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For years, we travelled to an office or worksite to get to your job. The rise of technology — with the evolution of the cloud and a global pandemic acting as catalysts — made the adoption of more flexible and hybrid working patterns possible.
Today most of us — at least those involved in knowledge work — spend much of our work day using digital workplace software, whether in the office, at home or on the go.
Table of Contents
- Why Does the Digital Workplace Matter?
- What Is a Digital Workplace?
- Common Questions About the Digital Workplace
- What Is the Difference Between a Digital Workspace and the Digital Workplace?
- What Is the Difference Between the Digital Employee Experience (DEX) and the Digital Workplace?
- What Is Digital Workplace Transformation?
- Digital Workplace Tools: CommonApps
- The Impact of GenAI on the Digital Workplace
- Benefits of a Digital Workplace
- Best Practices for a Digital Workplace
- The Future Is Bright for the Digital Workplace
Why Does the Digital Workplace Matter?
The digital workplace encompasses the core workplace technology that employees use every day — the tools, services and resources that employees need to succeed in their roles. This is clearly fundamental to how an employee experiences their working day, whether in an office or elsewhere through hybrid and remote work.
The digital workplace and the way it is designed, managed and experienced affects areas such as productivity and collaboration, supports working patterns and contributes to employee engagement. In turn, these underpin daily operations, support talent retention and attraction and ultimately affect the bottom line.
"More than five years of survey data shows that organizations have seen gains in productivity and report that employees are experiencing better work/life balance from the move towards digital workplace," said Sarah Kimmel, Simpler Media Group's VP of Research. "In our latest digital workplace research, the subject has increased as a priority for a majority of organizations, with 83% saying it is a critical or very important priority."
What Is a Digital Workplace?
Reworked’s State of Digital Workplace report defines the digital workplace as: "Ever-evolving, the digital workplace combines leadership, culture, technology and practices to yield critical outcomes that impact both operational effectiveness and employee engagement."
"The concept is that there is a virtual equivalent to the physical workplace, and that this needs to be planned and managed coherently because it is fundamental to people's productivity, engagement and working health,” said Sam Marshall, owner of ClearBox Consulting and digital workplace specialist with more than 20 years of experience.
Digital Workplace Group (DWG) CEO Nancy Goebel refers to the digital workplace as “digital headquarters of the enterprise,” where employees get the information they need to carry out their role. Increasingly, as the digital workplace gets smarter, it also provides employees with access to relevant data and insights to make better informed decisions.
Common Questions About the Digital Workplace
Organizations implementing effective digital workplace strategies report several measurable benefits that extend beyond basic technology improvements.
- Enhanced Productivity & Efficiency: Digital tools streamline processes and automate routine tasks, enabling better collaboration in both real-time and asynchronous environments. Employees experience fewer interruptions and can dedicate more time to high-value work activities. Research indicates that addressing productivity gaps remains a priority for many organizations.
- Improved Employee Experience: The digital workplace directly influences daily work experiences by supporting flexible work patterns and enabling remote and hybrid arrangements. This enhanced experience contributes to better talent retention and attraction while promoting healthier work-life balance.
- Greater Inclusivity & Accessibility: Digital workplace implementations can improve system usability for employees with disabilities and better support neurodivergent workers. This approach expands the available talent pool and creates more inclusive work environments. McKinsey research indicates a connection between inclusivity initiatives and organizational performance.
- Operational Cost Savings: Organizations achieve cost reductions through tool consolidation, workflow optimization and reduced travel requirements. Digital communications and operations also decrease paper usage and overall environmental impact.
- Data-Driven Improvements: Digital workplaces enable organizations to track key metrics including user adoption rates and return on investment. This data supports continuous improvement efforts and helps reduce operational waste.
These outcomes collectively contribute to building more resilient and adaptable organizations positioned for future challenges and opportunities.
Companies encounter multiple obstacles when integrating new digital workplace tools into established workflows, ranging from employee resistance to technical complexity.
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Major Integration Challenges
Resistance to change represents a significant barrier, particularly in larger organizations where employees are accustomed to legacy systems. Budget constraints pose difficulties for smaller companies that cannot modernize their entire stack at once. Legacy system integration adds technical complexity, requiring careful connections between old and new tools. Skill gaps further complicate adoption when employees lack the digital literacy to use new technologies effectively.
