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Here Are The Top 5 Skills To Learn In 2025

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By Jack Kelly

As we stand on the cusp of a new year, the job market continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, driven by technological advancements and shifting economic realities. In this dynamic environment, professionals across all industries are recognizing the critical importance of upskilling and reskilling to remain competitive and relevant.

The coming year presents a golden opportunity to invest in yourself by acquiring the in-demand skills that employers are actively seeking, ensuring you’re well-positioned for career growth and new opportunities in an increasingly digital and automated world.

The rapid acceleration of digital transformation, catalysed by recent global events, has reshaped the way businesses operate and the skills they require from their workforce. From artificial intelligence and data analytics to cloud computing and cybersecurity, the demand for tech-savvy professionals continues to soar across sectors.

In-Demand Hard Skills For The New Year

As traditional job roles evolve and new positions emerge, the ability to learn and adapt quickly has become a critical asset in itself. By proactively developing these in-demand hard skills, you not only enhance your marketability but also position yourself to thrive in the face of future disruptions and opportunities in the job market.

1. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

AI and machine learning are becoming indispensable skills in the job market, with their importance growing exponentially across industries. The demand for AI-related skills is 3.5 times higher than the average job skill, reflecting the rapid integration of these technologies in various sectors, a PwC report revealed.

This surge in demand is driven by the transformative potential of AI and ML in the workplace. This fast-emerging technology is expected to automate up to 300 million jobs in the United States and Europe, according to investment bank Goldman Sachs, while simultaneously creating 97 million new roles that require advanced technical skills, as predicted by the World Economic Forum. This shift is not just about job displacement; it’s about job evolution. Companies adopting AI are planning to expand their workforce, with 91% of firms integrating AI aiming to increase their employee numbers by 2025.

2. Cloud Computing

Cloud computing skills will remain in high demand, as the industry continues its explosive growth and transformation of business operations across sectors. Gartner forecasts global end-user cloud spending to reach $723 billion in 2025, a 21.5% increase from the previous year.

The rise of generative AI and the need for integrated platforms are accelerating cloud adoption, with 90% of organizations projected to have hybrid cloud deployments by 2027. As organizations continue to migrate their applications and workloads to the cloud, with 48% planning to move at least half of their applications within a year, proficiency in cloud computing will be crucial for professionals looking to stay relevant in the rapidly evolving job market of 2025.

3. Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity skills are highly coveted, as the digital landscape faces unprecedented threats and skyrocketing costs associated with cybercrimes. By 2025, global cybercrime costs are projected to reach a staggering $10.5 trillion annually, according to a report by Cybercrime Magazine.

This surge in cybercrime is accompanied by a severe shortage of qualified professionals in the field. The cybersecurity job market is expected to grow by 33% between 2023 and 2033, with an estimated 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity positions worldwide by the end of 2025. This talent gap is further exacerbated by the rapid evolution of cyber threats, with encrypted threats increasing by 92% in 2024 and malware rising by 30% in the first half of the same year.

4. Data Analysis

Businesses are increasingly relying on transforming unstructured data into actionable insights to drive growth, improve user satisfaction and maintain a competitive edge in the market. The demand for data analytics expertise is surging across industries, with trends like AI-enhanced analytics, natural language processing and advanced data visualization reshaping how organizations leverage their data assets.

As organizations grapple with the challenges of data quality and governance, professionals skilled in ensuring data integrity and implementing effective data strategies will be in high demand, making data analysis an essential skill.

5. Digital Marketing

In today’s digital landscape, businesses are leveraging online social platforms to connect with and engage their target audiences and customers.

With global digital ad spending projected to surpass $740 billion in 2024, and over 5 billion social media users worldwide, proficiency in digital marketing strategies will be crucial for professionals looking to thrive in the competitive job market.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Jack Kelly

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or some of my other work here.

