while 16% think it will make it worse. But for the job market overall, only 31% think AI will make it better, while 35% think it will make it worse.

    This “my job versus the job market” distinction is one of the report’s most useful insights. People may believe they personally can adapt, benefit or remain protected, while still worrying about broader labour disruption.

    The same pattern appears in other future-facing areas. People are optimistic that AI will improve efficiency: 55% say it will make the amount of time it takes to get things done better, compared with only 10% who say worse. They are also more positive than negative about entertainment options and health. But they are much more concerned about disinformation: only 29% think AI will make the amount of disinformation on the internet better, while 40% think it will make it worse.

    Economically, the global country average is cautiously positive: 34% think AI will improve their country’s economy, while 23% think it will worsen it. Ipsos argues that countries most excited about AI tend to be countries where people are also more likely to believe AI will benefit the economy. In other words, enthusiasm appears tied not only to technology itself, but to whether people believe AI will produce visible, shared economic benefits.

  • Trends – Artificial Intelligence by BOND

    Trends – Artificial Intelligence by BOND

    About the paper

    The report is a mixed-methods, chart-led secondary analysis of artificial intelligence trends, compiled by BOND from a wide range of public and private company data, market research, government sources and additional non-public insights.

    It does not present one unified survey or a single fieldwork sample, so the total number of respondents, cases or participants is not clearly specified in the report; those figures vary by source and chart.

    The geographic scope is global, with a strong emphasis on the United States and China, alongside regional and country-level comparisons.

    BOND Capital and Mary Meeker have not released AI trend reports in years other than 2025. The 2025 “Trends – Artificial Intelligence” edition marked a revival of Meeker’s trend series after a six-year gap, evolving from her famous annual “Internet Trends” reports that ran from 1995 to 2019

    Length: 340 pages

    More information / download:
    https://www.bondcap.com/reports/tai

    Core Insights

    1) Why does the report argue that AI change is happening faster than ever?

    The report’s central argument is that AI is not simply another technology cycle but a compounding force built on top of existing internet infrastructure, massive digital datasets, better chips, improving models and intense capital deployment. BOND presents AI as accelerating faster than earlier technology waves because the rails were already in place: billions of connected users, decades of data accumulation and a ready-made global digital distribution system. That is why the report repeatedly frames the current moment as unprecedented in pace and scope, spanning technical, financial, social, physical and geopolitical change all at once.

    It also argues that AI differs from earlier waves because it arrived into a world that was already organised, connected and digitally mature. In the report’s telling, the internet took years to build the conditions for mass diffusion, whereas generative AI could scale immediately on top of them. This makes AI both a product of prior technological compounding and a new multiplier on top of it. The report therefore treats AI as a step-change in how information is accessed, created and distributed, rather than as a simple continuation of software history.

    A further reason the report sees change as unusually fast is that the race is not only commercial but geopolitical. It repeatedly links AI progress to strategic competition, especially between the US and China, and suggests that this rivalry is intensifying investment, product release cycles and the urgency of deployment. In that sense, speed is presented not just as a market phenomenon but as a consequence of state-level and corporate competition feeding each other.

    2) What evidence does the report provide that AI adoption and usage are scaling at an exceptional rate?

    The report uses ChatGPT as its clearest proxy for AI adoption and argues that its scale-up has been historically extraordinary. One headline figure is that ChatGPT reached an estimated 800 million weekly active users by April 2025. Another is that BOND compares ChatGPT’s path to 100 million users with earlier consumer platforms and concludes that it reached that threshold far faster than services such as Netflix, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok. The argument is straightforward: AI is not merely growing quickly; it is outpacing the adoption curves of landmark digital products.

    The report also stresses how global that adoption is. One of its most striking comparisons is that around 90% of ChatGPT app users were outside North America by year three, whereas the internet took roughly 23 years to reach a similar share. That comparison underpins one of the report’s biggest claims: unlike earlier foundational technologies that spread outwards from the US over a long period, AI reached a global audience almost immediately. The geographic focus here is explicitly worldwide, though the report notes that availability constraints in places such as China affect the underlying app data.

    Beyond end users, the report points to rising developer adoption and ecosystem participation. It highlights 6 million developers in NVIDIA’s ecosystem and says Google reported more than 7 million developers building with Gemini, up fivefold year on year. This matters because the report is not only describing consumer enthusiasm; it is also arguing that the builder base around AI is widening quickly, which in turn supports more products, more infrastructure demand and more downstream usage.

    3) How does the report explain the economics of AI, especially the tension between rising investment and falling usage costs?

    A key theme in the report is that AI economics are pulling in two directions at once. On one side, training and infrastructure costs are high and still rising. BOND highlights very large capital expenditure by major US technology firms and shows the “Big Six” reaching $212 billion in capex in 2024, up 63% year on year. That supports the report’s broader claim that AI requires enormous spending on compute, data centres and model development.

    On the other side, the report argues that the cost of using AI is falling sharply for customers and developers. Its framing is that while frontier training remains expensive, inference is becoming cheaper and cheaper, which leads to wider access, more experimentation and increasing convergence in model performance. In other words, the barriers to building frontier systems remain high, but the barriers to using AI tools are falling. That combination is central to the report’s optimism about continued adoption.

    The report also makes clear that monetisation remains unresolved. One illustrative chart compares estimated revenue and compute expense for a leading US-based AI LLM company and shows strong revenue growth alongside very large compute losses. That supports a more nuanced economic reading: AI demand is real, but profitability is not yet settled. The report therefore presents the current phase as one in which consumers and enterprise users are benefiting from rapid improvement and falling usage costs, while producers are still absorbing heavy investment burdens.

    4) What does the report suggest about competition, monetisation and the global balance of power in AI?

    The report presents competition in AI as both fierce and structurally destabilising. It emphasises that incumbents, startups, open-source communities and state-backed ecosystems are all competing at once. One reason monetisation looks fragile, in BOND’s view, is that open-source momentum and Chinese advances are placing pressure on the pricing power and defensibility of leading US model providers. The report therefore does not portray the current leaders as secure winners. Instead, it describes a market in which advantage can erode quickly.

    That point becomes especially clear in its competitive charts. BOND shows relative desktop user-share shifts across leading LLMs and highlights the emergence of a Chinese model within a short period. It also repeatedly returns to US–China rivalry as a defining strategic frame, suggesting that AI leadership may translate into broader geopolitical influence. In this sense, the report sees AI not just as a commercial contest over products and margins, but as a contest over standards, platforms and long-term international dependence.

    At the same time, the report is not purely alarmist. Its perspective is broadly pro-innovation and cautiously optimistic. It argues that intense competition may accelerate progress, widen access and keep the field dynamic, even if it also increases uncertainty. But its assumptions are clear: AI is now a strategic domain, leadership matters, and no company or country can assume its position is fixed.

    5) What broader implications does the report identify for work, society and the physical world?

    The report argues that AI is moving beyond chatbots and software assistance into the “physical world” and the workplace. One example it uses is autonomous mobility in San Francisco, where an autonomous taxi provider’s operating-zone market share rises sharply over the period shown. That chart is meant to illustrate that AI is no longer confined to digital interfaces; it is beginning to reshape real-world services, logistics and robotics-related applications.

    On work, the report says change is already visible rather than merely speculative. A chart on US IT jobs shows AI-related postings rising strongly while non-AI postings decline over the same indexed period. The implication is not simply that more technology jobs are appearing, but that the composition of demand is changing. BOND’s broader argument is that AI is likely to reconfigure the nature of work, the skills that employers value and the kinds of roles that expand or contract.

    The report also addresses social implications in a wider sense. It includes a benefits-and-risks section that acknowledges the promise of AI for productivity, science and material abundance, while also flagging risks such as surveillance, persuasion, employment disruption, biased decision-making, cybersecurity problems and safety-critical misuse. That matters because the report is not making a narrow market-growth case. It is arguing that AI is becoming a civilisation-scale force whose effects will be economic, political and societal at the same time.

    Taken together, the report’s conclusion is that AI’s significance lies in its breadth. It is changing information flows, business competition, labour demand, public power and physical systems all at once. That is why BOND treats this moment less as a discrete technology story and more as a large-scale transformation in how economies and societies operate.

  • Navigating the future of communication by Burson

    Navigating the future of communication by Burson

    About the paper

    The paper is a forward-looking trends report on how AI, media change, misinformation, data consolidation, Web3, and reputation risk are expected to reshape communications in 2025 and beyond.

    It appears to be a mixed secondary-analysis and thought-leadership report rather than original research: it synthesises external forecasts, surveys, risk reports, media articles, and Burson’s own strategic framing, but does not clearly specify a formal methodology, sample, fieldwork period, or a defined respondent base.

    The geographic scope is partly global and partly U.S.-centred: many headline claims are framed globally, but several examples and the closing policy section focus specifically on the United States.

    Length: 9 pages

    More information / download:
    https://www.bursonglobal.com/insights/global/navigating-the-future-of-communications-10-innovation-trends-for-2025-and-beyond

    Core Insights

    1. What is the report’s central argument about the future of communications?

    The core argument is that communications is entering a period of accelerated, technology-driven transformation in which AI is not just another tool but the main force reshaping how organisations understand audiences, manage risk, create content, monitor issues, and protect reputation. The report presents this as both a strategic opportunity and a survival challenge: communicators who adapt quickly will become more predictive, data-driven, and resilient, while those who do not risk falling behind in an increasingly volatile environment.

    Burson’s framing is not that one single trend dominates everything, but that several trends are converging at once. AI model improvement, agentic systems, fragmented media, misinformation, explainability, and proactive reputation management all reinforce one another. That means communications is becoming more complex, more technical, and more tightly connected to business strategy. The report repeatedly returns to the idea that communicators must move from reactive messaging to continuous monitoring, predictive analysis, and earlier intervention.

    The conclusion makes this explicit: future success depends on combining data-driven strategy with ethics, adaptability, and human judgement. In other words, the report argues that communications is becoming a more intelligence-led, risk-aware, and technologically mediated function, but one that still depends on trust, authenticity, and human connection.