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Common Solutions and Strategies
Organizations address resistance with targeted communication and training that demonstrate tangible benefits of new tools. Companies overcome budget limitations with phased implementations instead of full overhauls. To bridge skill gaps, they provide hands-on training and empower teams to shape optimal usage. Regular technology audits help identify underutilized tools and streamline workflows.
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Reducing Digital Friction
Tool overload and fragmented communication create productivity challenges that organizations counter by simplifying digital ecosystems. Analytics identify and eliminate low-value activities while automation reduces repetitive tasks. The most effective organizations balance innovation with security and adaptability, ensuring digital tools enhance rather than complicate employee workflows.
💡Tip: A strong change management initiative can help people grow accustomed to and knowledgeable of new workplace software. Pilot programs are one of the most successful means of increasing adoption, creating advocates and generally paving the way for a smoother rollout of new features or platforms.
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AI Transforms Digital Workplace Operations
Artificial intelligence is changing how employees work, collaborate and access information in digital environments. Organizations are implementing AI systems that cut search time by up to 70% and shift static intranets into dynamic digital assistants that anticipate employee needs.
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Automation and Personalization Drive Efficiency
AI systems now automate routine administrative tasks while personalizing content delivery based on employee behavior. AI-powered intranets proactively recommend content rather than requiring employees to search static repositories. The technology also introduces “AI teammates” and virtual coaches that guide employees, connect departments and support skill development. Leaders and staff must adapt, upskill and learn to work alongside AI agents.
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Implementation Challenges Emerge
While AI reduces administrative burdens, it can also increase workloads and create algorithmic silos. Data privacy concerns and reduced human interaction present additional risks. Organizations must balance automation with human insight and adopt ethical frameworks, governance and accessibility to ensure AI augments rather than replaces human-centric work.
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Cultural Adaptation Required
The focus is shifting from basic AI adoption to building cultures of experimentation and continuous learning. Companies understand that adapting the corporate culture is as important as implementing the technology. Success depends on supporting employees to co-create AI-enhanced environments while balancing automation with human decision-making.
Digital workplace technology advanced significantly over the past year, with artificial intelligence emerging as a primary driver of workplace transformation.
AI Powers Employee Experience Evolution
The integration of artificial intelligence capabilities became a major force in workplace innovation over the course of 2024 and 2025. The technology now powers more personalized employee experiences, automates repetitive tasks and supports data-driven collaboration systems. Organizations invested heavily in digital employee experience management to reduce friction, improve engagement and streamline workflows. These efforts aim to create workplace environments that feel more effortless for employees.
Sustainability Becomes Strategic Priority
Sustainability emerged as a new frontier in digital workplace development. Leaders began integrating workplace tools with environmental, social and governance systems. This trend is moving beyond device energy tracking toward comprehensive sustainability insights and compliance capabilities.
Hybrid Work Model Continues Refinement
The hybrid work model evolved as organizations refined flexible arrangements. Companies focused on improving digital literacy programs and developing better productivity measurement systems.
Software Ecosystem Shifts Toward Specialization
The workplace software landscape saw changes in vendor dynamics. While integrated suites like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace remained dominant, specialized tools such as Asana, Monday.com and Wrike offered GenAI features that streamlined work, improved transparency across teams and improved user experiences. Integration capabilities grew in importance as organizations sought flexibility without compromising security or governance.
Digital Maturity Becomes Moving Target
These developments positioned digital workplace maturity as an evolving challenge. Companies invested in digital dexterity, continuous learning programs and transformation capabilities to remain competitive. The overall trend points toward workplaces becoming more intelligent, environmentally conscious and employee-centric.
Organizations are shifting from traditional activity-based metrics to outcome-focused measurements when evaluating their digital workplace initiatives. This reflects a growing understanding that effectiveness lies in business impact rather than simple usage statistics.
