15 Big Ideas that will change the UK in 2025

It's the end of the year – a time to not only reflect on what we faced in 2024 but also to anticipate what the next 12 months have in store. What trends will be truly transformational, and what will prove to be just a passing fad?

In 2024, generative AI and a volatile economic climate defined the global business environment. In the year ahead, the value of human connection will come to the forefront, with artificial intelligence becoming part of daily life and businesses reinventing how to reach customers in authentic ways – opening the door for new discoveries and economic opportunity. 

Every December, LinkedIn News spotlights bold predictions, emerging trends and innovative ideas from our editors and experts around the world that are poised to shape the year ahead. This year’s 15 Big Ideas offer a glimpse into what may define the UK in 2025 and beyond.

What prediction or trend do you expect to have the biggest impact in the year ahead? And why? Share your thoughts in the comments or by posting a video with #BigIdeas2025. 

Check out analysis by Beth Kutscher of what we got right – and wrong – with some of last year’s Big Ideas predictions. 

You can also see our local Big Ideas for Australia, India, Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, the Netherlands, Europe, Asia, Latin America, the US and the Middle East (English, Arabic). 

– Polly Dennison  

The investment landscape of 2025 will see a fundamental shift as employee wellbeing becomes a mainstream metric for stock valuation, alongside traditional financial indicators. This transformation is already gaining momentum, backed by compelling evidence that happier workplaces deliver superior returns.

Companies prioritising employee satisfaction have been shown in research to outperform their peers by 2.3% to 3.8% annually in long-run stock returns. Oxford and Harvard Universities looked at 1,600 US firms and 15 million employee surveys and found that companies with higher workplace wellbeing perform better on metrics including value, return on assets and profits. The 100 firms ranked by employee wellbeing outperformed both the S&P500 and the Dow Jones by 20% since 2021.

One investment fund set up in 2022, the HAPI ETF by Irrational Capital , has outperformed 90% of its peers. 

"People are not a cost to our businesses – they are an investment we should all be making if we want better performing companies," argues Dan Ariely , behavioural economist and co-founder of Irrational Capital. "Our research shows that treating employees well positively influences how businesses perform in the stock market."

However, Alex Edmans , professor at London Business School , adds an important nuance: "The returns to employee satisfaction are strongest in countries with flexible labour markets. In regions where regulation already ensures high worker welfare, additional investment may see diminishing returns."

By 2025, expect to see investment firms routinely incorporating employee satisfaction metrics into their valuation models, whilst companies expand their focus on mental health programmes, work-life balance initiatives and overall workplace culture. This shift represents a growing recognition that employee wellbeing isn't just a feel-good metric – it's a crucial indicator of long-term business success. – Manas Pratap Singh

What measures should companies take in 2025 to boost workplace wellbeing? Share your thoughts in a post using the hashtag #BigIdeas2025

Automatic speech recognition and visual description software are among the artificial intelligence technologies enhancing workplace accessibility like never before. With live captioning, voice commands and transcription capabilities, these tools can foster a more inclusive and productive work environment.

"AI is going to be hugely impactful for disabled people in the workplace because it will hopefully make accessibility mainstream and available to everyone, just like Apple did with the iPhone or Amazon with Alexa devices," says Robbie Crow , a workplace disability inclusion expert. 

The WEF 2023 report on AI and disability inclusion highlights that excluding people with disabilities can cost up to 7% of a country’s GDP. Implementing a disability-inclusive business strategy with assistive AI could result in 28% higher revenue and 30% higher profit margins for companies.

The benefits for everyone are clear, says Crow, with technologies that can simplify tasks and make consuming large amounts of material much easier. But AI is also having a wider impact for people who are blind, deaf or neurodivergent. 

"AI can produce descriptions for any images – graphs, images and infographics, etc – and it can even tell you what’s on the screen in real-time. That’s something blind people have always been missing out on unless they had human support," says Crow.

