Eman Al-Hillawi on what 2025 taught her as a CEO and digital transformation leader

Ahead of January and the new lessons, learnings and trends likely to emerge in 2026, business leaders should take this time to reflect and plan. Eman Al-Hillawi, CEO at business change consultancy, Entec Si, looks back on 2025, to find three key lessons from another 12 months of change and uncertainty.

Across the board, 2025 was the year of ‘do more, change more, but with less’, as businesses navigated political and economic volatility. This forced organisations to move quickly, rolling out new systems, technologies and processes to lower costs and increase productivity, highlighting the underlying importance of transformation to avoid being left behind in a fast-moving landscape.

Reflecting on 2025, it’s impossible to ignore the impact of AI’s integration into almost every aspect of the business landscape. This year we saw a huge rise in generative AI and automation, however, there is still a clear lack of trust and concerns about privacy, data security and ethics that need to be addressed. Despite this, many organisations are seeing real breakthroughs with AI strategies through increased training and education for teams, and this is likely to progress into 2026.

2025 was a year of pressured progress. From economic uncertainty, accelerating AI and tightening budgets across both the private and public sector, it’s clear that digital transformations is no longer an optional extra, but a necessity for organisational resilience and productivity.

There are three lessons from 2025 that stand out to me as a business leader operating in digital business change that business leaders should consider when planning for 2026.

1) Data accuracy, governance, integrity and security are essential.

Data is the core ingredient for organisational knowledge, insight and informed decision-making. However, getting this right isn’t just a technical challenge, it’s a people and cultural one. Business leaders should focus on prioritising data governance and security through employee ownership, encouraging the team to regularly check and cleanse data, keeping in line with new policies and procedures. Regular training and check-ins can be implemented to keep this on track.

2) Introducing AI on top of a busy IT network creates issues.

Yes, AI can be a tool to unlock capacity within teams, however, it can also be a hinderance if the technology is not audited and integrated effectively. Many companies have rushed to adopt lots of different AI tools without first checking, cleaning, or organising their existing data, software, and processes. This has led to disconnected, insecure and inconsistent systems. In the near future, we are likely to see AI consolidation projects, where organisations reorganise, reduce, or integrate their AI tools into fewer, well managed systems.

3) Building good relationships and showing integrity will pay back every time.

This certainly isn’t a new lesson for me, but it’s one that has been reaffirmed this year. I really do value good business relationships, whether that is with my immediate team, or the wider community. This year I have joined the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Council and the advisory board for the Centre for the New Midlands, as a way to make connections with new people, but also, to act as a catalyst for change in the business community. I have found this to be a great way to build meaningful connections with peers across a wide variety of sectors, allowing for greater insights.

There is no denying that 2025 proved that digital transformation is no longer a nice to have, but rather the backbone of a resilient organisation. As we head into the new year, the businesses that use data to make strategic decisions, introduce AI on solid foundations rather than as a quick fix, and invest in long-term business relationships will keep ahead of the curve and remain resilient.