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Key Performance Indicators
Companies track several critical metrics to assess digital workplace success. Employee engagement, productivity and user adoption rates serve as primary indicators, alongside satisfaction scores and retention levels. Rather than monitoring basic activity like hours worked or login times, organizations focus on how digital tools affect project milestones, client satisfaction and innovation outcomes. This ensures assessments reflect real value creation instead of mere digital activity.
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Feedback and Behavioral Analytics
User feedback and participation in virtual communities provide valuable qualitative insights. Companies also examine knowledge-sharing platform usage and self-service adoption rates to gauge engagement depth. Real-time data analysis highlights collaboration overload or tool fatigue, enabling organizations to fine-tune digital strategies and address workflow inefficiencies before they harm productivity.
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Financial and Strategic Alignment
ROI tracking and cost savings measurement remain standard practices in digital workplace optimization. Companies perform workflow audits and benchmark against industry standards to identify improvements. The most effective approaches align digital initiatives with business objectives, ensuring digital workplace maturity becomes a process of continuous improvement rather than a one-time implementation.
Ownership of the digital workplace can change from organization to organization, but one thing is clear: you do need an owner.
Whoever takes on that role is responsible for driving technology adoption, counseling the business on which tools to use, creating and managing a central repository of key resources, working with key business stakeholders to drive employee experience initiatives and making sure the digital environment is a pleasant and effective place to work within.
What Is the Difference Between a Digital Workspace and the Digital Workplace?
“Digital workspace” is a term that is often used interchangeably with “digital workplace” partly because they sound so similar, and partly because their definitions overlap. But digital workspaces and digital workplaces are quite distinct.
Generally, a digital workspace is specifically an online space where employees have access to a discrete set of tools, usually in a consistent, designed way. The digital workplace is often considered a wider concept, involving not only a wider set of applications and technologies, but also encompassing strategic and holistic practices and approaches that support employees and the best use of tools.
Therefore, a digital workplace could encompass a digital workspace, or multiple digital workspaces within it.
What Is the Difference Between the Digital Employee Experience (DEX) and the Digital Workplace?
Digital employee experience (DEX) is another similar term sometimes used in connection with or interchangeably with digital workplace, emphasizing the contribution of the digital workplace to employee experience.
“The intersection between the two terms is very large,” Marshall said. “Some try to redefine ‘digital workplace’ as being only about the technology, but I’ve always seen it as being about the total experience.” This covers how a person feels to work within an organization, as well as areas such as wellbeing and culture. In practice, not enough conversations about DEX mention these areas, he added.
“Some try to redefine ‘digital workplace’ as being only about the technology, but I’ve always seen it as being about the total experience.”
- Sam Marshall
ClearBox Consulting
What Is Digital Workplace Transformation?
Business success today hinges on the ability for employees to connect with each other, collaborate, make real-time decisions and be agile. Increasingly, AI will also be a critical factor. That’s where digital workplace transformation comes in.
Although the term “digital transformation” is more commonly applied, often it is about digital workplace transformation, improving the traditional workplace through more advanced digital tools and technology.
While you may already use technology to your advantage, digital transformation is about getting the most out of each tool, app or piece of software, but then keeping the overall digital workplace experience coordinated, consistent and human-centered, rather than fragmented, inefficient or overwhelming.
It includes steps such as:
- Assessing your current digital workplace: How does your workplace stand in your industry’s competitive landscape? What are the business’s shortcomings? How mature is it and where are the gaps?
- Outlining your future workplace: How can you improve your workplace based on employees’ behaviors, pain points and preferences? How can you address shortcomings? Where do you want to be?
- Exploring your digital workplace software: What digital workplace platform and related tools meet your organizational goals, connect team members and maximize productivity and effectiveness?
- Designing the digital workplace: What will your workplace look like? Your design should include the digital workplace environment but also the technology that is integrated into your physical office (if there is one), covering areas such as meeting rooms.
- Managing the digital workplace: What is the underlying governance that will help maintain and guide the evolution of the digital workplace for the longer term? What roles make everything happen and sustain success?
Why Transformation Is More than Your Digital Workplace Platform
While technology is essential to digital workplace transformation, it’s only one part.
Businesses often make the mistake of considering their digital workplace by looking only at the tech, said Rachel Happe, digital workplace strategist and founder of Engaged Organizations.