    2. Which trends does the report identify as most important, and what practical shifts do they imply for communicators?

    The report’s ten trends are: rapid improvement in AI models and computing capacity; the rise of agentic frameworks; a shifting media landscape; data consolidation and intelligence; misinformation as a growing threat; the continuing importance of human expertise; explainable AI; cognitive AI for proactive reputation risk mitigation; convergence between Web3 and generative AI; and the growing importance of proactive reputation management.

    Taken together, these trends imply several practical shifts. First, communicators are expected to become more technologically fluent. The report says they must understand which AI models and tools to use for predictive messaging, crisis management, engagement, and analytics. Second, workflows are likely to become more automated through AI agents, but with a continued need for human oversight and authenticity. Third, media relations and social strategy can no longer focus only on established platforms; communicators need stronger social listening and broader platform awareness as the media environment fragments and becomes more politically charged.

    Fourth, the function becomes more data-intensive. Burson argues that communicators need stronger analytics capabilities and better integration of multiple data sources in order to spot patterns, measure performance, and anticipate issues. Fifth, reputation work becomes more preventive than reactive: predictive analytics, scenario planning, and faster response systems are presented as essential. Finally, the report suggests that communication leaders must build teams that blend AI literacy with strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, and crisis judgement. That is a notable shift away from seeing communications mainly as content production or media handling.

    3. What evidence and patterns does the report use to support its view of change?

    The report relies heavily on externally sourced statistics, market forecasts, and selected examples to create a picture of rapid acceleration. For AI, it cites projected global market growth to $2.58 trillion by 2032 and says training compute for leading models has doubled every six months. It also references recent model launches such as GPT-4.5, Gemini 2.5, and Gemini Robotics as evidence that capability is improving fast and expanding into more multimodal and physical-world applications.

    For media and misinformation, it points to Bluesky’s user growth, public concern about AI-driven misinformation, the spread of political deepfakes, and the World Economic Forum’s ranking of misinformation as the top short-term risk. These examples support a broader pattern: the information environment is becoming harder to control, less stable, and more vulnerable to manipulation.

    For data, trust, and reputation, the report cites enterprise adoption of real-time analytics, claims about efficiency gains from AI-driven data consolidation, projected growth in AI-powered risk-mitigation tools, and statistics linking strong reputation to faster crisis recovery and stronger purchase intent. The sector heatmap on page 7 adds another pattern: Burson argues that healthcare, technology, and financial services are likely to feel the strongest immediate impact from these trends, while trust-related issues such as explainability, misinformation, and reputation management matter broadly across sectors. Visually, the report uses charts and a heatmap to reinforce the idea that these changes are measurable, cross-sectoral, and already under way rather than speculative.

    4. What assumptions, perspective, and purpose shape the report?

    The report is clearly written from an industry advisory perspective. Its purpose is not only to describe future developments but to persuade communication leaders that they need to modernise their capabilities and invest in more advanced intelligence, monitoring, and risk-management approaches. The repeated “So what” sections show that the paper is designed as an actionable executive briefing rather than a neutral academic study.

    Its perspective is also shaped by Burson’s commercial position. The paper repeatedly frames the trends in ways that align with Burson’s services and proprietary tools, and later names products such as Sonar, Decipher, Flight School, and The Fount as solutions for the challenges described. That does not automatically invalidate the analysis, but it does mean the report should be read as strategic thought leadership with a business-development dimension, not as detached independent research.

    A further assumption running through the report is that more intelligence, more data integration, and more AI-supported foresight will generally improve communications outcomes. Another is that trust, transparency, and human judgement will remain crucial even as automation grows. The report therefore holds two ideas together: communications will become more machine-assisted, but legitimacy will still depend on explainability, credibility, and human expertise.

    5. What are the report’s main implications and conclusions for organisations and communication leaders?

    The main implication is that communications leaders need to rethink the function as an integrated capability spanning technology, intelligence, risk sensing, governance, and reputation strategy. This is no longer just about crafting messages; it is about building systems that can detect issues early, model likely reactions, respond quickly, and maintain trust across unstable media and political conditions.

    A second implication is organisational: teams will need reskilling. The report suggests that AI literacy, data fluency, and comfort with predictive tools will become baseline expectations, but that these must be combined with distinctly human strengths such as judgement, empathy, and crisis leadership. This implies changes in hiring, training, and operating models.

    A third implication concerns governance and trust. Because the report highlights misinformation, explainability, regulation, and political volatility, it suggests that communicators will increasingly sit closer to questions of ethics, compliance, public affairs, and executive risk management. The section on the 2025 U.S. administration makes that especially clear: communications is portrayed as operating in a more volatile regulatory and platform environment where policy shifts, moderation changes, tariffs, and infrastructure decisions affect both messaging and stakeholder trust.

    The final conclusion is that the winners will be the organisations that become proactive rather than reactive. Burson’s report consistently argues for earlier sensing, faster response, stronger data integration, and more scenario-based planning. Its ultimate message is that the future of communications belongs to organisations that can combine technological capability with transparency, agility, and human-centred judgement.

  • 2025 Global Communication Report by USC Annenberg

    2025 Global Communication Report by USC Annenberg

    About the paper

    The report examines how four forces—artificial intelligence, hybrid and remote work, the changing media landscape, and political polarization—are reshaping public relations, with a particular focus on generational differences across Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers.

    It is based on original research using an online survey fielded from 9 January to 1 February 2025, with 1,077 respondents drawn through non-probability volunteer sampling from PR professionals and related communicators.

    The data is international but weighted heavily towards the United States: 51% of respondents were from organisations operating in the U.S., with additional respondents from the rest of the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and 22% representing global companies.

    Length: 44 pages

    More information / download:
    https://annenberg.usc.edu/research/center-public-relations/global-communication-report

    Core Insights

    1. What is the report’s central argument about the future of public relations?

      The report’s core argument is that public relations is entering a period of profound disruption, and that the profession’s future will be determined by how well it responds to four simultaneous pressures: AI, hybrid work, media fragmentation and political polarization. The authors argue that these trends are not isolated; together they are redefining how communicators work, what skills matter, how organisations recruit, and what kinds of strategic choices PR professionals will have to make.

      At a headline level, the profession remains notably optimistic. The report says 74% of respondents have a very or somewhat positive outlook for the future growth of public relations, despite mergers, layoffs and broader economic, political and technological upheaval. That optimism is broadly shared across generations, but the report questions whether the industry is genuinely prepared for what lies ahead or simply overly confident.

      The deeper argument is that the biggest story is not just disruption itself, but the gap in how different generations interpret it. Younger practitioners are consistently more positive about AI, new media channels, flexible work and purpose-led expectations, while older professionals tend to be more cautious, more attached to traditional models and more concerned about misinformation, staffing reductions and social risk. The phrase “Mind the Gap” is therefore not just branding; it is the report’s organising thesis about the future of the profession.

      2. How does the report say AI is changing public relations, and where are the main points of agreement and disagreement?

      The report presents AI as the most important positive force shaping the future of PR, with 60% saying it will have a positive effect on the profession and 28% saying it will have a negative one. It also finds that communicators already use AI in practical, operational areas rather than in abstract or speculative ways. The most common current uses are social media, research and analytics, and press material development, while investor relations and public affairs lag well behind.

      There is also a strong pragmatic streak in the findings. Respondents generally believe humans will remain essential to effective public relations, but their confidence varies sharply by generation. Boomers and Gen X are much more likely than Gen Z and Millennials to strongly agree that humans will remain central. At the same time, younger groups are more likely to believe AI will generate more content, reduce costs, reshape hiring and alter agency economics. In other words, younger professionals are not necessarily more idealistic about AI; they are often more commercially radical in what they think it will do.

      The report also highlights a training paradox. Most respondents do not expect entry-level employees to be AI experts; a functional level of competence is seen as sufficient by the largest share. Yet there is little confidence in universities or PR agencies as the main providers of AI training. Instead, respondents look most strongly to specialised programmes. That implies an institutional gap: AI matters enormously, but the profession does not yet appear to believe its traditional training systems are fully equipped to prepare the next generation.

      At the level of future impact, the report is mixed rather than triumphalist. Many expect AI to improve work quality and individual creativity, but substantial shares also expect reduced staffing and lower agency budgets. So the report does not portray AI as a simple productivity win. It presents it as a force that may simultaneously improve output, change business models and threaten traditional career structures, especially at entry level.

      3. What does the report reveal about hybrid and remote work, and why does it matter for the profession?

      The report shows that hybrid and remote work are no longer fringe preferences but central expectations within the profession. Respondents report an average of roughly two days per week in the office overall, and most expect the future to include either a minimum number of days on premises or some form of remote option. Only a relatively small minority expect to be in the office every day.

      The significance of this is not just logistical. The report frames flexibility as a strategic issue affecting morale, recruitment, retention and culture. Strong majorities across all generations say flexible work schedules matter, and many believe hybrid working makes it easier to recruit top talent. At the same time, there is no consensus that remote work automatically improves productivity; support is much stronger for flexibility than for the idea that home working always produces better work. That distinction matters because it suggests the debate is no longer simply about efficiency. It is about what professionals now expect from work itself.

      Generationally, younger respondents are more likely to see hybrid work as the future and more willing to trade salary for flexibility. The report points to a 25-point gap between Gen Z and Boomers on willingness to take a pay cut to work from home. It also finds that in-house professionals face tougher return-to-office pressures than agency staff, and that in-house respondents are more likely to say their organisations want employees back in the office full-time.

      The broader implication is that hybrid work has become a competitive issue for employers. The report explicitly suggests that organisations insisting on rigid return-to-office policies may face an uphill battle in attracting and retaining talent. It also notes that 74% of mid-level or higher PR professionals would hire a talented candidate regardless of where they are located. That points to a profession increasingly comfortable with distributed talent, even if organisational policies have not fully caught up.

      4. How does the report describe the changing media landscape, and what does it suggest this means for PR strategy and skills?

      The report argues that PR is moving decisively away from legacy media dominance and towards a more fragmented, platform-led environment in which social media, podcasts, apps and influencers carry growing strategic weight. Social media is rated the most relevant channel for 2030, followed by podcasts and smartphone apps, while network television, print publications and cable news are seen as least relevant.

