2025 People Analytics Leaders Priorities & Predictions

It’s time to take People Analytics (PA) to the next level. Rather than just focusing on ROI, members of the i4cp People Analytics Leader Board are applying analytics to core business priorities (including the impact of distributed work decisions) and measuring that alignment and progress.

The rapid rise of generative AI has shifted expectations for People Analytics, creating a gap between AI’s potential and the time, effort, and resources required to achieve it. While AI promises faster, more efficient insights, realizing these benefits will take longer than expected.

Emphasis among PA leaders is shifting from driving managers to dashboards or other platforms to access their people data, toward delivering customized insights to leaders when and where they need them. Technology enables this type of personalized data service, but limited resources, including insufficient technology, remain a challenge. The good news is that about a quarter of the members of all seven i4cp executive boards listed People Analytics as one of the top functions that will receive the greatest investment in 2025. But only 14% of People Analytics Board members agreed.

“ The next wave of People Analytics is upon us. We cannot be a luxury that an organization has to prioritize, we must demonstrate enough value to show that we are a requirement of the next wave of transformation across our people functions. This can only be accomplished by driving talent intelligence, behavioral science, and our deep people knowledge."

Buddy Benge Head of Talent Insights Edward Jones

AI may explain this disconnect. As more HR tech features large language models (LLMs), this will require an upfront investment that will eventually make it easier for other HR professionals to access basic data reports on their own that have historically required the assistance of an analyst. Leaders in this field see a future of smaller People Analytics teams that leverage that additional time to provide more sophisticated consultation to help business leaders align their people and organizational strategies.

Priorities

Delivering customized, meaningful insights to the business that are both actionable and real-time—speed, precision, and relevance in delivering data and insights are critical to creating a competitive edge. People Analytics plays a vital yet often unseen role in enabling other functions to achieve their strategic objectives. In 2025, a core challenge for PA leaders will be to amplify awareness of the function’s value by connecting customized insights directly to business priorities, demonstrating how People Analytics drives smarter decisions and aligns workforce strategies with organizational goals. This shift will elevate PA’s visibility and position it as a cornerstone of the company’s competitive advantage.

Enhancing reporting and visualization—making data meaningful both visually and verbally takes on heightened importance in this era of AI and the democratization of data. While LLMs may make it easier for leaders to access data, it cannot provide the context necessary to understand the full and real impact of this information. People Analytics leaders must show the value of their data through more compelling visuals and narrative to capture the attention of the C-suite and incite action. Providing insights that connect workforce data and business objectives is one of the most critical priorities for this field; its future depends on it.

“ As we grow People Analytics and juggle priorities, the key skills will shift from technical and analytical to those suited to navigate within a tech-driven environment. Leveraging AI and generative AI, we can more proactively deliver insights to leaders. However, clean and well structured data is more crucial than ever with the rise of generative AI."

Shannon Rutledge Director, HR Data & Analytics T. Rowe Price

Implementing AI and machine learning tools—50% of the leaders on i4cp’s People Analytics Board view their use of generative AI as important (or very important) to their function’s ability to achieve its objectives in 2025. Only 17% said it was not important. The application of AI (to include machine learning and generative AI) enables faster analysis of large datasets to identify complex patterns and relationships that provide greater foresight (e.g., scenario modeling) and makes workforce planning more dynamic and effective.

Ensuring HR data integration and systems interoperability—creating centralized, interconnected databases that streamline information sharing, enhance data analytics, and automate workflows is critical. As advanced analytics and AI platforms rely on clean, well-structured, and high-quality data from multiple systems, achieving seamless integration is more critical than ever. By enabling better data management and connectivity, the PA function will help HR and the business elevate their analytical capabilities, driving more informed, data-driven decisions across the enterprise.

People Analytics Leader Predictions

• The PA function will need to distinguish itself from AI—the ability for AI to rapidly deliver insights from data will challenge the People Analytics function to distinguish itself from what AI can do and how the function validates and makes the output of AI better.
   
• The role of People Analytics in workforce planning will become even more important—from predictive modeling (e.g., identifying skills gaps) to sourcing optimization (e.g., recommending internal and external talent pools to fill those gaps), to quantifying the impact of talent decisions and potential scenarios (e.g., a workforce reduction, or upskilling effort).
   
• The reporting aspect of the People Analytics function will significantly diminish—the rapid expansion of AI across analytics tools means that the PA team's maturation (e.g., developing consulting capabilities, etc.) will be necessary as organizations increasingly lean into data.
   
• Dashboards will become dinosaurs; PA will be expected to provide leaders with a hyper-personalized data experience and increasingly automated data delivery that provides the business tailored data.

To read the rest of the predictions from i4cp's other boards, download i4cp's 2025 Priorities & Predictions.