“It can be a very IT-led conversation rather than a strategic, operational or management conversation about how we work together,” Happe said. “There’s a real danger of giving people very powerful tools with little perspective on how to use them really well.”
Goebel also urged businesses to consider how people will actually be using workplace technology and the change effort involved in digital workplace transformation, particularly as AI changes how we work.
“Change agility is the new social currency of the enterprise,” Goebel said. “Digital workplace leaders who can create a sphere of influence that gets other people to move through change will be a very highly valued commodity inside of organizations.”
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Digital Workplace Tools: CommonApps
What kind of applications make up a typical digital workplace?
“It covers all the online tools your employees use in the workplace, including line-of-business applications, employee self-service, collaboration and communication tools,” Marshall said.
Today’s digitally focused companies use myriad digital workplace tools. Some of the most common include:
- Intranets: Helps employees get things done, stay informed via internal communications and find information and content they need, while often also acting as a front window to reach other digital applications.
- Communication apps: Supports external and internal communications between colleagues, management, vendors, customers, including email, instant messaging and video chat.
- Collaboration tools: Encourages employees to share knowledge and work together, despite being physically apart, such as through virtual meeting tools or shared cloud-based documents.
- Digital productivity tools: Helps employees with project management and workflows.
- Employee self-service tools: Helps employees manage core HR, IT and financial processes, services and information.
- Data management features: Simplifies the navigation and finding of information, including customer, product and employee, within the digital workplace software.
- Process automation tools: Automates routine operations in each department to free employee time.
- AI tools: Increasingly AI is being integrated into all of the above, as well as providing a smarter layer to create content, get insights and carry out simpler tasks.
The Impact of GenAI on the Digital Workplace
Generative AI affects every solution in the digital workplace. Many teams are rolling tools out but still working out their best use case.
“AI is changing the nature of work and hence the workplace,” Marshall said. “Just about every aspect is affected — from the way employees are expected to do their job specifics through to automation of employee services and intelligence built into every productivity tool.”
One of the most exciting developments will be the growth of the “AI teammate” where an artificial colleague is part of the digital workplace, he added.
"The AI overlay will also start to act more and more like a virtual coach that offers guidance and suggestions and helps connect different parts of the workplace in new and exciting ways,” Goebel agreed.
She also predicts agentic AI will lead to digital workplace leaders managing a mix of people and AI agents to get work done.
However, it’s important to remember the human element of the digital workplace; otherwise we are in danger of just reinforcing old and ineffective ways of doing things, Happe said.
“There’s a danger that AI is just accelerating the existing frame that people work under by making transactions more and more efficient,” Happe said. “If you treat people like a production capacity and AI accelerates that, then you’re basically forcing them into mediocrity by using AI.”
Benefits of a Digital Workplace
A digital workplace offers a number of benefits that improve an organization’s bottom line.
Greater Productivity
One of the goals for the digital workplace is saving time and improving productivity. Productivity gains come in all shapes and sizes, including process improvement, smart automation, better findability, fewer interruptions and improved collaboration, both real-time and asynchronous.
“If you can take meetings off people's calendars and share all of that online so that they can get information when it's relevant to them, that saves them time and energy,” Happe said. That also gives them time for more reflection and planning, which makes employees more effective, she added.
Arguably, a digital workplace that supports remote work also improves productivity. However, this remains a matter of debate, with some CEOs still rallying around a return to the office. Surveys have found remote employees believe they are more productive, while hiring managers think remote workers are less.
Business Resilience and Continuity
Years ago, a business was its physical space. Could it move to another location? Sure. But it took time and money.
The pandemic changed everything, with the digital workplace supporting an almost overnight pivot to remote work at scale. And while some organizations are now mandating a return to the office or have formalized hybrid working in place, the digital workplace provides stability, resilience and is at the center of business continuity planning.
Increased Inclusivity
Inclusivity in the workplace comes with many benefits, including access to a wider range of expertise and experience. Research from consultancies such as McKinsey also suggests a link between a more inclusive workplace and commercial success.
A digital workplace supports inclusivity in multiple ways including:
- Making systems more accessible and usable for people with disabilities (up to one in four of the workforce).
