CEOs report AI saves them 8+ hours weekly; employees say less than 2 hours. RTO compliance surged as economic anxiety shifted workplace power. Corporate social responsibility rhetoric retreated. January's trends reveal widening gaps between how leaders perceive change and how workers experience it.

Client questions shifted in 2025—from "How do we build an AI strategy?" to "How do we get people to use the tools we bought?" Here's what our discovery calls revealed about what organizations actually need.