However, companies must also be aware of AI's potential weaknesses, Crow adds. 

"AI in recruitment, for example, isn't yet ready to remove biases towards people who can't make eye contact, who make spelling mistakes in applications or who answer questions literally. AI will have a positive impact, but we need to be mindful of ethical AI and train it to remove inherent discrimination across the board." – Neha Jain Kale and Jennifer Ryan

How else could AI make the workplace more accessible in 2025 and beyond? Weigh in using the hashtag #BigIdeas2025

Aviation will fully embrace sustainability in 2025, as the industry looks to limit its impact on the environment. Airlines will expand investments in fuel-efficient aircraft and the retrofitting of their current fleets, and the progressive adoption of sustainable aviation fuel. 

We cannot wait until 2050 to have new types of aircraft or new fuels. Climate change is worsening and directly affecting aviation. Dubai Airport was flooded by extreme rainfall, disrupting flights for days, highlighting that global network airports are extremely vulnerable to extreme weather events. 

Clear air turbulence has increased by 30% and now poses a significant threat to operational safety. Last year, a Singapore Airlines flight from London encountered severe turbulence; 31 people were injured and one died. 

Many airlines are expanding rapidly and ordering hundreds of traditional planes – so we need to make the current system more efficient and less polluting. Aviation produces 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and the industry is acutely aware of its environmental impact and responsibility. 

With support from academia and business, the aviation industry can do more to reduce its carbon emissions this year. This could include: the optimisation of flight routes and loading, to select the most fuel-efficient options; increase use of sustainable aviation fuels; an improvement of ground operations to minimise idling time and the use of a single engine for taxiing and electric support equipment; the adoption of renewable energy at airports, such as solar or wind options. – Mark Maslin , professor of earth system science at UCL.

How can the aviation industry improve its environmental impact? Join the conversation using the hashtag #BigIdeas2025

Bank customers have deserted branch visits in favour of smartphone apps for years, but face-to-face banking hasn’t had its last word yet. Welcome to the "banking lounges" era: with the growing threat of scams, this renewed in-person experience will feel more like going to an Apple store or Starbucks than simply visiting your bank. 

These banking lounges will look and feel more like tech concept stores than physical branches. Think: less transaction windows and long queues and more open meeting spaces, education seminars and even freshly brewed coffee. "In the future, a visit to the bank may feel more like buying a new phone than opening a new account," financial crime consultant Luke Raven says.

According to Raven, banks are under pressure from regulators to do more to protect customers from scams and fraud. In the UK, where fraudsters stole close to £600m in the first half of 2024, banks are obligated to refund fraud victims up to £85,000. "In some countries there will be mandated reimbursement by default, while in others banks will be on the hook if they haven’t done a good job," he says.

This, in turn, will push banks to “break the spell” that scam victims are under by offering a human interaction – ideally face-to-face. While small transactions will still be done from the palm of your hand, banks will invite customers to do their banking in-store for big, life-changing moments – such as buying your first home or gifting a large amount of money to loved ones – where trained support staff can help prevent instances of scam, fraud and even simple human error. – Misa Han

Will banking lounges entice you back to face-to-face banking next year? Join the conversation by sharing a post using the hashtag #BigIdeas2025 

Lower emissions, less congestion and fewer barriers: Driverless electric buses are popping up in cities across the globe, ushering in a new era of public transport. Local government investments in mini and midibuses, which allow for more flexible services, have particularly gone up, and are expected to further increase over the next three years.

The UK's first autonomous buses within a city centre were to launch by the end of 2024 in Milton Keynes, followed by Sunderland in 2025. In the railway town of Didcot, Oxfordshire, and the outskirts of Edinburgh, Scotland, autonomous bus fleets have already been in operation since 2023. 

Hamburg, Germany, is set to launch regular operations of its ride-pooling service Alike with 20 electric minibuses next year and expand its fleet to 10,000 vehicles by 2030. The German port city – up to now the country's most congested – will also host renowned public transport summit UITP, a move that has drawn attention from cities worldwide facing pollution and labour shortages.