- Providing better communication and collaboration methods for neurodivergent employees.
- Giving a wider talent pool access to the digital tools they need.
- Supporting Employee Resource Groups that also promote diversity and inclusion.
More Sustainability
One often overlooked element of digital workplaces is sustainability.
“Reducing digital wastage can have positive environmental impacts, such as CO2 savings on emissions through more efficient communications, reduced travel, replacing paper with digital twins, rescuing data consulting, etc.,” said Goebel.
Improved Employee Experience
Many of these benefits improve the employee experience.
Removing digital friction, improving productivity and providing a more inclusive workplace could all improve the way an employee feels about their employer.
Best Practices for a Digital Workplace
You know the digital workplace definition and the benefits of digital work. Now, let’s cover the best practices that help it work well.
Reduce Digital Friction
Digital friction is the unnecessary effort someone has to put in to use technology. It’s jumping between apps, dealing with failed searches and navigating disjointed workplaces — anything that wastes time and reduces productivity through context switching.
“Recognizing the cost, frustration and toil of difficulties such as these means that a top priority for digital workplace teams is to reduce digital friction.”
- Nancy Goebel
Digital Workplace Group
Removing friction also involves reducing the constant interruptions that occur across multiple applications, Happe added.
“Many collaboration platforms rely on offloading costs to users in the form of texts and emails that constantly interrupt them and force them to make constant tiny decisions about what is important,” Happe said. “It is easy to feel harassed all the time and it sucks people’s energy and decision-making capacity.”
Promote Transparency
With workplace technology delivering huge amounts of personal data, and many organizations driven to monitor employee performance, clarity about how data is being used is essential. This not only follows ethical practices and complies with data privacy regulations, but also avoids misunderstandings.
“We need to be crystal clear about the data we are capturing,” Happe said. “If people think you’re watching their keystrokes and judging them, it can be a low-level stress and change how people behave.”
Measure Digital Work's Impact
All companies should have a digital workplace strategy in place that includes measuring the effect of digital work. These measurements help leadership home in on what they’re doing right and what might need a second look.
Metrics to track include:
- Employee engagement
- Employee productivity
- Employee retention levels
- Software user adoption rates
- Uptake of employee self-service
- Workplace technology return on investment
- User satisfaction scores
- Cost savings through digital workplace optimization and consolidation
- Project budgets vs. actual costs
Have a Governance Structure
Because digital workplaces are so complex — spread across the digital landscape and encompassing so many tools and technologies — companies need concrete plans for managing them.
Digital workplace governance is a framework that helps businesses follow their regulations, standards, cultures and values. It makes the user experience consistent, helping teams instead of impeding them.
This framework includes rules, systems and processes surrounding topics such as security, communication, technology and compliance.
Focus on Knowledge Management
With AI added into the workplace technology mix, having solid foundations around consistent approaches to data management, reliable and accurate content and using taxonomies to make information easier to find are emerging as important success factors.
“Content management and knowledge management, and the data that's wrapped around them, is taking on even more importance,” Goebel said. “Digital workplace practitioners need to have disciplines such as good data management as part of their core skill set.”
Reflect on Digital Practices at the Team Level
Much of the digital workplace design takes place at the organizational level. However, many use patterns happen at a team level, and these are rarely uniform. Being intentional in considering how a team uses a digital workplace and establishing related rules has great benefits.
“Taking the time as a team to reflect on how you work together can pay huge dividends. How do we use Teams or Viva Engage? How do we use AI? Working out the details on all those things is incredibly helpful.”
- Rachel Happe
Engaged Organizations
Providing budget at the team level to cover digital enablement also helps employees use tools better.
The Future Is Bright for the Digital Workplace
Since the pandemic, the digital workplace stopped being a concept associated with the future of work and became a strategic asset to change our working days. It affects everything from productivity to employee experience.
With AI set to transform the digital workplace further, it’s a fascinating and exciting time to be involved with the digital workplace.
“In the past, DWG research has suggested that the future digital workplace would be more beautiful, more intelligent and more connected,” Goebel said. “It feels like we are very much on that path.”
Editor's Note: This article was updated on July 22, 2025 to reflect the ongoing changes to our digital workplaces.