      This shift has two important dimensions. First, it changes what communicators believe works. For marketing campaigns, viral activity on TikTok or Instagram is rated most effective overall, ahead of podcast interviews and morning television appearances. Second, it changes what skills matter. The report still places writing at the top of entry-level skill priorities, but it also shows growing importance for social content creation, research, analytics, influencer relations and paid media—especially among younger respondents.

      Gen Z is the clear outlier throughout this section. Younger practitioners are more bullish on social media, podcasts, influencer promotion, paid advertising and even the continuing utility of press releases. The report interprets this as more than a preference difference. It suggests younger communicators understand how content circulates on the platforms they grew up with, and are therefore better positioned to navigate creator relationships, platform logic and searchability. Older professionals, by contrast, tend to place relatively more value on legacy outlets and are more sceptical of the newer channels.

      But the report does not celebrate this transition uncritically. It identifies misinformation as the biggest concern arising from the changing media environment. Older generations are especially worried that declining legacy media will damage news accuracy, credibility and the public’s ability to distinguish fact from falsehood. Younger respondents are less alarmed, which the report interprets as partly reflecting their comfort with digital information environments. Still, the report warns that AI may make this harder for everyone, and even suggests PR agencies may need internal fact-checking capacity as a reputation safeguard.

      5. What does the report say about political polarization, corporate purpose and the generational divide in values?

      Political polarization emerges as the most negative of the four forces studied. It is the trend respondents are least likely to see as beneficial and one of the hardest for practitioners to navigate in day-to-day work. The report describes polarization not simply as disagreement, but as a structural feature of contemporary politics and media—something used to drive attention, fundraising and support, and something that creates uncertainty and reputational risk for organisations.

      One of the report’s most striking findings is the collapse in support for companies addressing social issues not directly relevant to their business. The share answering “yes” to that proposition fell from 89% in 2023 to 85% in 2024 and then to 52% in 2025. The report presents this as evidence that corporate purpose has run into the hard realities of backlash, consumer anger and political conflict. It explicitly links this decline to polarization and to business leaders becoming more risk-averse after high-profile controversies.

      Yet here too the generational divide is crucial. Younger communicators remain far more supportive of corporate purpose, inclusion initiatives and broader social commitments than older groups. The report shows that Gen Z places significantly greater importance on inclusion initiatives and on public policy issues such as abortion and immigration when considering whether to work for a company. It also finds that Gen Z is more optimistic that companies will continue to increase commitments to taking stands on social issues, purpose-driven campaigns and ESG-style initiatives, while older generations are more doubtful.

      This produces one of the report’s most important implications: future recruitment and retention may hinge not only on salary and flexibility, but on organisational values. The report suggests companies retreating from inclusion or broader social commitments may face talent problems, especially with younger professionals. At the same time, it shows clear limits to idealism: many respondents across generations would refuse to work for certain sectors such as tobacco, firearms and gambling, with especially strong resistance among Gen Z towards environmentally harmful industries such as mining and oil.

      Taken together, the report’s conclusion is that the future of PR will be shaped by whether older and younger professionals can work across these differences. The authors do not argue that the gaps must disappear. Rather, they argue that the profession must recognise them, understand them and avoid letting established assumptions block adaptation. That is the report’s final message: not that one generation is right and another is wrong, but that the future belongs to those willing to listen across the divide.

    1. Employee Communications Report 2025 Global Edition by Gallagher

      Employee Communications Report 2025 Global Edition by Gallagher

      About the paper

      The report is a mixed-methods industry report on the state of internal communication and employee experience, focusing on communicator performance, purpose, measurement, relationships, channels, AI, change and wellbeing.

      It combines 2,000+ survey responses with qualitative input from a steering committee of 8, a dashboard discussion group of 20, and six focus groups involving 37 attendees; fieldwork ran between August and December 2024, with the survey itself conducted from October to November 2024.

      The data is global in scope, covering 55 countries, though the respondent base is weighted towards North America, the UK and Europe.

      Length: 40 pages

      More information / download:
      https://www.ajg.com/employeeexperience/state-of-the-sector/

      Core Insights

      1. What is the report’s main argument about what makes internal communicators successful in 2025?

      The central argument is that communicator success is shaped less by sheer effort or tactical busyness and more by two reinforcing capabilities: using data well and building productive relationships across the organisation. The report states this explicitly in both the introduction and conclusion, arguing that the communicators who perform best are those who can collect, synthesise and apply data tied to business impact, while also maintaining strong cross-functional and leadership relationships.

      That argument is strengthened by the report’s “communicator profiles”: Survivors, Strivers and Thrivers. Thrivers stand out because they score better on KPI performance, confidence, relationship quality, purpose progress and data effectiveness. They are described as aligned, future-focused and consistently able to exceed targets, whereas Survivors tend to operate reactively in poor conditions with weak structures and limited room for growth.

      The report therefore presents success not as a matter of output volume, but as a matter of operating model. Thrivers spend more time on architectural work such as strategy, planning and leadership support, while Survivors spend more time on administration and reactive tactical work. In effect, the report says that the strongest communicators are not simply producing more content; they are better positioned to shape decisions, interpret evidence and influence the business.

      2. How do communicators currently define their purpose, and where is the biggest tension in that purpose?

      The report finds that the top three purposes of internal communication in 2025 are strategic alignment, culture and belonging, and organisational agility. In other words, communicators see their role as helping employees understand the business direction, feel part of the organisation, and adapt to change. Employee listening ranks just outside the top three, but the report treats it as a critical enabling function running through all of them.

      The biggest tension is what the report calls the “purpose vs. perception paradox”. Unlike finance or operations, communications does not have a universally fixed, easily understood mandate. That flexibility can be useful because the function can adapt to business needs, but it also creates risk: when communicators have to define their own purpose rather than receiving a clear top-down mandate, the function may be seen as less indispensable. The report suggests this ambiguity contributes to scope creep and weakens the perceived strategic standing of communication.

      There is also a notable performance gap hidden inside the purpose data. Around two in three respondents are satisfied with progress on strategic alignment and culture and belonging, but satisfaction is far lower on areas such as employee listening and organisational agility. The report notes a roughly 50-point gap between Thrivers and Survivors on progress in the top-ranked purpose areas. So the issue is not only defining purpose, but converting stated purpose into actual progress.

      3. What barriers are most undermining communicator performance, and what do they reveal about the organisational environment?

      The top barriers for 2025 are lack of time and capacity, change fatigue, poor people-manager communication, lack of clear direction from the top, and poor leadership communication. These barriers point to a communications environment under strain, where the problem is not simply channel overload or lack of tools, but wider organisational conditions: too much change, too little clarity, and too much dependence on leaders and managers who are not consistently effective communicators.

      The report goes further by showing that the most damaging blockers are all closely tied to leadership and organisational power.

      The five barriers that most strongly depress communicator confidence are:

      • lack of involvement in decision-making
      • lack of clear direction from the top
      • lack of analytics and measurement
      • lack of involvement in change management
      • and lack of support from senior leaders.

      In other words, communicators struggle most when they are excluded from strategy, lack evidence, or are expected to execute without influence.

      Change fatigue is especially important. It is a new entry in the barrier list yet immediately becomes one of the most significant. The report argues that employees are dealing not just with external uncertainty but with multiple internal change initiatives, often poorly coordinated. Communicators describe a situation where leaders push messages because they feel they are important, without enough attention to what employees actually need to know. That reveals an environment of change saturation rather than disciplined transformation.

      4. What does the report show about measurement, data and cross-functional relationships as drivers of impact?

      One of the report’s strongest themes is that communicator impact depends on both measurement capability and relationship quality. The average communicator is accountable for seven KPIs, most of them shared with other departments, especially HR and the C-suite. That means internal communication rarely “owns” success alone; it operates through joint accountability.

      However, the report also finds a gap between accountability and actual measurement. For instance, while 92% of respondents have some accountability for employee engagement, only 71% regularly monitor it. Likewise, 56% are accountable for employee retention, but only 40% track it as a business metric. This suggests that communicators are often held responsible for outcomes they do not consistently measure, access, or interpret well enough.

      At the same time, the report shows that using data well is closely associated with better outcomes. Communicators who exceed targets are more likely to use data to understand communication effectiveness, inform tactics, evaluate tactics, demonstrate value and shape content decisions. Thrivers are especially strong here, and the report links their success not only to data usage itself but to their ability to connect that data to leadership priorities.

      Relationships are the second half of the equation. Collaborative relationships with HR and the C-suite correlate positively with data use, KPI performance and satisfaction with progress toward purpose. The report is particularly emphatic about the C-suite: communicators with collaborative leadership relationships are more satisfied with progress, more likely to meet or exceed targets, and even show markedly better wellbeing. So data and relationships are not separate findings; they work together as the mechanism through which communicators gain influence and prove value.

      5. What practical implications does the report draw for communicators and organisations heading into 2025?

      The report’s practical conclusion is that communicators need to shift attention from reactive busyness towards strategic capability-building. It recommends clarifying and leadership-aligning the purpose of communication, learning the basics of change management, improving meeting discipline, strengthening visibility with leaders, and building stronger data literacy, especially the non-technical side such as critical thinking, communication and business acumen.

      For organisations, the implication is that communication cannot be treated as a tactical support service if better employee outcomes are expected. The report shows that communicators are often under pressure from constant change, blurred remits and limited resources, while also being asked to support AI adoption, leadership communication and employee listening. If businesses want better results, they need to invest in the function not only with tools and budgets, but with clearer direction, stronger inclusion in decision-making and better cross-functional coordination.

      The AI findings sharpen this point. While maturity has improved somewhat, 38% say there is no AI governance or guidance in place, and many communicators have not decided how transparent they should be about AI use. The report treats this as a strategic risk, not just a tooling issue, because communicators are expected to help shape employee attitudes to AI while lacking organisational clarity themselves.

      Taken together, the report’s practical message is quite clear: in 2025, successful communication functions will be those that can translate evidence into business language, build strong stakeholder coalitions, and impose more clarity on environments marked by overload, ambiguity and continual change.

    2. Journalism and Technology Trends and Predictions 2025 by Reuters

      Journalism and Technology Trends and Predictions 2025 by Reuters

      About the paper

      The report examines the pressures, priorities, and strategic bets shaping journalism in 2025, with a particular focus on platform disruption, AI, product innovation, and the changing relationship between publishers and audiences.

