(OPINION) Everyday AI is automating more jobs. Experts predict that AI will replace full-time careers in 2025—reducing the number of jobs and creating a greater reliance on gig employment and freelancers.
AI has been in the wild wild west for the last couple of years.
We’ve gone from fears of the invasion of artificial intelligence (AI) replacing our jobs in 2023 to business leaders observing that AI is shrinking an already competitive job market in 2024.
But the expert consensus is that AI is a tool to help workers be more efficient, not to disrupt employment rates as much as people believe, according to Jae Gardner, director of operations at Redrob. “If anything, it will expand a company’s workforce, but probably more globally,” he told me through email.
One example is the emergence of AI Avatars to assist the workforce in everyday tasks in 2025.
Andy Bradshaw, CEO of SHL, believes embracing AI is as much a cultural journey as it is a technological one. “Not only do workers need to have the appetite and skills to embrace AI, but leaders need to foster a culture of curiosity, adaptability and continuous learning,” he told me through email.
“If organizations are to gain real value, using AI as a tool to amplify the work of humans in ways that enhance efficiency, decision-making, and productivity leaders need to shift their people from fearing the disruption to really driving it—and that’s when the real innovation begins.”
Bradshaw went on to predict that companies will begin to foster a culture where people feel comfortable leveraging AI for efficiency and customer service improvements without seeing it as a threat.
“Some will embrace this more readily than others, but to succeed, organizations must balance small-scale experimentation with building a broader, AI-ready culture,” he adds. “AI will become dominant in the workforce, so it’s essential to start learning in a controlled environment now.”
According to Gardner, many companies will turn to gig workers to complete the extra work, and AI will lead to more people to participate in the gig economy. “The gig economy will likely grow, with more individuals opting for freelance or contract work,” he predicts.
“This trend will impact traditional employment models and may lead to changes in labor laws and protections for gig workers. Governments may implement new labor laws or regulations affecting hiring practices, particularly around remote work, gig employment and employee rights.”
Marais Bester, Consultant at SHL, agrees. “Workforces will become smaller, especially with technology coming in, and there will be less of a need for permanent employees with the organization on a full time basis,” Bester says.
“Organizations will start focusing more on hiring freelancers or individuals that operate across different organizations and hire them for specific projects. Whether the project is for two weeks or six months or two years, companies want a specific skill set for a shorter period of time.”
Most experts agree that the future of AI in recruitment will come from the use of AI based assessments. Close to 70% of employers say they intend to incorporate AI into the recruitment process. A pervasive fear exists that AI’s impact will hurt the chances of hiring the best candidates.
But leaders insist that AI can help employers screen out those using AI to cheat while enhancing the interview experience for genuine applicants.
Sara Gutierrez, Chief Science Officer at SHL, notes that, “We’re going to see a change in how we’re looking to assess candidate skills. With the advent and bringing Gen. AI into the process, we’re going to see more personalization and interactivity into the assessment space.
That can benefit us in multiple ways because Gen. AI can also help candidates cheat or use nefariously to better their scores.”
Gutierrez predicts that a secondary benefit of AI digital interviews will be to help candidates to give feedback. “We’re going to see more personalization,” she notes. “We’ll see more personalized feedback coming to the candidates. So it feels like a better experience for them.”
Felix Kim, CEO of Redrob, predicts that AI in recruiting will be the biggest story of 2025. “The topic of the day is AGI, artificial general intelligence, and how close we are to it,” Kim says. “They’re every platform right now, every vertical, every service for every product vertical, is basically dominated by platforms.”
Bradshaw also weighs in stating that structured digital interviews will be key to talent acquisition. “We’re witnessing the emergence of digital interviewing as a pivotal solution in both talent acquisition and management,” he points out. “Every job, whether it’s a barista or a CEO, involves an interview process, yet most of these interviews are unstructured and often kept private, making them inefficient.”
Bradshaw goes on to comment that the rise of virtual interviewing has made candidates more comfortable with online platforms, but it’s time to move toward a more structured approach that incorporates interview intelligence.
“By analyzing key metrics—like engagement and communication dynamics—we can enhance the experience for both candidates and organizations,” he points out. “Research indicates a strong demand for this transformation in structured digital interviews, which I believe will significantly improve hiring processes in the coming year.”
Bester calls for the need of AI regulation before it gets out of hand. “AI will be driven by governmental entities, and there will be a more focus on the regulation of AI,” he underscores. “There needs to be something to monitor candidates who may want to use AI to increase their chances of getting a job.
Secondly, there will be a focus on how we utilize the tools to ensure that people’s confidentiality is protected, but also in an ethical way so that AI doesn’t get too smart before we lose control of the technology.”
Bradshaw asserts that the demand for technical AI skills is only going to increase, but he insists that as we see more people adopt and experiment with AI in their personal and professional lives, the behavioral skills required to truly embrace AI at work are going to be extremely valuable and sought after by employers.
