What are the predicted SME trends for 2025?

As we edge nearer to 2025, you’re no doubt thinking more and more about the coming 12 months. How do you plan to stay ahead of the competition, increase your revenue, manage your talent, and make use of technology? 

Staying ahead of the curve is vital for success (speaking of which, don’t forget to take a look at our upcoming Vistage events). A solid understanding of the trends impacting SMEs can help you to get ahead – and here are five to watch out for next year.

A continued focus on sustainability

Sustainable business practices have been a buzzword for a good few years now, but we expect the topic to have even greater focus in 2025.

In April 2024, the number of B Corp-certified businesses in the UK reached the 2,000 mark: double the number it stood at just 18 months before. We’re not saying that certification should be on every brand’s radar for next year, but continuing to make steps towards genuine energy efficiency improvements, waste reduction, sustainable supplier choices and more can help. 

Consumers are increasingly searching out businesses with sustainable practices, and there remains the potential for this area to be more heavily regulated down the line. Can you afford to lose market share or face possible regulatory fines? 

The power of generative AI

Many SMEs are starting to make the foray into using AI. So far the use has been focused on traditional AI, which performs various tasks based on data and patterns that are fed into it. 

Generative AI, however, is something that could come to the fore in 2025. Here, the technology uses models and algorithms to learn patterns, and generates new content based on the patterns it learns. 

There are many practical uses for generative AI. It can be used to repurpose content to create new assets based on a marketing campaign brief. It can generate product images and descriptions for retail businesses. It can generate prototypes and visualisations for manufacturers, and can create environment simulations for training and providing insight into process outcomes. The possibilities – across every sector – are astounding. 

Continued ‘un-retirement’?

During COVID-19, we saw a spike in the number of people aged 65 and under retiring. From 2022 onwards, however, this figure has been reversing. 

Under-65s who had previously retired ‘early’ have been re-entering the workforce in droves. Experts state that factors including government pension policy and cost of living pressures are behind this trend – and with further challenges imposed by the Autumn Budget, could we see the number of older people returning to the workplace increase further still?

Early in 2024, the International Longevity Centre released a report stating that in order to maintain the current number of workers per state pensioner, the state pension age would need to increase to 71 by 2050. SMEs may find that they have a larger pool of talent to recruit from as a result – and may need to consider any changes to be made to accommodate a workforce comprised of diverse generations. 

Incredible customer experience

In recent years, great customer experience has been all about personalisation. While this is still a key part of it, 2025 will bring numerous other opportunities for excellence. 

A strong focus on your customer experience can set you apart from the competition. For your customers, it’s not just about price and quality: it’s increasingly about hyper-personalised, memorable experiences, delivered at consistently high quality. 

AI can help to deliver this personalisation, as well as furnishing you with patterns and predictions that can help customise your approach down the line. 

There are additional elements that are coming more to the fore which can supercharge your customer experience beyond customer service. Sentient digital assistants, immersive VR shopping experiences, quantum computing for customer experience analytics and predictive customer experience management, for example, could all have larger roles to play heading into next year. 

Building financial resilience

COVID-19 showed us all the importance of having plans in place should things go wrong. Since then, operating costs have spiralled and this year, the Autumn Budget has presented new challenges for SMEs. With National Insurance hikes and minimum wage increases to contend with too, what is your financial resilience like?

Have you planned what you would do should another pandemic happen? What if your supply chain were to be disrupted by geopolitical tensions or other supply issues? 

SMEs that have already planned for such eventualities are the most likely to get through them unscathed. For 2025, consider your agility: could you pivot if needed? Could your supply chain be more dynamic? Could your workforce be managed in a more flexible way?

Through a combination of demographics, technology, the economy and changing customer needs, 2025 is set to bring continued opportunities and challenges alike. By anticipating these opportunities and challenges and preparing yourself in advance, your business will have the best opportunity not just to survive, but to thrive.

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