      It is based primarily on original survey research with 326 senior media leaders from 51 countries and territories, fielded online between 20 November and 20 December 2024, and supplemented by background interviews and industry examples. The geographic scope is global, though the report notes that respondents were concentrated in the UK, US, and Europe.

      Length: 47 pages

      More information / download:
      https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/journalism-media-and-technology-trends-and-predictions-2025

      Core Insights

      1. What does the report identify as the central challenge facing journalism in 2025?

      The report argues that journalism is under pressure from several directions at once: hostile politics, economic strain, weakening platform relationships, and the rise of AI-driven intermediaries that may displace publishers in the discovery chain. Its core claim is not that journalism is disappearing, but that institutional journalism is being forced to redefine its value in a far more contested information environment. Publishers face attacks from populist politicians, a growing creator-led alternative media ecosystem, and a technology landscape in which search, social, and conversational interfaces are all shifting against them.

      A key tension in the report is the contrast between low confidence in journalism as a sector and higher confidence in individual companies’ prospects. Only 41% of surveyed leaders say they are confident about journalism’s prospects in the year ahead, while 56% are confident about their own company’s business prospects. That gap suggests leaders believe the wider institution is weakening even while some organisations think they can adapt and survive.

      The report’s underlying perspective is that journalism’s challenge is no longer just commercial. It is also structural and civic. Publishers are losing control over distribution, are being bypassed by politicians and creators, and may increasingly find their reporting summarised or repackaged by AI systems before audiences ever reach the original source. The report therefore frames 2025 as a year in which journalism must fight for visibility, authority, and economic leverage all at once.

      2. How does the report describe the impact of platform change and search disruption on publishers?

      The report presents search disruption as one of the most serious emerging threats to news publishers. After major declines in referral traffic from Facebook and X, publishers are now worried that search could be next as AI overviews and conversational search products replace traditional link-based discovery. The report cites Chartbeat data showing Facebook referrals to news sites down 67% over two years and X down 50%, while aggregate Google search traffic had not yet fallen overall at the time of writing. Even so, 74% of respondents say they are worried about possible declines in referral traffic from search engines in 2025.

      The concern is not just fewer clicks. It is that AI products increasingly look like replacements for publisher interfaces rather than gateways to them. The report points to ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, Particle, Grok Stories, and other automated news interfaces that summarise multiple sources and foreground the platform’s answer over the publisher’s full article. That changes the economics of discovery. A publisher may still be cited, but citations are not equivalent to traffic, habit, subscriptions, or control of the audience relationship.

      This leads to a second issue: compensation and bargaining power. The report notes that some major publishers have secured licensing deals with AI companies, but these arrangements are uneven and opaque. Nearly three-quarters of respondents, 72%, say the industry should push for collective agreements rather than company-by-company deals. The report therefore treats AI licensing not as a settled revenue opportunity, but as a contested and potentially unequal new layer in the publisher-platform relationship.

      3. What strategic responses are publishers prioritising to adapt their business models?

      The report shows publishers leaning harder into reader revenue, product diversification, and direct relationships. Subscription and membership remain the most important revenue focus, cited by 77% of commercial publishers, ahead of display advertising at 69% and native advertising at 59%. But the report also emphasises that most companies are now combining several revenue streams, including events, platform funding, e-commerce, philanthropy, donations, and related businesses.

      A major theme is that strengthening the core product is no longer seen as sufficient on its own. While 55% still say strengthening the existing product is the main priority, 44% say developing new products and services will be most important for future growth. Publishers are exploring youth products, audio, video, education, games, food, international editions, and bundled offerings. The report presents this as a strategic shift from a narrow news product to a broader portfolio model, influenced especially by the New York Times example.

      The report also suggests that bundling may become more important as a retention strategy. Publishers are looking to combine news with adjacent services and lifestyle products in all-access subscriptions, both to reduce churn and to compete in a crowded subscription market. This reflects a larger assumption in the report: that publishers will need stronger owned-and-operated ecosystems because platform-dependent growth is becoming less reliable.

      4. What role does generative AI play in newsroom transformation, according to the report?

      The report makes clear that generative AI is no longer a speculative issue for news organisations. It says newsrooms are already being transformed, with 87% of respondents saying GenAI is transforming newsrooms fully or somewhat. The strongest emphasis remains on back-end and workflow uses, such as tagging, transcription, copyediting, recommendation systems, coding support, research assistance, and commercial modelling. These are seen as more mature and less risky than fully automated publishing.

      At the same time, the report argues that audience-facing uses of AI are becoming the next frontier. Publishers say they are actively exploring text-to-audio, AI-generated summaries, translation, chatbots, new search interfaces, and text-to-video conversion. The most widely planned initiatives are text into audio at 75%, AI summarisation at 70%, and translation at 65%, with 56% exploring chatbots or new search interfaces. The direction is towards more personalised, reformatted, and conversational news experiences.

      But the report is not triumphalist about AI. It repeatedly notes uncertainty about whether these investments will generate savings or sustainable advantage. It also warns that third-party tools may outpace in-house newsroom tools, and that a flood of synthetic content could increase misinformation risks and further weaken the visibility of original journalism. So AI appears in the report both as an efficiency tool and as a destabilising force that publishers must adapt to quickly without assuming it will solve their core business problems.

      5. What broader shifts in audience behaviour, talent, and media culture does the report see as shaping journalism’s future?

      One of the report’s most important arguments is that journalism is being reshaped by the rise of personalities, creators, and more socially native forms of news consumption. It highlights research showing that many younger audiences increasingly get news from influencers and creators rather than established news brands, and it notes that publishers themselves are split on whether this trend is good or bad for journalism. The report positions this “creator-fication” as both a competitive threat and a creative challenge to legacy media.

      This shift has implications inside news organisations too. The report says talent concerns are especially acute in engineering, data science, product, and design. While most respondents are confident about retaining editorial staff and even editorial stars, they are far less confident about attracting and keeping technical talent. That matters because the same organisations that need to innovate most aggressively around AI, product development, and user experience are struggling to recruit the people required to do it.

      The report also points to audience fatigue as a major issue. It describes efforts to respond through explainers, more human-centred storytelling, constructive or positive products, and “less noise, more signal” formats. This suggests the future challenge is not just reaching audiences but making journalism feel usable, sustainable, and worth returning to in a saturated and exhausting information environment. In that sense, the report’s broader conclusion is that journalism’s future depends not only on defending its principles, but on redesigning its formats, products, and relationships for a very different media culture.

    3. Future of Jobs Report 2025 by World Economic Forum

      Future of Jobs Report 2025 by World Economic Forum

      About the paper

      The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 analyses how technological change, geo-economic fragmentation, economic uncertainty, demographic shifts and the green transition are expected to reshape jobs, skills and workforce strategies by 2030.

      It is primarily an original employer survey, supplemented by data partnerships with ADP, Coursera, Indeed and LinkedIn; the survey covers more than 1,000 employers representing over 14 million workers across 22 industry clusters and 55 economies.

      The methodology is employer-perspective forecasting rather than labour-market measurement alone: the survey was conducted in late 2024 and asks organisations to estimate expected changes over the 2025–2030 period. The report is global in scope, but it explicitly focuses on larger companies and does not fully cover small enterprises or the informal sector.

      Length: 290 pages

      More information / download:
      https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/

      Core Insights

      1. What are the main forces expected to transform global labour markets by 2030?

      The report identifies five broad forces: technological change, geo-economic fragmentation, economic uncertainty, demographic shifts and the green transition. These are presented not as separate trends, but as overlapping pressures that will reshape business models, employment and skill needs simultaneously.

      The most prominent single trend is broadening digital access, which 60% of employers expect to transform their business by 2030. Within technology, AI and information-processing technologies stand out even more strongly: 86% of employers expect them to transform their business, followed by robotics and automation at 58%, and energy generation, storage and distribution at 41%.

      Economic pressure remains highly important. Rising cost of living is the second-most transformative overall trend, cited by 50% of employers, while slower economic growth is cited by 42%. The green transition is also central: 47% expect climate-change mitigation to transform their business, and 41% expect climate adaptation to do so. Demographic change adds a further layer, with ageing populations affecting mainly higher-income economies and growing working-age populations affecting many lower-income economies.

      The report’s perspective is clearly employer-led: it is concerned with how organisations expect these forces to affect business transformation, jobs, skills and workforce planning. That gives the report practical value, but it also means its findings reflect employers’ expectations rather than a neutral prediction of what will definitely happen.

      2. What does the report predict about job creation, job displacement and the changing composition of work?

      The report predicts substantial labour-market churn. Based on employer expectations, structural labour-market transformation between 2025 and 2030 is expected to affect the equivalent of 22% of today’s jobs. That consists of 170 million jobs created, equal to 14% of current employment, and 92 million jobs displaced, equal to 8%, producing a net increase of 78 million jobs, or 7%.

      This is an important nuance: the report does not present the future of work as simple mass unemployment caused by technology. Its argument is that disruption will be large, uneven and reconfigurational. Some roles will grow quickly, some will decline sharply, and many workers will need to shift skills, roles or sectors.

      Technology is described as especially double-edged. Broadening digital access and AI are expected to create jobs and displace jobs at the same time. Robotics and autonomous systems are more clearly associated with net job displacement. The report’s underlying message is therefore not “technology destroys work” or “technology creates work”, but that technology changes the distribution of work and the skill profile required to remain employable.

      3. Which jobs are expected to grow or decline most, and why?

      The fastest-growing roles in percentage terms are mainly technology-related. These include Big Data Specialists, FinTech Engineers, AI and Machine Learning Specialists, Software and Applications Developers, Data Warehousing Specialists, Information Security Analysts and related roles. Green-transition roles also feature strongly, including Autonomous and Electric Vehicle Specialists, Environmental Engineers and Renewable Energy Engineers.

      However, the largest growth in absolute numbers is expected in frontline and foundational roles, not only in high-tech occupations. The report highlights Farm-workers, Delivery Drivers, Construction Workers, Salespersons and Food Processing Workers, alongside care and education roles such as Nursing Professionals, Social Work and Counselling Professionals, Personal Care Aides, and Tertiary and Secondary Education Teachers.