Among these cities are Norway's capital Oslo and Geneva in Switzerland, where shared autonomous vehicles will soon hit the streets under the EU-funded Ultimo project. In Spain, meanwhile, an autonomous public bus connecting to the port of Málaga has successfully passed passenger tests, and the city of Shiojiri in Japan is also set to launch an autonomous bus in 2025, in the context of a driver shortage in several cities of the country. In the US, May Mobility is planning to expand its driverless shuttles in Detroit, Miami, and Sun City in Arizona.

Low-density and rural areas could particularly profit from driverless vehicles such as on-demand minibuses. "They could bring immense benefits, including reducing the cost of operation," notes UITP Secretary-General @Mohamed Mezghani and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Jinhua Zhao in an article for the World Economic forum. This would offset, at least partially, the investments related to the manufacturing and distribution of these vehicles. – Katarina Lukač

How could driverless electric vehicles reshape public transportation? Share your thoughts in a post using the hashtag #BigIdeas2025.

Imagine: you arrive at the doctor's office, and all they need to do is apply a simple dye to your body to see what's happening inside. Advances in tissue clearing techniques could very soon make it possible to establish diagnostics and manage diseases in a much less invasive way than currently. 

Looking back, 2024 marked a breakthrough with a publication in the academic journal Science detailing a technique that – so far only in mice – makes tissues transparent, allowing light to pass through, for example, the skull skin or abdomen, which could eventually enable viewing inside the human body without machines. Building on work carried out in 2023 by scientists at the The Francis Crick Institute in London, this innovative and simple technique involves no toxic chemicals and the type of ointment tested for this study can also be easily removed. 

Jorge Parra Ruiz , who holds a PhD in medicine, describes it as a "revolution in the visualization of internal organs," while Ramon Reyes , president of the Spanish Association Against Cancer, states: "New, less invasive detection methods, like the one described in this paper, are crucial for cancer research. They enable more effective diagnostics with minimal discomfort for patients, making it more accessible".

Typically, advancing research techniques from mice to humans is slow, but this method might be an exception: the substance used is made from a dye commonly used in food, known to be safe for humans. Which makes it also a quiet low-cost technique. While human trials may not be ready by 2025, this could still be a pivotal year for advancing its application. – Ainhoa Iriberri and Sam Shead

How do you think advancements in diagnostic testing will impact the future of patient care? Weigh in, using the hashtag #BigIdeas2025

More than 50% of the decline in global growth in recent years has been due to tepid productivity gains. In the coming year, major economies will invest in their workforces to turn this around. 

Over the past few years, global economic policymaking has been preoccupied with many other things – dealing with the pandemic and its aftermath, navigating global conflicts and geopolitical tensions, fighting inflation and avoiding a global recession. 

The global economy has persevered and shown remarkable resilience through it all. But it has been left with a worrying legacy of low growth and high debt. Now is the time for global economies to capitalise on the resilience it has developed in recent years to focus on growth. We can do that by making work work better for more people.

Policymakers in 2025 will need to invest in reforms like reducing barriers to competition, cutting red tape and advancing digitalisation, to name just a few. The right reforms can help boost productivity, enhance skills and seize the benefits of the green and digital transitions. Governments will need help from the private sector, who can provide capital and innovation, to pull this off.

We will raise our growth ambitions and create good jobs where people need them most. – Kristalina Georgieva , managing director of the International Monetary Fund

Do you believe global growth in the year ahead hinges on productivity-boosting reforms? Why or why not? Weigh in using the hashtag #BigIdeas2025

Sports betting ads are everywhere, competing for your attention and promising the thrill of a big win. But as backlash against the industry grows, their ubiquity might be short-lived.

