Preparing For The Future Of Work: The Top Five Trends
The following is an excerpt from Authority Magazine interview series Preparing For The Future Of Work: An Interview with Phil La Duke.
What are your “Top 5 Trends To Watch In the Future of Work?”
1. Embracing AI, professionally and personally. There’s good reason to be cautious about AI, but there’s also a lot of good that can come with it. Embracing AI, not just at work but even for our everyday home lives (anyone else hate weekly meal planning or scheduling kid’s appointments and extra curriculars?), can free us from repetitive, low-skill tasks and open us up to strengthening the parts of our brains that are harder for AI to compete with.
2. The rise of gig and fractional workforces aka the “Flexetariats.” Gig work today is thought of as something more common in low-skill jobs, but it just goes by different names for knowledge workers, including: fractional, contractor, or freelancer. Though some people may have found themselves in this world after job loss, it’s awoken many to the power they have to diversify their income sources, control their hours, and balance the important things in their lives outside their careers. High-skilled professionals will prefer flexibility over job security, leading to increased talent fluidity. Companies will struggle with workforce planning as long-term employment becomes less predictable if they don’t build a hybrid talent model which includes a mix of full-time, fractional, and contract talent.
3. Job hopping makes way for career hopping. The future of careers is flexible, fluid, and skills-driven. Instead of lifelong careers in a single industry, the new model will be modular, where professionals regularly upskill and reskill, move between industries, roles, and work models, and blend full-time, fractional, and entrepreneurial work.
4. Human connection will become a competitive advantage. The future won’t belong to those who work harder. It will belong to those who think deeper, connect better, and create boldly. For businesses, this means investing in people skills, creativity, and ethical decision-making; using AI to amplify human potential, not replace it; and building cultures where trust, innovation, and human insight thrive. For individuals, this means developing skills AI can’t easily replicate, such as: creativity, leadership, storytelling, and emotional intelligence. Individuals will have to learn to blend AI tools with human insight for smarter, faster decision-making and prioritize meaningful relationships and originality which will set them apart in an AI-saturated world.
5. Parental leave as a talent strategy, not a perk. Parental leave policies have long been seen as employee benefits, but forward-thinking companies will start treating them as critical talent strategies. With workforce shortages and shifting work values, organizations that offer seamless transitions into and out of leave — not just for birthing parents but for all caregivers — will have a competitive edge in attracting and retaining top talent. Businesses will move beyond compliance to proactively design parental leave programs that include structured re-onboarding, leadership development, and interim talent solutions. This will not only reduce career penalties for parents but also strengthen companies by embedding flexibility, knowledge transfer, and succession planning into their workforce models.