      The largest declines are expected in clerical and secretarial work. Cashiers and Ticket Clerks, Administrative Assistants and Executive Secretaries, Postal Service Clerks, Bank Tellers and Data Entry Clerks are among the roles expected to decline most. This reflects the combined impact of digitalisation, AI, automation and changing business processes.

      A key implication is that “future jobs” should not be understood only as AI engineers and data scientists. The report points to a more mixed labour-market future: high-growth technology roles, green-transition roles, care and education roles, and continued demand for many frontline jobs.

      4. How are skills expected to change, and what does this imply for workers and employers?

      The report estimates that 39% of workers’ existing skill sets will be transformed or become outdated over the 2025–2030 period. This is lower than the 44% estimate in the 2023 report and much lower than the 57% estimate in 2020, but it still represents a major level of disruption.

      Analytical thinking remains the most sought-after core skill, with seven in 10 companies considering it essential in 2025. It is followed by resilience, flexibility and agility, and leadership and social influence. This matters because the report does not frame the future skills agenda as purely technical. Human, cognitive and adaptive capabilities remain central.

      The fastest-growing skills are AI and big data, networks and cybersecurity, and technological literacy. These are followed by creative thinking, resilience, flexibility and agility, curiosity and lifelong learning, leadership and social influence, talent management, analytical thinking and environmental stewardship. Manual dexterity, endurance and precision are expected to see a notable net decline in demand.

      The report’s underlying assumption is that employability will increasingly depend on combining technical fluency with adaptability and judgement. This is especially important because the skills that differentiate growing from declining roles include resilience, flexibility and agility; resource management and operations; quality control; programming; and technological literacy.

      5. What workforce strategies do employers expect to use in response to these shifts?

      Upskilling is the dominant response. The report says 85% of employers plan to prioritise upskilling their workforce. In addition, 70% expect to hire staff with new skills, around half plan to transition staff from declining to growing roles, and 40% expect to reduce staff as some skills become less relevant.

      The scale of the training challenge is large. If the global workforce were 100 people, the report estimates that 59 would need training by 2030. Of these, 29 could be upskilled in their current roles, 19 could be upskilled and redeployed elsewhere in the organisation, and 11 would be unlikely to receive the reskilling or upskilling they need.

      Employers also identify skill gaps as the biggest barrier to business transformation, cited by 63% of respondents. This makes skills not just an HR issue, but a strategic bottleneck. The report also highlights employee health and well-being as a top strategy for improving talent availability, cited by 64% of employers, while reskilling, upskilling and better progression are also seen as important.

      Finally, AI-specific workforce strategies are central. Half of employers plan to reorient their business in response to AI, two-thirds plan to hire talent with AI-specific skills, and 40% anticipate reducing their workforce where AI can automate tasks. The report’s practical conclusion is that organisations face a dual challenge: they must adopt technology fast enough to remain competitive, while also redesigning jobs, training systems and talent pipelines fast enough to avoid widening skill gaps.

    4. UK Corporate Affairs Trends for 2025 by FleishmanHillard

      UK Corporate Affairs Trends for 2025 by FleishmanHillard

      About the paper

      The paper is a forecast-style corporate affairs report on the challenges and priorities likely to shape 2025 for organisations operating in the UK.

      It is a mixed-input outlook rather than original survey research, grounded in firm data, observation, client discussions, and input from FleishmanHillard’s UK corporate affairs experts; the report does not clearly specify a respondent count, case count, interview number, or formal fieldwork process.

      Its geographic focus is primarily the UK corporate affairs landscape, though several trends are framed as global pressures affecting UK-based decision-making.

      Length: 32 pages

      More information / download:
      https://fleishmanhillard.co.uk/2024/12/corporate-affairs-trends-for-2025/

      Core Insights

      1. What is the report’s central argument about corporate affairs in 2025?

      The report’s main argument is that corporate affairs leaders are entering a more volatile, fragmented and demanding environment in which complexity itself becomes the defining condition. FleishmanHillard argues that leaders are being asked to do more by boards, executives and stakeholders at the very moment the information environment is becoming harder to read and harder to influence. Traditional media still matters, but it is no longer sufficient as the primary route to key audiences, whose media habits are spreading across more platforms and formats.

      The report says this new reality will be shaped by five interlocking trends: the politicisation of business values, the rise of geopolitics as a day-to-day business issue, the spread of misinformation and inauthentic content, the erosion of reliable data sources alongside the emergence of new ones, and the accelerating operational importance of AI. In other words, the report does not present 2025 as a year of one dominant disruption, but as a year in which multiple pressures converge and force corporate affairs teams to become more adaptive, audience-led and strategically embedded.

      2. What are the five key trends the report identifies, and why do they matter?

      The first trend, The Values Imperative, argues that politics is increasingly entering business life through employees, public debate and direct political targeting. Companies are under greater pressure to take positions, but the report warns that expression is only rewarded when audiences agree with the stance taken. That makes corporate values more than branding language; they become a decision framework for whether and how to engage on contentious issues.

      The second trend, The Corporate Diplomat, says geopolitical issues are no longer distant matters for government relations teams alone. Populism, nationalism, regulatory divergence, supply-chain disruption and state-linked cyber risks mean senior executives and corporate affairs leaders must increasingly act as diplomats themselves. The report suggests that success in one market may now depend on managing tensions involving another market, including a company’s home market.

      The third trend, Ubiquitous Malignancy, describes misinformation as a persistent feature of nearly every communications situation, not a rare exception. The report argues that communicators must judge how much of a situation is being shaped by inauthentic or misleading content and develop specific capabilities for intervention, especially as AI-driven deepfakes raise the stakes.

      The fourth trend, Data Erosion & Accretion, focuses on the weakening usefulness of old monitoring approaches, especially those heavily dependent on X/Twitter and text-based media. At the same time, audience attention is moving toward harder-to-monitor environments such as podcasts, video, WhatsApp and other closed or semi-closed platforms. New tools may help, but the report says the overall picture will become more cluttered and demand more sophisticated interpretation.

      The fifth trend, AI Moves Ahead, argues that generative AI is already improving speed and efficiency in communications work, but that bigger structural change is still ahead. The report sees current tools as operationally useful but limited, while newer models may reshape analysis, memory and self-learning capabilities more profoundly. That makes today’s experimentation a preparation phase for deeper transformation.

      3. What assumptions or perspective shape the report’s interpretation of these trends?

      The report is written from the perspective of a strategic communications adviser addressing corporate affairs leaders who must help organisations navigate uncertainty rather than merely manage publicity. Its underlying assumption is that communications is no longer a support function operating at the edge of decision-making; it is increasingly central to risk management, stakeholder navigation and executive judgement.

      A second assumption is that the environment is not becoming simpler or more controllable. Instead, the report assumes fragmentation, unpredictability and cross-border complexity will intensify. This is visible in how it treats politics, geopolitics, misinformation, data fragmentation and AI not as isolated topics, but as overlapping forces that reshape the communicator’s role.

      A third assumption is that organisations need clearer frameworks rather than louder messaging. The report repeatedly emphasises preparation: values frameworks, issue-assessment models, broader intelligence gathering, better geopolitical literacy, more nuanced data interpretation and structured AI adoption. That reveals a distinctly managerial and advisory lens. The purpose is less to predict headlines than to encourage more disciplined organisational readiness.

      4. What practical capabilities does the report say organisations need to build now?

      On values and politics, the report recommends reviewing the organisation’s values statement so it genuinely reflects shared principles, then using those values as a test for whether a political issue warrants engagement. It explicitly advises leaning strongly against engagement where an issue does not connect directly to a core business value or commercial need. That suggests restraint, not performative commentary, as the preferred operating model.

      On geopolitics, it argues for broader information gathering, deeper historical understanding, better assessment of tensions across key markets and supply chains, and more diplomatic skill sets such as negotiation and war-gaming. This implies that corporate affairs teams need to widen both their input sources and their strategic repertoire.

      On misinformation, the report says teams need methods for distinguishing authentic from inauthentic content, frameworks for deciding when to intervene, and readiness to communicate directly with audiences rather than relying solely on media or fact-checkers. It also stresses that countering misinformation may require behavioural science techniques and emotional engagement, not just rational rebuttal.

      On data, the recommendation is to push partners to improve coverage across podcasts and video, interpret reactions across multiple platforms rather than assuming one channel represents the whole picture, and strengthen human intelligence networks to compensate for what tools cannot see inside walled gardens such as WhatsApp.

      On AI, the report urges organisations to expand trials, identify tasks where GenAI should make the first attempt, and reposition employees from pure production roles toward advisory roles that guide AI strategically and improve output quality. The practical message is that AI adoption should be systematic and role-shaping, not ad hoc.

      5. What are the main implications of the report for corporate affairs leaders in 2025?

      The clearest implication is that corporate affairs leaders will need broader mandates and stronger judgement. The function is being asked to interpret political risk, geopolitical change, data ambiguity, misinformation threats and AI-enabled disruption all at once. That means success will depend less on excellence in any single channel and more on the ability to synthesise complex inputs into sound advice for senior leadership.

      A second implication is that old playbooks are becoming less reliable. Traditional media relations, basic social listening and fact-based rebuttal are still relevant, but they are no longer enough on their own. The report suggests that influence now depends on audience-led, channel-agnostic and emotionally intelligent engagement, supported by better frameworks and more diverse intelligence.

      A third implication is organisational: communications teams must evolve structurally, not just tactically. Values need to be operationalised, geopolitical awareness mainstreamed, misinformation preparedness embedded, data practices modernised and AI integrated into workflows. In that sense, the report presents 2025 as a capability-building year. The leaders who thrive will be those who treat communications as a strategic discipline for navigating uncertainty, not simply a function for message delivery.

    5. Future of Professionals Report 2024 by Thomson Reuters

      Future of Professionals Report 2024 by Thomson Reuters

      About the paper

      Thomson Reuters’ Future of Professionals Report 2024 examines how AI and GenAI are reshaping professional work across legal, tax, accounting, global trade, risk, fraud, compliance, government, and corporate C-suite roles.

      It is original survey research based on 2,205 responses collected through 15–20 minute surveys, with respondents across the United States, UK, Canada, Mainland Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East/North Africa.