In 2007, just before smartphones effectively put a casino in every pocket, UK gambling laws were revised and restrictions on advertising removed. Since then, online betting has become ever more popular and the UK gambling industry continues to grow, with revenues reaching £1.78bn between April and September in 2024, a 6% increase on the same period in 2023. 

"The evidence is clear: gambling advertising leads to increased participation in gambling," says Dr Raffaello Rossi , a lecturer in marketing at the University of Bristol and author of several reports on gambling advertising. 

"Our research also shows that these ads tend to be more appealing to children than adults," says Dr Rossi, with almost half (46%) of those aged 11-17 reporting that they see gambling advertising at least once per week on their social media feed.

European countries such as Belgium, Italy and Spain have recently imposed significant curbs on gambling advertising, says Dr Rossi. However, the UK, which led the deregulation of the market in 2007, has minimal restrictions.

"The public is increasingly frustrated by the constant presence of gambling ads, and awareness of the associated harms is growing. This shift is creating a sense of urgency much like we saw with tobacco regulation," says Dr Rossi.

The government will come under increasing pressure to impose stricter regulations on gambling advertising, from politicians, campaigners and figures from the world of football. 

Just as rising public health awareness spurred regulatory crackdowns on Big Tobacco, we could witness a similar backlash against the sports gambling industry, seen as profiting on products that are easily accessible and hard to quit. – Jessica Misener and Jennifer Ryan

Do you think sports betting will see increased backlash in 2025? Why or why not? Weigh in using the hashtag #BigIdeas2025

Extreme weather events are getting bigger, more frequent and affecting areas they previously didn't, and as insurers pull out, governments will find themselves stepping in.

"The weather system is much more volatile and that volatility is increasing. We're seeing 'threshold events' – things that the models may not capture because they don't exist in the historical record," Sandy Trust , of Institute and Faculty of Actuaries , tells LinkedIn News.

In Florida, where this storm season cost an estimated $100bn (£780m), premiums have soared and insurers have left the state, some going into liquidation. In the UK, the Bank of England estimates 4m UK homes could be uninsurable by 2030.

The consequences for the wider economy are raising red flags, from the increased costs of damage and people selling up and moving, to the uninsurable – or uninsured – properties in banks' mortgage portfolios.

Governments have already intervened as "insurers of last resort" – for instance, in the UK, the government set up a body to insure homes built on flood plains. "In part its mandate is to improve the resilience of those homes, so that when floods do hit, they are protected and to make them more insurable in future," says actuary Lloyd Richards, FIA CERA CStat .

Now governments are looking at what's next. In Europe, the EU is exploring an "emergency backstop" for the insurance industry, and the French government recently kicked off a consultation on the problem. "Insurance is the invisible lubricant of the economy – it shouldn't be left to fail," Trust says.

Thinking could start to shift, from an individual scale to whether whole groups of people can access insurance. "The fundamental purpose of insurance is risk-sharing and the question is how narrow a group you share with," says Richards. "You can probably share things more equitably if you think globally rather than regionally." – Siobhan Morrin

As extreme weather events continue to worsen, what solutions might emerge to ensure broader access to insurance coverage? Share your thoughts in a post using the hashtag #BigIdeas2025

For at least one in 10 adults, modern dating means online dating – and many will tell you it "has never been worse". In 2025, more singles will dump disappointing dating apps and search for alternative ways to mingle.

Legacy dating apps like Tinder and OkCupid once promised unprecedented ease, but their decade of steady growth is now on the decline. A recent lawsuit against Match Group , which now owns most of the major dating apps, offers one reason why: "[The apps] transform users into gamblers locked in a search for psychological rewards that Match makes elusive on purpose." Online dating hasn’t seen much innovation since the advent of swiping, while profit expectations have resulted in tiered experiences for paying users.

Meanwhile, fed up daters are diversifying where they meet people, from niche social clubs to Strava DMs, and tapping into a budding industry of matchmakers, dating coaches and ticketed speed dating events. In Brighton, a popular speed-dating event lets friends "pitch" each other to potential suitors via PowerPoint, while some singletons in Spain are looking for love in their local supermarkets – during dedicated hours, shoppers put an upside-down pineapple in their trolley if they’re looking for love. 

