2025 is bringing with it new challenges for companies to navigate, but also new opportunities for advancement and growth. Reflecting on the events and trends of 2024 gives us a better sense of what to expect this year, but, as always, in our industry, we know we have to expect the unexpected. In a recent webinar, “2025 Predictions in Continuity and Resilience”, hosted in partnership with the Disaster Recovery Journal, Fusion’s Chief Product Officer Eric Jackson and VP of Customer Success Melanie Lucht presented five key trends continuity and resilience professionals need to keep top of mind and strategize for. Their insights will help you navigate evolving challenges, embrace innovative solutions, and position your organization for success.
Trend 1: The Rise of Resilience
In 2024, resilience became a defining focus for organizations globally, evolving from a mere concept to a measurable business imperative. Companies are now striving to withstand and come out on top of any disruption, driven by rising pressures from senior management and new resilience-focused roles. In fact, many organizations reported adding titles with “resilience” responsibilities in the past year.
Key takeaways include:
- Resilience as a Unified Discipline: Organizations are integrating IT disaster recovery, risk management, and business continuity into cohesive strategies.
- Collaboration as a Catalyst: Teams across disciplines are working together to achieve a single, clear understanding of business operations and risks.
- Adapting to Unpredictable Events: As “unprecedented” disruptions occur more frequently, companies are moving beyond static plans, focusing instead on flexible, on-demand response strategies.
By embracing these practices, companies can position themselves to thrive amidst uncertainty.
Trend 2: Leveraging AI and Digital Transformation
Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping resilience in many ways, but most importantly by transforming data collection, analysis, and decision-making processes. In 2025, companies across industries will increasingly integrate AI into their daily workflows to overcome the challenges of manual and time-intensive data handling.
Key applications of AI in resilience include:
- Automating Data Management: AI simplifies gathering and verifying data, freeing up time and resources for practitioners to focus on more strategic activities like testing and collaboration.
- Enhancing Governance: Properly managed AI introduces efficiencies while mitigating risks associated with operational dependencies.
- Improving Proactivity: AI enables businesses to analyze threats dynamically and make informed decisions faster.
The challenge lies in adopting AI responsibly. Governance frameworks and contingency plans are essential to mitigate risks, such as vendor dependencies and data security concerns.
Trend 3: Cybersecurity and Resilience – A New Partnership
In 2025, cybersecurity and resilience teams will come together to address shared goals and work more strategically. With regulatory frameworks like the Digital Operational Resilience (DORA) emphasizing collaboration, organizations are now integrating cybersecurity insights into broader resilience strategies.
Key trends include:
- Unified Response Strategies: Continuity and cybersecurity teams are breaking down silos, ensuring shared knowledge and coordinated efforts.
- Adopting Business Resilience Mindsets: Security practitioners are focusing on safeguarding operational continuity rather than just data protection.
- Enhanced Testing: Companies are incorporating cyber scenarios into resilience testing to ensure preparedness for ransomware and other threats.
This shift is vital as cyber risks become increasingly disruptive to business operations.
Trend 4: The Power of Testing and Exercising for Resilience
Testing and exercising are cornerstones of resilience, enabling organizations to demonstrate their ability to withstand disruptions. In 2025, expectations are rising for organizations to move beyond static plans and actively verify their ability to respond quickly during a crisis.
Key insights include:
- Identifying Critical Gaps: Testing exposes weaknesses in plans and processes, allowing for more targeted improvements.
- Prioritizing Critical Areas: Focused testing on high-risk dependencies improves efficiency.
- Building Confidence: Regular testing and exercising demonstrates a commitment to resilience to stakeholders and regulators alike.
Organizations should embrace technologies that streamline testing and exercising processes, enabling more frequent and effective exercises.
Trend 5: Managing Third and Fourth Parties in Resilience
As regulation deadlines are enforced, companies are increasingly being held accountable for the resilience of their third- and fourth-party vendors. In 2025, integrating vendor risk management into continuity planning is a critical focus, even for unregulated industries.
Key developments include:
- Collaborative Data Sharing: Third-party risk and continuity teams are pooling insights together to better understand vendor dependencies.
- Proactive Contracting: Organizations are negotiating vendor SLAs (service-level agreements) with resilience in mind, ensuring alignment with critical business needs.
- Enhanced Monitoring: Continuous assessment of vendor capabilities ensures risk factors are up to date and teams are better prepared for disruptions.
By addressing these areas, companies can reduce their vulnerabilities and build robust partnerships.
Ready to Enhance Your Organizational Resilience?
With these trends and insights in mind, now is the time for you and your teams to focus on strategically approaching end-to-end resilience, implementing new technologies to improve daily workflows, and working more collaboratively and cross-functionally.
Ready to take your organization’s resilience practices to the next level? Talk to an expert today to see how Fusion can address your current challenges.
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