When it comes to how employees work, the headlines and hype are clear: AI is set to be a gamechanger for productivity, efficiency, and satisfaction.

Except in many cases, this isn’t what’s happening.

A new study by the Upwork Research Institute has some sobering findings: 96% of C-Suite executives surveyed said they expected AI to boost productivity in their companies, yet a massive 77% of employees said AI in the workplace has decreased productivity and increased their workload. What explains the disconnect?

In large part, it’s because workplace managers at enterprises are thinking about AI in the wrong way. Merely giving employees a disparate set of AI tools isn’t going to move the needle on productivity—and if it does, it will likely be the wrong direction. Employees expected to use unfamiliar tools without support are being set up to fail.

There’s a bigger-picture, better way to think about AI at work. It isn’t just something for employees to use directly (although it’s certainly that). It’s also a means for IT and operations teams, internal product managers, and others who design how work happens to fully understand, optimize, and better manage their employees’ application and workflow experiences. The best way to do that? Through an intelligent digital adoption platform.

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When DAPs become intelligent

Digital adoption platforms are pieces of software layered on top of another software product or set of products to help facilitate user proficiency. They do this by guiding users through key tasks and workflows, like creating a sales opp, submitting an expense report, etc.

Before the age of AI, the best DAPs worked by using a combination of product analytics, feedback, and in-app guides. Analytics allowed teams to get a view into how work was happening—who “superusers” were, where teams may be getting stuck, which products and features drove the highest ROI, etc.

Combining this with qualitative feedback, teams gleaned critical insights into the current state of work to build a better future state via process optimizations and in-app support. In-app guidance and notifications provide always-on, automated help to users to get them through key processes and adopt key features.

With the power of AI, an intelligent DAP takes all these motions to the next level—while adding new capabilities. Not only can the right intelligent DAP use AI to surface key insights, it can help turn those insights into action by crafting data-driven support motions that empower employees to work better. All of this is powered by a full stack of analytics, including quantitative, qualitative, and visual data.

Where do enterprises go from here?

With AI tools here to stay (and only growing in importance), enterprises find themselves at a crossroads: Will their AI strategy boost productivity, or hamper it? Strengthen satisfaction, or further frustration? The right strategy—and the right tool to execute it—will make all the difference in answering those questions and determine whether an enterprise gets ahead of the curve or ends up left behind.

An intelligent DAP can radically optimize critical priorities for businesses, including:

Productivity
New and existing employee onboarding
Process and workflow completion
Governance and compliance

What a comprehensive intelligent DAP looks like

The strongest intelligent DAPs empower teams with everything they need to understand the current state of work—and the means to take action to transform the future state. Pendo’s comprehensive platform, for example, equips companies with:

SaaS portfolio management: AI-powered insights to uncover how different segments of employees use digital products.
Behavioral analytics: Analytics reports to view workflow and process completion rates and segment the data by types of users.
Listen: AI-generated feedback summaries and insights gleaned from responses to in-app polls and surveys.
Session Replay: Video replays of users in action, including AI-suggested replays based on frustration, u-turns, errors, and rage clicks.
AI-generated in-app content: The ability to create and instantly localize in-app guides, communications, polls and content with help from generative AI.
Dynamic embedded content: In-app content embedded in the user interface to drive users to complete a task or take action. Then, automatically update the content when that task is complete.
Orchestrated emails: Personalized, behavior-based email and in-app messaging journeys to drive workflow completion.

To learn more about Pendo’s intelligent digital adoption platform, take a self-guided tour here.

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