      The report is heavily AI-focused because respondents identify AI as the dominant force currently driving change in professional services.

      Length: 37 pages

      More information / download:
      https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/technology/future-of-professionals-2024/

      Core Insights

      1. What is the central argument of the report?

      The report argues that AI and GenAI are now the dominant forces reshaping professional work, not as distant possibilities but as practical technologies already influencing strategy, workflows, value creation, pricing models, and career expectations.

      The strongest evidence is that 77% of respondents believe AI will have a high or transformational impact on their work over the next five years, up from 67% in the 2023 report. The report presents this as a shift from speculative concern to more concrete expectation: professionals are no longer merely wondering whether AI matters; they are beginning to understand where and how it will affect their daily work.

      The report’s tone is notably optimistic. Thomson Reuters concludes that AI can make professional work more efficient, productive, and fulfilling. It repeatedly frames AI as a way to release professionals from routine or labour-intensive tasks so they can focus on judgement-based, strategic, client-facing, and higher-value work.

      However, the report does not argue that AI adoption will be automatic or risk-free. Its central argument is conditional: AI can be a force for good, but only if organisations combine adoption with responsible use, human oversight, data security, transparency, training, and new business models.

      2. How are professionals currently using AI, and what does this reveal about adoption maturity?

      Current AI use appears practical but still relatively early-stage. Respondents most commonly use AI-powered technologies for drafting documents, summarising information, conducting basic research, preparing communications, reviewing documents, and generating first drafts.

      The report says 50% of respondents who have used AI as a starting point describe its output as “a basic starting point” where they still need to do most of the work. Another 28% say it provides “a strong starting point” that mainly requires editing. This suggests that AI is already useful, but professionals still see it primarily as an assistant rather than an autonomous producer of reliable final work.

      The main barriers among non-users are also revealing. Concerns centre on accuracy, data security, ethics, uncertainty about what AI can be used for, and uncertainty about how to access it. The report notes generational differences too: Gen Z professionals have tried AI at higher rates, while baby boomers show lower current usage but surprisingly ambitious expectations for future AI assistance.

      The adoption picture is therefore mixed: AI is already embedded in common professional tasks, but many users still regard it as a productivity aid that requires significant human review. The report’s own interpretation is that trust will depend on transparency, benchmarking, responsible innovation, and better user education.

      3. What productivity and value gains does the report expect from AI?

      The report’s most concrete productivity claim is that AI could free up four hours per professional per week within one year, eight hours within three years, and twelve hours within five years. Based on an assumption of 48 working weeks per year, that would equal roughly 200, 400, and 600 hours respectively.

      This is one of the report’s most important findings because it connects AI adoption to organisational strategy. Freed-up time is not presented simply as a cost-saving mechanism. Respondents say they would use additional time for work-life balance, client work, long-term projects, business development, process improvement, strategic planning, research, training, and better workload management.

      The report also distinguishes between efficiency and value. More than half of professionals are excited about AI because of time savings and productivity improvements, but 39% are most excited about AI’s ability to add new value to their work. Examples include handling large volumes of data more effectively, improving client response times, reducing human error, enabling advanced analytics, and supporting better decision-making.

      This distinction is crucial. The report does not merely say AI will help professionals do the same work faster. It argues that AI may allow professional services to change what kind of work is done, what quality of service is delivered, and where professionals focus their expertise.

      4. What risks, ethical concerns, and governance needs does the report identify?

      The report identifies several persistent concerns:

      • accuracy of outputs
      • data security
      • ethical use
      • overreliance on AI
      • inadequate human judgement
      • and unclear accountability.

      These concerns are especially important because the professions covered in the report often involve legal, regulatory, financial, compliance, or high-stakes advisory work.

      Professionals draw a clear ethical boundary around full AI autonomy in high-stakes professional judgement. More than 95% of legal and tax respondents say it would be a step too far for AI to represent clients in court or make final decisions on complex professional matters. Legal professionals are particularly resistant to AI providing legal advice, while respondents in tax, risk, fraud, and compliance appear somewhat less opposed to AI involvement in strategic advice.

      The report finds no single consensus on responsible AI use, but several principles recur. Almost two-thirds of respondents see data security as vital, both for prompts and outputs. A similar share see compulsory human review as critical. Other important elements include transparency about data sources, clarity on which tasks AI may be used for, bias mitigation, deletion of personal data, and standards for training data.

      On enforcement, respondents favour certification processes for AI systems and standards developed by professional or industry bodies. Government regulation, company guidelines, whistleblowing, and algorithm audits are also mentioned, but the report presents certification and professional standards as the leading options.

      5. What are the broader implications for professional careers, leadership, and business models?

      The report’s broader implication is that AI will shift the nature of professional work rather than simply eliminate it. Fear of widespread job loss appears less prominent than in the previous year’s report. Instead, 85% of respondents believe new or additional roles will be created to manage broader AI use.

      The human skills expected to become more important include problem-solving, creativity, judgement, strategic thinking, and the ability to manage AI responsibly. The report therefore frames the future professional not as someone replaced by AI, but as someone who must become better at using AI while preserving human expertise.

      For leaders, the report implies that AI adoption is not just an IT project. It affects talent strategy, operating models, pricing, client value, workflow design, risk management, and organisational culture. Leaders are advised to assess skills, invest in training, create responsible AI principles, run pilot projects, scale successful use cases, and explore how AI can open new sources of stakeholder value.

      The pricing implication is especially significant for professional services firms. Many respondents expect hourly-rate pricing to decline over the next five years. As AI makes routine work faster, firms will need to explain why clients should still pay premium fees for work completed more efficiently. The report argues that firms must move towards value-based pricing and become better at articulating the value AI adds beyond speed.

      The conclusion is optimistic but demanding: AI can make professional careers more fulfilling and organisations more competitive, but only for those that actively embrace the technology, redesign work around it, and take responsibility for its limits.

    6. 2023 Future of Corporate Communications Study by Edelman

      2023 Future of Corporate Communications Study by Edelman

      About the paper

      The paper is a mixed-methods corporate communications study from Edelman, combining a quantitative survey with qualitative interviews to assess how the communications function is evolving after the pandemic.

      The report states that it surveyed 218 C-level communications leaders in June 2023 and conducted 20+ in-depth interviews in July and August 2023, with respondents drawn from U.S.-based Fortune 500 and Forbes Global 1000 organisations; the sample is therefore primarily U.S.-focused, even though many of the companies have national, multinational, or global reach.

      Length: 30 pages

      More information / download:
      https://www.edelman.com/2023-future-of-corporate-comms

      Core Insights

      1. How does the report argue that the role of corporate communications has changed in recent years?

      The report’s central argument is that corporate communications has moved from being a mainly executional support function to becoming a strategic leadership function. Edelman presents this as a post-pandemic shift: communications leaders are no longer merely helping to deliver decisions once taken, but are increasingly involved in shaping enterprise decisions before they are finalised.

      The report says this shift is visible both in perception and in practice. Half of CCOs now see themselves as strategic advisers to business leaders, up from just over a third in 2021, while only 10% still feel stuck in a cost-centre position, down from 30% two years earlier. It also says that 64% are brought into major business decisions when the decision path is still tentative, compared with only 9% who are consulted after decisions have already been made.

      In other words, the function is portrayed as operating at the intersection of value creation and risk mitigation. Communications is not just reacting to reputational threats; it is being expected to anticipate them, interpret stakeholder expectations, and influence strategy across the enterprise. That is the report’s strongest framing of the profession’s future.

      2. What evidence does the report provide that communications leaders are under growing pressure, even as their strategic status rises?

      A key tension in the report is that greater influence has come with greater pressure, but not necessarily with matching support. The report says nearly 80% of communications leaders feel their role is more demanding than it was 12 months earlier, and 77% say their CEO demands more of them than a year ago. It also notes that CCOs spend nearly one-fifth of their time counselling the CEO on non-communications matters, which underlines how far the remit has stretched.

      At the same time, resources are not keeping pace. The report says 44% of communications leaders do not believe their CEO understands the resources needed to shape enterprise decision-making or execute communications programmes successfully. Budget expectations have also softened: 40% expect their budgets to increase, compared with more than half in 2021, while 28% expect flat budgets and 30% expect moderate cuts.

      This matters because the report treats communications as a function being asked to do more with uncertain backing. It is expected to cover an expanding range of stakeholders, manage a broader mandate, and prove business value more clearly, yet it still struggles to secure stable investment. One of the report’s recurring assumptions is that communications still has not fully solved the challenge of linking its work to measurable business outcomes.

      3. Why does the report place so much emphasis on data, technology, and organisational structure?

      The report argues that modern communications can no longer rely mainly on instinct, media experience, or message craft. Instead, it says an advanced communications function must be built around actionable data: stakeholder signals, behavioural insights, monitoring, analytics, and social listening. This is presented as essential because senior leadership now expects communications to bring evidence-based insight into decision-making, not just narrative support.

      That logic also drives the report’s discussion of structure. Edelman says the proportion of leaders reporting a centralised communications structure has grown sharply since 2021, because centralisation helps organisations gather intelligence more holistically, reduce silos, and respond to risk more consistently. On that basis, the report implies that organisational design is not a side issue; it is part of how communications earns strategic credibility.

      Technology sits within the same argument. The report says 56% believe AI is already affecting their business, and 44% say they are investing more heavily in communications technology than the year before. But it does not present technology as a simple productivity win. It also highlights integration problems, rapid change, and ongoing concerns around privacy, policy, and ethics. The report’s perspective is quite clear here: tools matter, but their value depends on interpretation, application, and the ability of the function to use data intelligently.

      4. How does the report explain the growing importance of employees and corporate purpose in communications?

      One of the report’s most important arguments is that reputation now begins inside the organisation. Employees are presented as the most consequential stakeholder group because they are closest to value creation, can advocate for or against the company, and shape how external stakeholders perceive the business. On the chart on page 17, employees are shown as the stakeholder group putting the most pressure on organisations to act on social issues, ahead of investors, NGOs, regulators, media, and consumers.

      The report also stresses that “employees” are not a single, uniform audience. It points to a five-generation workforce, differing expectations about work, and rising tension between leadership and younger workers, especially Gen Z. As a result, communications is increasingly held accountable for outcomes such as employee engagement, employer brand, retention, and DEI. In fact, the report says 60% expect employee engagement to be the single most important outcome their function must deliver over the next two years.

