5 Trends that Will Impact Business Change in 2025 – and Practical Advice to Embrace Them

What a year 2024 has been for business change! The continued impact of AI, macroeconomic and geopolitical influences and growing appreciation of the role people play in making change stick are all forcing business change itself to evolve, and this is only set to continue.

Business change specialists like Afiniti always seek to be at the forefront of these advances so we can best help our clients through their transformations. But what do businesses themselves need to be aware of when it comes to delivering successful change over the next 12 months? And how can change leaders be prepared to drive their programmes forward?

To help you ensure your 2025 change programmes are as futureproof, competitive and risk-free as possible, Afiniti colleagues have shared the trends, predictions and insights they’re seeing from the coalface of change, as well as their personal and practical advice for leaders.

Historically, business change meant moving from A to B within a finite timeline, but in 2025, organisations and their people need to fundamentally adapt to an endless state of evolution in order to remain competitive.

There is now exponential opportunity amid AI and technology advances, but this can only be fully realised if the human element of an organisation is enabled to understand and accept what an evolving work environment requires of them.

It’s natural human instinct to find change daunting or even overwhelming, so changing mindsets to address this is a critical success factor, requiring clear communication and active, visible leadership and sponsorship.

Ensure the cultural component of your business strategy is laser-focused on building the capabilities needed to realise the vision and that it is threaded through every component of your strategy – we see so many organisations overlooking or underinvesting in this pivotal area.

Also, let go of preconceptions. Articulate a desired mindset that is forward-facing and transformational; we are living in an age where it is vital to let go of the way things have been done and become excited for the way things can now be done, so to simply tweak or sharpen edges is insufficient. However, this doesn’t mean losing what makes your existing identity and culture special!

There is no better way to drive innovation and resilience than by creating an environment where curiosity, bravery and, dare I say it, failure are rewarded.

With rising geopolitical tensions and shifting attitudes around globalisation, companies will be forced to reevaluate their current operating models. More specifically, there will be increasingly higher demand to shift to decentralised operations, regionalised supply chains and local marketing and sales strategies.

Furthermore, the complexity and speed of this change, driven by AI adoption, workforce transformation, ESG demands, supply chain disruptions and regulatory upheaval, will make traditional, project-based change management models obsolete. Change practitioners will therefore need to step up as strategic enablers of organisational agility, embedding change capability into the DNA of their business.

In 2025, change leaders must master AI-driven change, including implementing measurable outcomes and value. Not doing so will risk irrelevance.

Unified, cross-functional AI governance frameworks will be essential to do this effectively, led by C-suite champions to align business, IT and digital teams. Otherwise, you will face internal conflict over ownership, governance and ethics, and silos will emerge and create operational inefficiencies and reputational risks. Leaders need to be trained to manage AI-driven decisions, with a focus on collaboration over control.

In 2025, organisations will take a more flexible approach to their business change by adapting their change strategies to fit the specific scope, complexity and context of each project. There is increasing acknowledgement from executives that a universal, one-size-fits-all approach to all types of change doesn’t exist, so change leaders will assess each situation and choose the best method accordingly, whether this is a structured, traditional method, like ADKAR, or a lighter, more agile framework.

Enhance your understanding of different change methodologies and frameworks, and foster an agile mindset that will enable you and your team to become comfortable with iterative planning, rapid decision-making, flexibility and continuous improvement throughout programme lifecycles. Draw on specialist expertise to fill knowledge or skills gaps where required, but ultimately empower your people to do the right thing at the right time.

Digital transformation will be the major driver of many business change programmes in 2025, and obviously AI will be one of the key technologies at the centre of this focus. But as with any technology change, the actual technical implementation and go-live are only small parts of the overall transformation; equal time needs to be given to processes, data and people to ensure people do not fear AI and that they understand and adopt the practices that will ensure it is used in the most effective and safe way. We are already helping many of our clients to do this and expect to do so even more in the new year.

For those using SAP, we are drawing ever-closer to the end of support for SAP ECC in 2027. Organisations who are yet to transition to S/4HANA need to accelerate their efforts, because resourcing projects with skilled and experienced consultants will become much harder as we approach the deadline – this included essential business change consultants.

Moving to SAP S/4HANA is a significant business investment and a complex transformation that will only be successful if your people are engaged and equipped to use the new solution. Working with a business change partner like Afiniti will derisk your transition and ensure your people are ready to adopt the S/4HANA and the new ways of working it necessitates.

In my world of life sciences, pharmaceutical manufacturers are rapidly advancing towards creating the factory of the future. Industry trends are driving demand for personalised healthcare, deeper analytics and quicker drugs to market, and the factory of the future will enable businesses to achieve this through more efficient, agile and technological production. 

Automation across the development lifecycle, from AI accelerated research and development to robotic and diagnostic products, will continue to deliver profound improvements, while changes in legislation create the need for even more robust processes and data management. Major business change will be required to ensure everything is fully embedded and embraced by people, and that they’re adopting new ways of working so you can maximise the benefits realised from these investments. 

Before rushing into AI, make sure you have robust data governance so that optimises its management, quality, security, and use followed by secondary reuse of data. Your data underpins any digital transformation, so your organisation, people and data ecosystem need to be as mature as can be, able to join dots across functions to ensure ease and effectiveness of any AI or automation implemented.

We hope you find these trends and tips practical and helpful and wish you all the best for your change efforts in 2025. If you need support with any aspect of your change, please do get in touch and one of our partners would be happy to learn more about how we can accelerate and derisk your business change.