The global talent outlook: Implications for credit, risk and finance

“The Chief People Officers Outlook”, from the World Economic Forum provides a pulse check and forward-looking perspective into the shifts in the labour market. The outlook is based on surveys and consultations with more than 130 chief people officers. Here we dive into the Chief People Officers Outlook in light of the trends impacting the capital markets. For credit and financial professionals, the talent outlook is shaped not only by AI and macro volatility but also by regulatory requirements, private markets expansion, and the rising premium on data and sector expertise.

Key takeaways for credit and financial professionals

Plan conservatively on headcount amid short-term caution, prioritizing scarce skills (structured finance, distressed credit, private markets underwriting, climate risk) and flexible access via nearshore hubs. Use this period to redesign finance roles, controls and analytics capabilities for long‑term transformation.
AI is being embedded into finance workflows. Establish clear boundaries between AI-assisted analysis and final credit decisions. Firms should continue to map AI impacts on jobs, tasks, controls and auditability.
Reinforce a risk culture that links shared purpose to prudent lending, covenant discipline, and fair client outcomes. Integrate mental health initiatives that protect judgment quality under high-stakes, time-pressured analysis.
Develop leaders with cross-functional fluency—credit, risk, treasury, data, and compliance—able to translate regulatory change (Basel III, IFRS 9, stress testing, ISSB climate disclosures) into operating practices.
Leverage global, flexible talent models (eg remote/hybrid, distributed teams, cross‑border collaboration) to mitigate any regional talent scarcity and access specialized digital skills.

Talent outlook

Low vacancy and quit rates, notably in the United States but also globally, reflect caution, with many organizations delaying hiring or restructuring amid macro volatility, geopolitical tensions and technological change.

However, slower hiring masks acute scarcity in private credit, infrastructure, structured products, and workout/restructuring skills. Sector-specialized credit talent (eg energy transition, real estate, healthcare, FIG) that combines macro fluency with covenant analysis is at a premium.

Talent availability is uneven across regions, prompting national strategies to attract skills and employers to adopt agile, global workforce models. For finance teams it points to targeted upskilling to mitigate regional scarcity in digital and data competencies critical to finance transformation.

Adapting to a changing workforce

Workers—especially younger generations—prioritize flexibility and purpose, with rising mental health concerns and value polarization affecting workplaces. Technology amplifies these shifts, necessitating renewed emphasis on collective values, shared purpose and team cohesion. For credit and finance professionals, maintaining engagement and performance requires intentional culture building, clear purpose in financial stewardship, and support for wellbeing to sustain judgment quality and control rigor.

AI integration priorities

The outlook highlights that AI is not only about efficiency – but it can also improve work quality, freeing time and elevating decision-making, productivity and overall efficiency.

As AI is embedded into workflows, firms are conducting impact assessments on control environments, segregation of duties and audit trails, and redesigning roles to combine human judgment with AI augmentation. There is also a need for structured reskilling programs in data literacy and AI governance for finance staff.

Top opportunities in the next 6–12 months:

Automation of repetitive and administrative tasks. Examples include covenant monitoring, portfolio surveillance alerts, and document extraction for loan agreements and prospectuses
Career development and upskilling. In-demand skills include Python/SQL, model governance, and sector-specific AI use cases (e.g., climate scenario analysis).
Embedding AI into origination and review workflows—with role redesign to focus humans on exceptions, structuring, and judgment calls.

Top risks in the next 6–12 months:

Employees not adapting or learning quickly enough.
Career stagnation and loss of skills from over-reliance on AI.
Ethical or data privacy issues.

People strategy amid disruption

The top three people‑practice priorities are:

Reviewing organizational structure and job design.
Focusing on workplace culture and articulating business purpose and impact
Supporting workforce deployment of AI and process automation.

For finance teams, this signals redesigning finance job architectures to integrate AI and digital workflows, clarifying finance’s purpose in value creation and risk management to anchor culture, and building leadership models in finance that combine business acumen, stakeholder influence and digital fluency to guide change.

Conclusion

Credit and finance teams that integrate governed AI, sector-specialized skill building, and multi-hub operating models should improve underwriting quality, speed-to-insight, and regulatory confidence. Aligning people strategy to these levers positions credit and finance to be decisive contributors to resilience and capital allocation in volatile markets.

Discover how the Global Institute of Credit Professionals can enhance the skills of finance and credit teams, so they are ready for the changing markets. Reach out to us at institute@gicp.org to discuss opportunities, including our flagship Global Credit Certificate—an essential credential for staying ahead in the industry.

To read the full ‘Chief People Officers Outlook – September 2025’ visit the World Economic Forum website.

Chief People Officers Outlook – September 2025
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