Digital Friction: More Than Just an Annoyance

A recent global study surveying 4,200 employees and managers across nine countries found that 81% of Australian respondents experience “digital friction” – frequent technology glitches, slowdowns, and system issues – every month. While modern workplaces lean heavily on digital tools, these inefficiencies are quietly eroding productivity, morale, and even revenue.

These problems don’t just frustrate users; they cost companies real money. The same study finds that 42% of companies report revenue loss directly tied to tech inefficiencies, and 69 % believe poor digital experiences contribute to employee turnover.

Perhaps surprisingly, even as companies push hard into AI, the promise of better productivity isn’t being realised. According to Ivanti’s 2025 Digital Employee Experience Report, workers endure on average 3.6 tech interruptions and 2.7 security-update disruptions each month. These may seem like minor annoyances, but over time, they compound. For a business of 2,000 employees, Ivanti estimates these disruptions cost nearly US $4 million annually in lost productivity. Shockingly, despite growing AI adoption, only 21 percent of office workers say AI has significantly improved their productivity.

Why Is Tech Slowing People Down?

1. Tool Overload & Complexity: Many workers juggle far too many applications, some overlapping or poorly integrated, which increases friction and wastes time.
2. Poor Training: Nearly half of workers say they are “left to teach themselves” how to use new tools, including AI.
3. Reactive IT: Issues are often addressed only after they’re reported. Instead of preventing problems, companies are constantly firefighting.
4. Constant Interruptions: Updates, reboots and errors- not just from apps, but from security patches- break concentration and disrupt workflow.

How to Overcome the Slowdown

Organisations need to take proactive steps to reduce digital friction and restore productivity:

• Adopt Digital Employee Experience (DEX) tools that monitor in real time how employees interact with software. These platforms can surface common trouble spots and even trigger self-healing scripts to fix issues before they snowball.
• Rationalise the app ecosystem: Audit the number of tools in use, retire underused or redundant ones, and invest in better integrations so systems work more seamlessly.
• Train actively: Don’t drop new technology into workers’ laps without guidance. Provide structured training, encourage peer-learning, and offer ongoing support (especially for emerging tools like AI)
• Shift to preventive IT strategies: Instead of waiting for tickets, use automation to detect and resolve issues proactively. Predictive maintenance and self-service fixes can save both time and morale.
• Build empathy in IT: Encourage IT leaders to understand digital experience from the employee’s point of view; make it a strategic priority, not just a technical one.
• Measure impact: Track how much time is lost to disruptions, then tie improvements in digital experience back to financial and engagement KPIs.

When digital systems work smoothly, they can unlock innovation, better collaboration, and faster decision-making. But when friction dominates, organisations pay the price: in hours lost, in frustrated talent, and in missed opportunity. By investing in smarter tools, training, and empathy, companies can turn technology into a growth engine again, rather than a drag on performance.

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