      Corporate purpose is then positioned as the framework that helps organisations navigate this more complex internal environment. The report says communications teams are heavily involved in clearly communicating purpose, fostering meaning among employees, and, in some cases, ensuring purpose shapes strategy itself. So purpose is not treated here as branding language alone; it is framed as a practical decision-making compass and a guardrail for when companies should act on social or socioeconomic issues.

      5. What does the report suggest will define the future agenda for corporate communications?

      The future agenda, according to the report, will be defined by three overlapping pressures: technology and AI, ESG and sustainability politics, and geopolitical volatility. On AI, the report suggests communicators must help build the business case for adoption while understanding the operational and ethical risks. On ESG, it argues that despite political backlash, especially in the U.S., integration of ESG into communications strategy remains strong, with 76% saying ESG is mostly or fully integrated.

      On geopolitics, the report is especially forward-looking. It argues that elections, polarisation, disinformation, labour activism, and broader geopolitical instability will all have growing reputational and business consequences. That is why it repeatedly calls for stronger cross-functional working, especially with sustainability, investor relations, HR, legal, and government affairs.

      The broader conclusion is that tomorrow’s CCO will have to be a cross-enterprise integrator: someone who can read stakeholder dynamics, translate them into business implications, and help the organisation act with clarity and credibility. The report assumes that winning trust, internally and externally, will be the defining competitive task for communications. But it also implies that success will depend on whether the function can prove value, secure resources, and combine judgement with data more effectively than in the past.

    7. Future of Professionals Report 2023 by Thomson Reuters

      Future of Professionals Report 2023 by Thomson Reuters

      About the paper

      Thomson Reuters’ Future of Professionals Report 2023 examines how AI, especially generative AI, is expected to transform professional work across legal, tax and accounting, risk, compliance, corporate and government settings.

      It is original survey research based on a web survey conducted in May–June 2023 among more than 1,200 professionals, with about half based in the US and most of the rest in the UK, Canada and Latin America.

      The report combines survey findings with Thomson Reuters’ own interpretive commentary, so it should be read as a research-based thought leadership report rather than a neutral academic study.

      Length: 36 pages

      More information / download:
      https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/technology/future-of-professionals-2023/

      Core Insights

      1. What is the central argument of the report?

      The report’s central argument is that AI will not merely make professional work faster; it will reshape the value proposition of professional services. Thomson Reuters presents AI as a catalyst for transformation across three linked dimensions: productivity, professional value, and responsible adoption.

      The productivity argument is the most immediate. Professionals expect AI to help with operational efficiency, research, document review, drafting, administrative work, risk identification, regulatory monitoring and client communication. The report repeatedly frames AI as a way to remove repetitive or low-value work so that professionals can spend more time on higher-value advisory tasks.

      The deeper argument is about the future role of professionals. The report suggests that “Professional 2.0” will be less defined by routine technical execution and more by judgement, strategic advice, client service, specialisation, and the ability to use AI effectively. It argues that AI will shift professionals from doing more work manually to orchestrating, checking, interpreting and adding value to AI-enabled work.

      The report is optimistic, but not naïvely so. It recognises fears around accuracy, job loss, ethics, data security, regulation, work-life balance and professional identity. However, Thomson Reuters’ overall position is clear: AI will not replace highly trained professionals wholesale, but professionals who use AI will outcompete those who do not.

      2. How do professionals expect AI to affect productivity, client service and business performance?

      Professionals in the report are broadly positive about AI’s operational potential. A key headline finding is that 67% expect AI or generative AI to have a transformational or high impact on their profession over the next five years. That makes AI the most significant trend tested in the study, ahead of economic recession and the cost-of-living crisis.

      The report identifies several productivity gains. In law firms, AI is expected to help with large-scale data analysis, non-billable administrative work, time recording, research and document-related tasks. In tax and accounting, respondents see potential in analysing deductions, income streams, tax scenarios and future tax results. In corporate and government departments, AI is expected to streamline internal processes, reduce external spend, improve research and speed up document review.

      Client service is another major theme. Respondents expect AI to improve the speed, clarity and consistency of communication. The report mentions AI helping draft and edit client communications, translate complex ideas into plain language, identify client needs arising from regulatory change, and support faster internal advice. For in-house teams, the report suggests that AI may strengthen their role as business partners by helping them provide more consultative, growth-oriented advice.

      However, the financial consequences are less clear. Firms may become more profitable if AI reduces costs and frees professionals for higher-value work. At the same time, clients may use AI as a reason to push fees down, move more work in-house, or turn to alternative legal service providers. The report does not claim certainty here; it explicitly notes that the “financial victor” remains uncertain.

      3. What evidence does the report provide that AI will change professional roles, skills and career paths?

      The report argues that AI will fundamentally alter who does professional work, what skills are valued, and how people enter and progress within the professions.

      One of the strongest findings is that 64% of professionals believe AI will make their professional skills more highly valued, while 33% fear that AI could contribute to the demise of their profession or reduce demand for their skills. This tension runs throughout the report: professionals see opportunity, but also existential risk.

      The report expects new career paths to emerge. It suggests that some work currently performed by credentialed professionals may shift to paralegals, junior professionals, enrolled agents, legal tech consultants, operations specialists or other non-traditional roles. It also anticipates more hybrid roles combining professional expertise with technology, data science, IT, security, regulatory and AI skills.

      Training is presented as one of the clearest areas of change. Almost 90% of respondents expect basic mandatory AI training for all professionals within five years, and 87% expect everyone to need training in new skills. The report also predicts changes in how junior professionals are trained and in the nature of university or college education.

      A particularly important nuance is that AI may reduce traditional entry-level work. More than half of respondents expect a decline in entry-level roles over the next five years, yet a majority also expect the total number of professionals in their firm or department to increase. In other words, the report does not predict simple job destruction. It predicts a reshaping of the professional labour market: fewer traditional junior tasks, more specialised or AI-enabled roles, and greater need for adaptability.

      4. What are the main concerns, risks and barriers identified in the report?

      The report identifies several overlapping concerns.

      The biggest fear is accuracy. A quarter of respondents cite compromised accuracy as their greatest concern. This is especially important because professionals work in fields where errors can have legal, financial, ethical or regulatory consequences. The report stresses that AI outputs must be checked by humans rather than accepted at face value.

      Job loss and professional displacement are also major concerns. Nineteen per cent cite widespread job loss as their biggest fear, while 17% cite the demise of the profession. Some respondents fear that AI may “dumb down” professional judgement if people rely on machine-generated answers without understanding the underlying reasoning.

      Ethics and data security are also prominent. Fifteen per cent cite data security as their biggest fear, and another 15% cite loss of ethics. The report connects these concerns to the need for transparency, explainability, trustworthy sources, professional standards and regulation.

      The biggest barrier to change is cultural rather than technical. The report says 83% of professionals cite risk aversion or fear of change as a top-three barrier within the professions. Lack of technology skills, lack of investment, partnership models, and lack of diversity of thought are also identified as obstacles.

      Finally, the report is ambivalent on wellbeing. AI could reduce long hours, lower the risk of errors, and remove mundane work. But some respondents fear it could increase pressure, reduce human connection, worsen engagement, or create anxiety about disposability. The report therefore treats wellbeing as both a potential benefit and a risk depending on how AI is implemented.

      5. What is Thomson Reuters’ perspective, and what are the implications of the report?

      Thomson Reuters’ perspective is strongly pro-adoption, but framed around responsible implementation. The company argues that AI should be embraced decisively, but with guardrails around trust, ethics, transparency, accuracy, regulation and human oversight.

      Its assumptions are visible throughout the report. Thomson Reuters assumes that AI adoption is inevitable, that productivity gains will be substantial, and that the professions will be reshaped rather than destroyed. It also assumes that the highest-value professional work will remain human-centred: advice, judgement, client relationships, ethics, interpretation and strategic thinking.

      The report’s implications are significant. For firms, it suggests a need to rethink pricing, services, staffing models, training and competitive advantage. For in-house departments, it suggests an opportunity to move from cost centres to growth enablers, particularly if AI helps them deliver more consultative advice and bring more work in-house. For individual professionals, the implication is that passive adaptation will not be enough. They will need to develop AI literacy, deepen expertise, understand their own value proposition, and learn how to work with AI rather than around it.

      The broader conclusion is that trust will be the decisive condition for AI adoption in professional work. Without confidence in accuracy, data security, ethics and explainability, the promised productivity gains may not materialise. With the right governance, however, the report argues that AI can improve productivity, increase professional value, create new roles, support better client service and potentially improve wellbeing.

    8. Future of Jobs Report 2023 by World Economic Forum

      Future of Jobs Report 2023 by World Economic Forum

      About the paper

      The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023 analyses how macro-trends, technology adoption, skills disruption and workforce strategies are expected to reshape labour markets from 2023 to 2027.

      It is a mixed-methods report built primarily on the fourth Future of Jobs Survey of 803 companies employing more than 11.3 million workers, across 27 industry clusters and 45 economies from all world regions, supplemented with data collaborations from Coursera, Indeed and LinkedIn.

      Length: 296 pages

      More information / download:
      https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2023/

      Core Insights

      1. What is the central labour-market outlook presented in the report?

      The report’s central argument is that the global labour market is entering a period of significant structural churn rather than simple expansion or contraction. Employers expect major reconfiguration of roles, driven by technology, the green transition, economic pressure, supply-chain shifts and changing worker expectations.

      The headline estimate is that 23% of jobs will change structurally between 2023 and 2027. In the dataset covering 673 million jobs, employers expect 69 million jobs to be created and 83 million to be displaced, resulting in a net decrease of 14 million jobs, or about 2% of current employment.

      This is not presented as a uniform jobs crisis. The report’s more nuanced claim is that losses and gains will be unevenly distributed. Some roles, especially clerical, administrative and record-keeping jobs, are expected to decline sharply, while roles linked to technology, sustainability, education, agriculture and digital commerce are expected to grow.

