2025 tech forecast: Top tech trends and skills leaders need to know

Tech changes fast. The orgs that can adapt and innovate in the face of change come out ahead. 

So what should your teams expect in 2025? What technologies should they learn? And what tech skills will they need to succeed?

We examined our database of over 50,000 tech learners, surveyed over 3,000 executives and technologists, and spoke to leading domain experts to uncover the top tech trends, tools, and skills your organization needs in 2025.

Looking for all of our insights across AI, cybersecurity, cloud, IT operations, and software development?

Unsurprisingly, AI will remain a major focus area for organizations well into 2025. Despite this, only 12% of IT professionals have significant experience working with AI. What’s more, four in five AI projects fail due to a lack of internal knowledge and preparation.

If you want to drive business outcomes with AI, your teams need the experience and skills to use it. Develop a business and skills strategy before investing in AI technology. Consider:

• What existing business problem will AI solve? How will it help your team achieve their goals or deliver outcomes for the business?
• What AI tools and technologies will you need for this use case?
• What skills will your teams need to use those tools and technologies?
• How will you measure the success of your AI implementation?
• How much will AI adoption cost? How much will ongoing maintenance cost?

How and where you plan to implement AI technology will determine the AI skills your teams need in 2025.

However, developing the skills needed to use and build AI agents is a good starting point. AI agents can automate tasks like calling APIs, creating reports, and updating documentation.

If you want to harness the power of AI agents, build up your teams’ LangChain skills. LangChain makes it easier to create complex GenAI applications and AI agents, and its popularity is on the rise.

On the Pluralsight platform, the number of tech learners interested in LangChain increased by 167% in 2024 and now ranks in our top 200 searched terms.

“LangChain agents have the ability to disrupt the industry. However, there is a knowledge gap at the moment, which slows down adoption, in my opinion." – Laurentiu Raducu, founder of bitheap.tech and data and security specialist

Start building LangChain skills in your organization.

Cybersecurity threats strengthen every year, and 2025 is no exception. As attacks become more sophisticated, threat intelligence will become an even more critical component of every organization's cybersecurity stance. 

Create an in-house red team dedicated to testing environments against the most sophisticated threats to identify and assess vulnerabilities.

“While expertise in coding, cloud, DevOps, and other areas will remain crucial, more advanced skills like threat intelligence and reverse engineering have emerged as the most valuable advanced cybersecurity skills going forward.” – Chris Herbert, Chief Content Officer, Pluralsight

Learn how to close the cybersecurity skills gap.

As organizations adopt AI, some have turned from cloud to on-premises infrastructure for their AI workloads, citing data security concerns, recurring cloud costs, and a desire to reduce dependence on vendors for AI availability. 

If you plan to run your AI projects on-premises, especially if you’re a cloud native organization, understand the skills your teams will need to manage it (a mix of ITOps and AI), the cost of physical infrastructure, and scalability constraints.

Build the right skills with the IT Ops sessions.

Even as new tech trends emerge and priorities shift, keep upskilling best practices in mind.

Tech trends are exciting, but jumping on the bandwagon without the skills can backfire. Our 2024 AI Skills Report found that 80% of executives and 72% of IT practitioners agree their organization often invests in new technology without considering the training employees need to use it.

As you implement new technologies, create employee upskilling programs to get the most out of your investments. Teams will build confidence in their skills, ramp up faster, and reduce costly errors that can slow progress.

Want upskilling insights from leading organizations? Watch the on-demand webinar with Workday, Coppel, and Capital Group as they share the behind-the-scenes initiatives that contributed to their winning tech skill development.

Outside of company mandates, tech practitioners upskill because they want improved job security, more confidence in their skills, career advancement opportunities, and higher salaries.

Where’s the connection between the skills your technologists want to learn and the skills your organization needs? If you can find that intersection, you’ll boost employee engagement and achieve your business outcomes faster.

Check out our article on the eight most in-demand tech skills technologists want to learn in 2025.

These insights only scratch the surface. To uncover all of the latest tech trends, tools, and skills your organization needs to get ahead across AI, software development, cloud, and data, download the 2025 Tech Forecast.