2025: The Year Robots Rule, Sustainability Takes Charge, and Gen-Z Leads the Way AI, Automation, and the Great Talent Hunt: What's Next for UK Entrepreneurship?
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Hold onto your business hats! 2025 is set to be the year robots stop being "the future" and start being your coworker. In this Entrepreneur UK interview, Tony Hague is CEO of West Midlands based PP C&A, one of the UK's leading strategic manufacturing outsourcing specialists, shares his predictions on how artificial intelligence (AI), automation, sustainability, and the Gen-Z wave will shape the UK business landscape – with a few bumps along the way.
What trends do you expect to drive UK entrepreneurship in 2025?
The integration of AI and automation, and the ongoing digitalisation of business operations will transform almost all industries faster than ever before. I predict AI tools will fast-track a lot of activities that lead towards innovation in product and services development. We see sustainability and CSR as a real competitive advantage and with consumer and regulatory emphasis on environmental and social governance only going in one direction, we predict this to become a driver that UK firms can take advantage of. Whether we see it or not is the question, but we believe that Government initiatives aimed at fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, such as regulatory reforms and funding programmes are crucial. If they actually surface, then they will be a much- needed driver. Younger generations, or Gen-Z especially, will contribute significantly to the UK's business landscape, bringing fresh perspectives and innovative ideas fuelled by a comfortable competence with new digital technologies. Collaboration will be crucial, across public and private sectors, utilising our universities and research centres, and ensuring that any economic wealth created from our entrepreneur's brilliant ideas, is commercialised and produced onshore.
How are you preparing for economic changes in the new year?
In the short-term, the Autumn Budget's increase in employers' National Insurance Contributions (NICs) to 15% and the reduction of the threshold to £5,000 per employee, is expected to raise operational costs. There are several ways to prepare for this and we believe it will also accelerate the adoption of automation. We will continue to focus on employee productivity and invest in upskilling and apprenticeships to ensure maximum value from the workforce. We will also address pricing strategies and keep monitoring industry trends. We will also prepare for economic changes by continuing to adopt sustainability, embrace AI and digital transformation where it makes operational sense. PP C&A will continue to explore emerging markets and niches where our outsourcing expertise can offer a competitive advantage. There will be a renewed focus on customer-centricity by deepening relationships with existing clients, identifying and solving their evolving challenges, and collecting and acting on customer feedback.
What sustainability initiatives will you focus on in 2025?
We will be formulating a much clearer ESG strategy after making a lot of progress with things like solar installations, and voltage optimisation. We'll continue to find ways to be more energy efficient, particularly smart energy management systems to monitor and reduce usage. We're actively looking to partner with suppliers committed to sustainable practices to adopt a more sustainable supply chain. More employee and community engagement will be introduced, educating and training employees on sustainable practices and partnering with community programmes to promote environmental initiatives.
What challenges do you foresee with talent management in 2025?
Skilled talent in fields like AI, automation, and sustainability will be in high demand but short supply. There are still hybrid and remote work complexities too, particularly around balancing productivity, collaboration, and employee engagement in a distributed workforce. There may also be a balancing act with talent investments and financial constraints during periods of economic instability.
What's your approach to securing funding as we enter 2025?
We are private equity(PE) backed so we are now aligning with PE objectives and investor goals. The focus is on initiatives with clear, measurable ROI, such as technology upgrades or market diversification. And we'll actively show how additional funding could accelerate growth in high- potential areas, and show our ability to adapt to inflation, labour costs, or other macroeconomic challenges. Finally, we'll prioritise environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives, as investors increasingly value sustainability and responsible business practices.
How will AI and automation impact your business strategy next year?
I expect AI to assist our teams with data analysis, scheduling, and repetitive tasks, allowing skilled personnel to focus on more value-add problem-solving, design for manufacture, and other value engineering. The synergy between AI and human expertise is what will drive greater productivity. I also see a near future where AI helps us monitor and optimise energy usage across operations and in our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in the West Midlands.