      2. Which forces are expected to transform businesses and jobs most strongly?

      The report identifies technology adoption as the most widely expected driver of business transformation. More than 85% of surveyed organisations expect increased adoption of new and frontier technologies and broader digital access to transform their organisations.

      However, the report broadens the analysis beyond technology. It also highlights the green transition, ESG standards, climate adaptation, localisation of supply chains, slow economic growth, inflation, rising costs and geopolitical fragmentation.

      The strongest expected net job-creation effects come from green-transition investment, broader ESG adoption and more localised supply chains. By contrast, the strongest expected net job-destruction effects come from slower economic growth, supply shortages, rising input costs and the rising cost of living.

      So the report’s view is not “technology destroys jobs” or “technology creates jobs”. It argues that technology, climate, economics and geopolitics are interacting, producing both new demand and significant displacement.

      3. Which jobs are expected to grow, and which are expected to decline?

      The fastest-growing roles relative to their current size are mainly technology- and sustainability-related. AI and Machine Learning Specialists are at the top, followed by Sustainability Specialists, Business Intelligence Analysts, Information Security Analysts, Renewable Energy Engineers and related roles.

      Large-scale job growth is also expected in education, agriculture and digitally enabled commerce. The report projects growth in roles such as Vocational Education Teachers, University and Higher Education Teachers, Agricultural Equipment Operators, E-commerce Specialists, Digital Transformation Specialists and Digital Marketing and Strategy Specialists.

      The steepest declines are expected in clerical and administrative work. Bank Tellers, Postal Service Clerks, Cashiers and Ticket Clerks, Data Entry Clerks, Accounting and Payroll Clerks, and Administrative and Executive Secretaries are among the roles expected to decline most.

      The report estimates that 26 million fewer jobs may exist by 2027 in record-keeping and administrative roles alone. This makes administrative work one of the clearest areas of projected displacement.

      4. What does the report say about skills disruption and future skill needs?

      The report estimates that 44% of workers’ skills will be disrupted over the next five years. This is lower than the 57% disruption forecast in the 2020 edition, but still signals substantial pressure on workers and employers.

      Analytical thinking is identified as the most important core skill in 2023, followed by creative thinking. The report also places strong emphasis on resilience, flexibility, agility, motivation, self-awareness, curiosity, lifelong learning and technological literacy.

      The fastest-rising skills include creative thinking, analytical thinking, technological literacy, curiosity and lifelong learning, resilience, systems thinking, AI and big data, talent management and customer-service orientation.

      A key point is that companies’ training priorities do not simply mirror current skill importance. AI and big data rank only 15th as a current core skill, but third as a corporate training priority. This suggests that employers see AI capability as strategically urgent, even where it is not yet embedded across the workforce.

      5. What workforce strategies do companies expect to use, and what are the implications?

      The report finds that employers see skills gaps and difficulty attracting talent as the two biggest barriers to business transformation. Skills gaps in local labour markets are identified by 60% of surveyed companies, while 53% cite inability to attract talent.

      The most common workforce strategies are investing in learning and training on the job, and accelerating automation. Around four in five companies expect to use each of these strategies.

      The report estimates that six in 10 workers will need training before 2027, but only about half currently have access to adequate training opportunities. Companies expect much of this training to happen internally, through on-the-job training, coaching and internal training departments, rather than mainly through external providers.

      The implication is that the future of work will depend heavily on whether organisations can move from abstract concern about skills to practical, scaled workforce development. The report’s underlying assumption is that labour-market disruption is not fully predetermined: policy choices, business investment and talent strategies will shape whether the transition becomes exclusionary or opportunity-generating.

    9. 2021 Future of Corporate Communications Study by Edelman

      2021 Future of Corporate Communications Study by Edelman

      About the paper

      The report examines how the corporate communications function is evolving from a transactional support role into a more strategic business partner, focusing on priorities, structures, capabilities, investment, and reporting lines.

      It is a mixed-methods original research report based on a quantitative survey of 200 participants fielded in December 2020 and January 2021, plus 35+ in-depth interviews with senior communications leaders from participating U.S.-based organisations.

      The dataset is globally distributed but heavily North America-led, with survey geographies reported as North America (85%), EMEA (7%), APAC (4%), and Latin America (4%); interview participants were drawn from U.S.-based organisations.

      Length: 76 pages

      More information / download:
      https://www.edelman.com/expertise/commstech/2021-Future-of-Corporate-Comms-Research

      Core Insights

      1. What is the central argument of the report about the future role of corporate communications?

      The report’s core argument is that corporate communications is moving up the strategic continuum, from being treated as a cost centre or executional service provider to becoming a value-generating business partner. Edelman argues that external disruption, especially the pandemic, social issues, business transformation, and a more complex stakeholder environment, has increased the strategic importance of communications inside organisations. The report presents this not as a marginal shift, but as a structural change in what senior communicators are expected to do.

      A major theme is that communications is no longer just about media relations, messaging, and storytelling. Instead, the function is increasingly expected to help shape decisions on risk, workforce issues, reputation, transformation, social purpose, and stakeholder trust. The report says this has brought communicators closer to CEOs, boards, and the C-suite, with 46% now reporting to the CEO versus 34% in 2014, and 77% saying perceptions of communications as a strategic business driver changed within their organisation during 2020.

      At the same time, the report is careful not to suggest that this evolution is complete. It repeatedly notes that progress is uneven. Some organisations still see communications in largely reactive or transactional terms, and maturity varies by industry, geography, and leadership culture. So the report’s argument is both optimistic and cautionary: the opportunity is real, but it has to be claimed and proved.

      2. What forces are driving this shift in corporate communications?

      The report identifies several forces pushing communications into a more strategic role. COVID-19 is presented as the immediate accelerator. It increased the visibility and relevance of communications, especially around employee engagement, business continuity, internal alignment, and executive decision-making. More than half of respondents said COVID-19 shifted the communications focus and demand on their function, with employee communications emerging as the most strongly affected area.

      Beyond the pandemic, the report highlights business transformation as the most important long-term driver, cited by 77% of respondents, followed by social issues at 73%, customer or consumer demand shifts at 56%, and talent at 38%. This matters because it frames communications not as a function reacting to one crisis, but as one increasingly embedded in permanent organisational change. Communicators are being pulled into transformation programmes, social issue response, workforce strategy, and stakeholder trust management.

      The report also stresses the importance of the changing media and information ecosystem. Social media, digital channels, and faster news cycles have altered how organisations reach stakeholders and how quickly reputational issues can escalate. That has expanded the role of communications into digital, content, creative, analytics, and more direct coordination with marketing. In other words, the environment has become too fast, fragmented, and high-stakes for communications to remain a back-end support function.

      3. How does the report say the communications function itself needs to change in order to meet these expectations?

      The report argues that strategic credibility starts inside the function. Communications teams need to change how they think about themselves, how they organise, and what capabilities they prioritise. The report contrasts an older model built around reactive storytelling and service delivery with a newer model based on strategic planning, business acumen, insights, measurable outcomes, and multidisciplinary collaboration.

      A recurring theme is that the modern function must be agile, multidisciplinary, and insights-driven. Teams can no longer rely only on classic PR strengths such as writing, media contacts, and message development. They now need broader capability across employee communications, risk and crisis, brand and corporate positioning, change communications, digital, creative, data, and analytics. The report explicitly describes the ideal talent profile as “T-shaped”: people with deep expertise in one area, but enough breadth to work across multiple strategic contexts.

      The report also argues that relationship-building with senior leadership is essential. Functions that are seen as more strategic have typically earned closer CEO and C-suite access, often by combining stronger counsel with better evidence of impact. It recommends integrated strategic planning, clearer governance, clearer roles, and more consultative team behaviour. The implication is that structural change alone is not enough. A communications team only becomes strategic when it shows business understanding, connects its work to organisational goals, and consistently executes at a high level.

      4. What does the report reveal about investment priorities, technology, and capability gaps?

      One of the clearest findings is that expectations are rising faster than resources. The report says communicators are being asked to do more, across more areas, with stronger proof of business value, but many are not receiving proportional budget increases. It notes that only 6% of CCOs expected a budget increase of 15% or more, while 45% anticipated a budget decrease or no change in the coming year. Later benchmarking pages show a similar tension, with 54% expecting some increase but 46% expecting budgets to stay flat or decline.

      Within that constrained environment, CommsTech emerges as the headline investment priority. The report defines this as the tools, technology, and data that allow communicators to target, measure, and shape perceptions and behaviour. Seventy percent said CommsTech was a top investment area, and the report positions it as central to proving ROI and connecting communications work to business results. But it also shows that adoption is still immature: 44% report baseline media-impression measurement, yet only 30% map revenue growth back to communications activity.

      The report is especially useful in showing why adoption is slow. Barriers include difficulty justifying large tech investments, weak support from CEOs or business leaders, IT ownership conflicts, poor collaboration with marketing and sales, and internal team struggles to adopt digital tools and analytics. So the report is not simply making a pro-technology argument. It is saying that technology only matters if organisations also invest in skills, processes, governance, and data fluency. Capability gaps in change communications, analytics, and ESG are also singled out as emerging needs.

      5. What are the main implications and conclusions for communications leaders and organisations?

      The report’s main conclusion is that this is a pivotal moment for the communications profession. The external environment has created an opening for communications leaders to claim a more central role in business strategy, but doing so requires deliberate change. Communicators must demonstrate business acumen, link activity to outcomes, invest in specialist capability, and speak the language of strategy, ROI, and performance. In the report’s framing, the opportunity will not convert automatically into influence. It has to be operationalised.

      For organisations and CEOs, the implication is equally strong. If they want communications to function as a true strategic partner, they need to bring it into decisions earlier, provide closer access to leadership, resource it properly, and recognise reputation, trust, employee engagement, and stakeholder alignment as business-critical issues rather than peripheral concerns. The report even suggests that some companies are beginning to elevate reputation into shared business goals and leadership accountability.

      The report’s final perspective is practical rather than theoretical. Across its “playbook” sections, it repeatedly returns to six or seven concrete ideas: have a clear vision for the function, align communications with business strategy, combine planning with insight, improve governance and process, build multidisciplinary teams, invest in people and specialist skills, and prove impact through measurement. That makes the report less a prediction document than a management guide for how communicators can turn heightened relevance into durable strategic authority.