This experimentation will continue in 2025, as daters and entrepreneurs look for the next big thing. And dating apps will adjust, or get deleted. Expect to see the arrival of more startups looking to snag a piece of Match Group’s pie by addressing some of the worst parts of online dating – think: features to prevent ghosting, videos offering "vibe-checks" and flirty chatbots that write icebreakers for you. Hopefully one of them can figure out how to make dating feel fun again. – Rachel Cromidas and Aaron Toumazou

How do you expect dating apps to evolve in the year ahead? Weigh in using the hashtag #BigIdeas2025

Quantum computing will move beyond research labs and into real-world applications, with companies such as IBM and Google making advancements. 

It can perform many calculations simultaneously, making it exponentially faster at solving complex problems. This will have a significant impact on industries such as pharmaceutical and materials science. 

Quantum computing can speed up drug development and create more effective treatments, as it can simulate molecular structures. It can also model atomic interactions, meaning material scientists can develop new products, like superconductors. Beyond science, quantum computing can optimise logistical challenges, improve cybersecurity and enable new data analysis methods. 

Companies using quantum computing will have the competitive edge, and be able to make decisions faster. It has the potential to solve problems that were previously unsolvable, making it a game-changer for industries and society alike. – Vincent Galan , vice-president, Lombard Odier Group

What technological advances will make their way into everyday life in 2025? Join the conversation by posting with the hashtag #BigIdeas2025

Music festivals have had a tough few years, with 60 cancellations in the UK in 2024 alone, and 200 coming to an end since 2019. Cancelled festivals include Secret Garden Party in Cambridgeshire, Sideways Festival in Helsinki, Chicago's Pitchfork (after 19 years) and Body and Soul in Ireland. Camp Bestival Shropshire also announced that it won't return next year. 

While some cancellations are down to the rising cost of doing business, other concerts are seeing falling ticket sales because of the cost-of-living crisis, and extreme weather events and changing concertgoer appetites are also hitting the sector. 

But is this just a blip in the live music industry or is it a longer-term trend? 

"My heart feels it's a blip, my head fears a longer trend," says Will Page , author of business transformation book Pivot and former economist for Spotify . "I'm worried about the collapse of grassroots venues as they're the 'conveyor belt' that brings us the festival headliners of tomorrow." 

Music journalist Tony Clayton-Lea hopes that the shift in consumer behaviour away from festivals might mean a greater interest in those smaller venues, which, he says, are the lifeblood of the industry. Clayton-Lea reckons there could be a dose of "festival fatigue" among concertgoers, backed up by a lack of new acts and the desire to not be sleeping in a field amid increasing extreme weather events.

Page argues that the influence of algorithms on consuming music has had a knock-on effect on festivals as well. He believes that, in response to this, the future of festivals may lie in single-genre events. Clayton-Lea echoes this, noting that festival curation – along with keeping costs down – will be key to their future success. 

For the moment, smaller venues are dealing with their own cost-related crisis as well. After the Treasury's last budget, small venues are facing an increase in business rates which, the Music Venue Trust says, may lead to the loss of 12,000 jobs and the closure of 350 venues. An injection of interest as concertgoer interests shift from festivals with a range of genres to single-focus shows could be just what they need. – Polly Dennison

Are multi-day festivals a thing of the past? Would you prefer an increase in small gigs? Share your thoughts in a post using the hashtag #BigIdeas2025

Get ready to meet a new colleague in the new year: the office influencer.

With gen Z's unrelenting demand for brand authenticity and personal connection, more employers are poised to hire in-house influencers in 2025 to give their online presence a relatable touch. These social media personalities will capture their company's essence on video, producing everything from day-in-the-life vlogs to Q&A sessions with colleagues. They'll also jump on the latest social media trends to inject humour into employer branding, as seen in viral TikTok videos by the likes of UK electrical retailer Currys plc , while coaching senior executives on effectively using video to communicate company news, such as earnings announcements.

