It's that time again: a new year with fresh opportunities to improve our work and ourselves.

Alongside starting that gym routine or giving up ultra-processed foods, you might consider taking steps that could help you boost your career as 2025 unfolds.

Taking action can be important because workers tend to hold greater responsibility for the shape of their careers than they did five to 10 years ago when employers played a bigger role, Lisa Walker, a managing partner at the executive search firm DHR Global, told Business Insider.

"You have to be vigilant about managing your own career," she said.

Here are three ways you can level up your career in 2025, according to workplace experts.

Boost your AI abilities

Sean Barry, the vice president of talent acquisition at Allstate, told BI that workers should try to become more proficient in artificial intelligence.

He said it's essential to realize that the technology will put a premium on a new set of skills for many people — like how to create an appropriate prompt for generative AI.

"That is not a skill that anybody talked about two years ago, and it's critically important now," Barry said, adding that people who are better at this will likely do better in their careers.

One way to improve your AI skills is simply to use it. Start by trying out chatbots and seeing what works.

It's become a cliché to say that AI won't replace you, but someone who knows how to use it will. Yet there are areas where AI might replace humans, which is why a better understanding of how AI works can be beneficial.

That's advice Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has given: If you're worried that AI will take your job, get better with the technology.

Kiki Leutner is cofounder of SeeTalent.ai, which is developing tests run by AI that would simulate tasks associated with a job to help the hiring process. She told BI that, traditionally, employers tended to use such tests for more senior roles only where it was worth the money and effort. Or, Leutner said, a company might give a software developer a coding task to measure proficiency.

Leutner said Generative AI can let employers test far more job seekers and across a broader range of roles than would otherwise be practical. Plus, she said, AI-run assessments can collect insights that previously were difficult to capture, such as how someone might interact with others.

Success in such areas often involves the soft skills employers say they're seeking and many bosses contend too many workers lack.

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