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Whatfix’s 2024 Digital Adoption Predictions

By Khadim Batti, CEO and Co-founder of Whatfix

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital transformation, CIOs find themselves at the forefront of driving organizational change. As businesses increasingly rely on technology to achieve their objectives, the role of a CIO becomes pivotal in ensuring seamless integration of digital tools and platforms. Data-driven digital adoption platforms (DAPs) are emerging as a necessary tool, providing automated guidance to users navigating complex enterprise applications.

This article will explore how data-driven DAPs have emerged as a priority for CIOs tasked by boards with the new charter of employee experience by taking advantage of new user experience, on top of existing priorities of vetting new tools, provisioning infrastructure, and preparing for new risks. By understanding DAPs, CIOs can enhance the user experience, boost productivity, and streamline operations while understanding how users are engaging with your applications with advanced product analytics. We will also uncover how AI integration and the concept of "userization" contribute to redefining the digital landscape, offering CIOs valuable insights into the future of technology adoption within their organizations.

Why CIOs Should Lean into the Strategic Value of Data-Driven Digital Adoption Platforms

Gartner reports that by 2025, "70% of organizations will use digital adoption platforms within their technology stack to overcome still-insufficient application user experiences". As the role of CIOs continues to evolve in the dynamic digital landscape, they need to increasingly prioritize the strategic value of Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs) to their Board of Directors. A Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) is a no-code editor that acts as an interactive overlay on top of any enterprise application. It guides users with real-time guidance and provides self-help support while gathering valuable insights about user interactions with the application interface. Data-driven insights and AI, enable scalable success with technology,  maximizing productivity, and leveraging data-driven insights for better decision-making for the CIOs on his technology stack.

Recognizing the pivotal role of digital transformation and anticipating challenges in introducing new technology, DAPs facilitate CIOs with seamless onboarding, improve employee productivity, and optimize software utilization. This proactive approach will equip CIOs with actionable tips to effectively communicate the business impact of DAPs, allowing them to speak the language of the Board of Directors and secure crucial Board support for successful DAP implementation. As a result, organizations led by forward-thinking CIOs will bridge the communication gap, ensuring the Board is fully aligned with and supportive of their digital initiatives.

How AI is Helping Redefine the Digital Employee Experience  

In 2024 and for years to come, Gen-AI's integration with digital adoption platforms (DAPs) will redefine the digital employee experience by optimizing productivity within business applications, resulting in business value outcomes. This collaboration is expected to lead to increased revenue, reduced costs, and enhanced risk mitigation through swift data analysis. AI's role will focus on delivering a more personalized user experience, automating complex processes, and prioritizing tasks for heightened efficiency. DAPs have already started to integrate gen-AI capabilities across applications, simplifying interfaces and eliminating steep learning curves. AI's impact will extend to providing contextual guidance, supporting analytics, and seamlessly navigating between applications for enhanced user-friendly, and efficient business software.

Enterprises Will Realize the Value of Software "Userization"

In 2024, the key to enhancing user engagement lies not only in building a compelling application but also in adopting optimized user experiences. The emerging concept of "userization" makes it simple and intuitive for users to act, collaborate, and complete their business software tasks in a seamless manner. Userization focuses on making technology more user-centric, rather than making people technology-proficient. This forward-looking strategy emphasizes a shift from a technology-centric to a more user-centric approach. 

On average, most business users toggle between 12 different applications to do their jobs. The growing proliferation of applications causes a massive learning curve for employees to understand how to use  and integrate them within current business processes. Employees have unique user experiences within applications to help reduce friction and training time for learning new software tools. As a result, enterprises will need to invest in technology that adapts to the unique needs of its employees.

As businesses face economic headwinds in the new year including funding freezing, budget cuts, and layoffs, remaining employees will be expected to do more with less. The concept of "userization" will help employees increase efficiency by making software easier to use so they can become more seamless and quicker on applications.

Looking Ahead 

The journey toward CIO's successful OKRs will be in the ability to benefit from the strategic value of data-driven digital adoption platforms. As highlighted, the integration of AI with data-driven DAPs promises to reshape the digital employee experience, optimizing productivity and contributing to overall business success. Looking ahead to 2024, the realization of the concept of "userization" emphasizes the importance of a user-centric approach, marking a shift from technology-centric strategies. CIOs who grasp these evolving dynamics will lead their organizations into a future where technology aligns seamlessly with business objectives.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Khadim Batti, CEO and Co-founder of Whatfix, the global leader in digital adoption platforms (DAP). Khadim co-founded Whatfix with Vara Kumar in 2014 with the mission of empowering individuals and organizations to freely use and experience the maximum benefits of technology. An entrepreneur at heart with an engineer's mind, Khadim is also giving back to the start-up community by sharing his passion, knowledge, and mentorship with aspiring talent for over a decade and a half. Khadim also acts as the Grievance Redressal Officer for Whatfix.