Many companies are empowering their employees to build personal brands, with the likes of Vodafone in the UK developing dedicated "employee advocate" programmes that equip their workers with the tools needed to share news, insights and company innovations across channels. But unlike traditional content creators who participate in one-off brand deals, office influencers will be full-time employees at established employers, like consulting giant Deloitte and luggage company Béis.

Though they may have assigned desks, they'll likely spend most of their time in designated content creation spaces within the office. By adopting this role, companies will appeal to both young talent and customers, meeting them where they spend much of their time: on social media. Jenna Palek , a TikToker hired by hydration startup Waterboy to create content, suggests that long-term incentives like equity will be key to convincing independent creators to move in-house. "The reality is that most influencers can make a yearly corporate income in just a few partnerships on their own, so long-term benefits and personal relationships will be key to keeping influencers," Palek told The Times. – Gianna Prudente , Devin Banerjee and Aaron Toumazou

How do you think the rise of in-house influencers will transform workplace culture and employer branding in the year ahead? Join the conversation using the hashtag #BigIdeas2025

People often think that fighting climate change is something that happens behind the scenes – via an algorithm optimising energy use or a buried carbon capture system. But over the next year, some of the most powerful solutions will be working in plain sight.

In 2025, climate innovations will enter our homes, workplaces and supermarkets to become part of everyday life – not only because they fight climate change, but because they save time, cut costs and perform better. Take Luxwall's vacuum-insulated windows. These aren’t futuristic gadgets; they're windows, just like most of us look through every day. But by acting like a thermos bottle, they massively reduce energy consumption.

The same thing is true when concrete is injected with captured CO2 and becomes more efficient – or when advances in EV-battery technology increase range, decrease costs and give more people the green light to go green. And while the meat-replacement market is already pretty robust, sustainable dairy protein alternatives are improving daily. (I now prefer a fungi-based yoghurt over the “real” stuff.)

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. But the real power of these innovations lies in their dual appeal: They’re good for the planet and great for business. – Bill Gates , chair of Gates Foundation and founder of Breakthrough Energy

How do you see climate innovations evolving in 2025? Weigh in using hashtag #BigIdeas2025

One giant leap … to Mars? New efforts to explore the cosmos may ultimately get us back to the moon – or to the Red Planet. 

NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration 's Artemis II – the first crewed mission to the moon in over 50 years – is scheduled to launch in late 2025, with a historic team of astronauts including Christina Koch, the first woman to travel to the moon, and Victor Glover , the first person of colour to do so. Artemis II won’t land, but due to its trajectory, the flight will be the furthest humans have ever travelled. It will test life support and flight systems needed for the landing mission, which will see NASA partner with SpaceX to put a Starship rocket on the lunar surface in coming years. China also plans to put boots on the moon in 2030. 

Australian astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg from the Australian Space Agency says in a video on LinkedIn that "humans are returning to the moon to work, not to walk,” adding that the Artemis programme will turbocharge scientific and technological advances like Apollo did. “We are on the cusp of a new era of space exploration and industrialisation that will transform robotics, autonomous systems, AI, medicine, energy, resources, agriculture and more,” she says.

And it won't stop there. SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s cultural and political influence post the US election may see more ambitious space exploration goals emerge, as he lobbies to overcome the regulations he sees as barriers to fulfilling his stated goal to colonise Mars. So who knows, a Mars-shot might not be far behind next year’s moonshot. – Marty McCarthy

What are your predictions for space exploration in the coming year? Weigh in using hashtag #BigIdeas2025

💭 What prediction or trend do you expect to have the biggest impact in the year ahead? And why? Share your thoughts in the comments or by posting a video with #BigIdeas2025.