2024 was a disruptive year for online assessment, and 2025 will be an evolve-or-die moment for many test formats. Ben Schwencke, Chief Psychologist at Test Partnership, shares the trends we need to watch.
One thing that everyone agrees on when it comes to assessments is that change is coming, and employers will need to adapt.
With that in mind, here are three major trends we foresee for 2025, with implications for test providers, employers, and candidates alike.
1. AI arms race between candidates and assessment providers
A 2024 Gartner survey reported 38% of HR leaders are piloting, planning implementation, or have already implemented generative AI. And with LinkedIn rolling out a new set of AI tools for recruiters in 2025, we predict this will continue to rise.
For candidates, large language models can now mass-produce highly targeted job application content, enabling them to rapidly scale their applications. Employers we speak to now place less trust in CVs, cover letters, and application form responses, and we see this trend continuing.
Test providers are also raising the alarm, as many of the top AI tools can now process screenshots and real-time screen content, enabling candidates to simply share their tests with an AI tool and get the answers back.
Knowledge and hard-skills assessments (like coding tests, and MS Excel tests for example) are the most vulnerable here, since AI tools can read the question and provide the right answer. But even traditional aptitude tests, which require logic and reasoning, are under threat with new AI models being released.
We foresee an AI arms race, with test providers rapidly incorporating AI-detection technologies to help discourage or even catch AI-enabled cheating in real-time.
In this arms-race between candidate and employer, we predict there will be the first breach of the EU AI Act. Some software providers will go a step too far in their use of AI, which will ultimately fall foul of the Act.
The challenge for 2025, which assessment industry experts are currently grappling with, is how do we assess candidates whilst allowing the use of AI tools (rather than banning or detecting them).
Currently game-based assessments offer the most promising answer here because AI tools can’t interact with dynamic elements on screen.
Maybe not one for 2025, but what happens when AI becomes so advanced is it can do a lot of our jobs for us (navigating software applications, digesting information and calling clients, processing multiple sources and sending emails, etc). When that stage comes, it will also surely be able to interact with any assessment, game-based or not.
2. Neurodiversity takes centre stage
In 2024, employers began waking up to the importance of neurodiversity in the workplace. Not only are employers keen to remove unnecessary and harmful barriers to entry for neurodivergent candidates, but they are also eager to capitalise on the different thinking, working, and problem-solving styles of neurodivergent employees.
The ISE 2024 Student Recruitment Survey reported that only 4% of graduate employers had a specific target for hiring neurodiverse candidates, and we predict this will rise in 2025. According to research by Indeed, there has been a six-fold increase since 2019 in job adverts mentioning terms relating to neurodiversity.
The trend is for candidates to feel more comfortable sharing diagnoses and more readily asking for reasonable adjustments and accommodations during the recruitment process. The scope of adjustments and accommodations is likely to increase as organisations become increasingly alert to the needs of neurodivergent candidates.
As organisations adopt a more educated approach to neurodiversity, we anticipate a shift in mentality, from panic to opportunity.
At present, organisations are focused primarily on not discriminating against neurodivergent candidates, which is of course only part of achieving neuroinclusion.
Instead, organisations will find new and innovative ways to improve selection processes, onboarding, and overall talent management with neurodiversity in mind, taking a more proactive (and less reactive) approach.
3. The Proliferation of gamified and task-based assessment
As employers increasingly welcome Generation Z into their workforces, they bring certain expectations.
Gen Z engages with the internet and digital content differently from previous generations, preferring quick, engaging, and predominantly mobile-based content. Increasingly, this will be expected from assessment processes as well, resulting in a rise in gamified or game-based assessments.
Additionally, game-based assessments are inherently resilient against AI-based cheating due to the dynamic and interactive nature of the game mechanics.
We foresee employers waking up to this during 2025, especially given a likely increase in job applications made scalable by the AI-enabled candidate. Employers will rely on these technologies to replace traditional aptitude testing and reduce the risks associated with AI-based cheating.
Game-based assessments are also valuable tools for inclusion. For example, in the case of dyslexia, game-based assessments typically involve more non-verbal reasoning, bypassing difficulties with reading altogether.
Similarly, game-based assessments tend to be quick and engaging, making them particularly suitable for candidates with ADHD as they help sustain attention for longer. These benefits will become increasingly recognised in 2025.
Accelerated pace
Despite 2024 being a year of significant transformation, we see the pace accelerating in 2025.
Now that the reality of AI has sunk in, organisations have had plenty of time to digest, plan, and act, which is what we will see moving forward.
Focus on neurodiversity will continue, shifting from a reactive approach to something more strategic, and will bear fruit in 2025.
Game-based and task-based assessments will gain market share in 2025, better aligning with younger people’s expectations around digital content while simultaneously reducing the risks around AI cheating and helping to support neurodiversity.
We’re looking forward to a more inclusive, more valid, more engaging assessment landscape in 2025.
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