Jack Kelly has been a senior contributor for Forbes since 2018, covering topics in career development, job market trends and workplace dynamics. His articles often focus on practical advice for job seekers and employees, as well as covering the latest news impacting workers so they can make informed decisions about their careers. Read More

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Bot-driven web traffic and its application security impact

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Sourced from HelpNetSecurity

Bots conduct 52% of all Internet traffic flow. For some organizations, bots represent more than 75% of their total traffic. This is a significant finding considering one-in-three organizations cannot distinguish between ‘good’ bots and ‘bad’ ones.

The report also found that 45% of respondents had experienced a data breach in the last year, and 68% are not confident they can keep corporate information safe. What’s more, companies often leave sensitive data under-protected. In fact, 52% do not inspect the traffic that they transfer to-and-from APIs, and 56% do not have the ability to track data once it leaves the company.

Any organization that collects information on European citizens will soon be required to meet the strict data privacy laws imposed by General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). These regulations take effect in May 2018. However, with less than seven months until the due date, 68% of organizations are not confident they will be ready to meet these requirements in time.

“It’s alarming that executives at organizations with sensitive data from millions of consumers collectively don’t feel confident in their security,” said Carl Herberger, Vice President of Security Solutions at Radware. “They know the risks, but blind spots continue to pose a threat. Until companies get a handle on where their vulnerabilities are and take steps to protect them, major attacks and data breaches will continue to make headlines.”

Key survey findings include:

Application security is an afterthought

Everyone wants the full automation and agility that the continuous delivery model of app development provides. Half (49%) of the respondents currently use the continuous delivery of application services and another 21% plan to adopt it within the next 12-24 months. However, continuous delivery can compound the security challenges of app development: 62% reckon it increases the attack surface and approximately half say that they do not integrate security into their continuous delivery process.

Bots are taking over

Bots are the backbone of online retail today. Retailers use bots for price aggregation sites, electronic couponing, chatbots, and more. In fact, 41% of retailers reported that more than 75% of their traffic comes from bots, yet 40% still cannot distinguish between “good” and “bad” bots.

Malicious bots are a real risk. Web scraping attacks plague retailers by stealing intellectual property, undercutting prices, holding mass inventory in limbo, and buying out inventory to resell goods through unauthorized channels at markup. But bots are not the exclusive problem of retailers. In healthcare, where 42% of traffic is from bots, only 20% of IT security execs were certain they could identify the “bad” ones.

API security is often overlooked

Some 60% of organizations both share and consume data via APIs, including personally identifiable information, usernames/passwords, payment details, medical records, etc. Yet 52% don’t inspect the data that is being transferred back and forth via their APIs, and 51% don’t perform any security audits or analyze API vulnerabilities prior to integration.

Holidays are high risk for retailers

Retailers face two distinct but highly damaging threats during the holidays: outages and data breaches. Web outages during the holiday season, when retailers make most of their profits, could have disastrous financial consequences. Yet more than half (53%) are not confident in their ability to provide 100% uptime of their application services. High-demand periods like Black Friday and Cyber Monday also spell trouble for customer data: 30% of retailers suggest they lack the ability to secure sensitive data during these periods.

Patient healthcare data is at risk

Just 27% of healthcare respondents have confidence they could safeguard patients’ medical records, even though nearly 80% are required to comply with government regulations. Patching systems is critical to an organization’s security and its ability to mitigate today’s leading threats, but some 62% of healthcare respondents have little or no confidence in their organization’s ability to rapidly adopt security patches and updates without compromising operations.

More than half (55%) of healthcare organizations said they had no way to track data shared with a third party after it left the corporate network. Healthcare organizations are particularly unlikely to monitor the dark net for stolen data, with 37% saying they did so, compared to 56% in financial services, and 48% in retail.

Multiple touchpoints equal higher risk

The rise of new financial technology (like mobile payments) has increased the access and volume of engagement with consumers, which, in turn, increases the number of access points with vulnerabilities and expands the risk security executives face. While 72% of financial services organizations share usernames and passwords and 58% share payment details via APIs, 51% do not encrypt that traffic, potentially exposing valuable customer data in transit.

Sourced from HelpNetSecurity

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