The 5 Digital Adoption Trends to Watch in 2019

People often talk about the need to stay ahead of the curve. But in the digital world, that’s virtually impossible.

Enterprises can’t evolve faster than technology itself. The most they can attempt is to catch the wave at the right time.

Join too soon and you may be biting off more than you can chew. Join too late and the next wave might already be coming.

We can all agree the time to pursue digital transformation was yesterday. But digital adoption is a priority every day. Keeping a pulse on digital adoption trends and how they’re progressing is critical to ensuring your transformation efforts succeed.

5 digital adoption trends to keep track of

1. More RPA and automation
2. Intense focus on user experience
3. Deeper training and adoption analytics
4. Adaptive technology and machine learning
5. Taking a digital-first approach

1. More RPA and automation

Robotic process automation (RPA) is an emerging technology made possible by artificial intelligence (AI).

Instead of relying on humans to operate systems, RPA is software that allows you to automate rote processes and reduce the burden of manual work.

There are two types of RPA:

• Attended RPA learns from the user’s actions to suggest next steps based on those actions.
• Unattended RPA works independently without any user input.

This kind of intelligent automation is changing the way organizations operate by “optimiz[ing] processes, personaliz[ing] customer experiences and enhanc[ing] decision making.” (IBM)

It has the potential to transform the output of employees within an enterprise by improving efficiency, productivity, and performance.

RPA can have a dramatic impact on digital adoption, as it lessens the human user’s responsibility to complete processes. Whether it’s attended or unattended RPA, the person responsible for the task no longer needs to complete the whole process manually, which reduces frustration and errors and improves usability.

Dive Deeper: How RPA Can Unleash Higher Employee Productivity

2. Intense focus on user experience

Digital transformation is impossible unless employees and customers engage with and adopt new technologies successfully.

Forrester Research released a study showing that a well-designed user interface (UI) can raise website conversion rates by up to 200%. A UX-focused model could supercharge conversion rates up to400%.

Prioritizing and allocating resources to UX and adoption is the only way to achieve ROI. Without a focus on the user and how they engage with your digital tools, your shiny new app, system, or platform is just a useless bunch of code.

What’s the point of investing in an awesome new CRM, for example, only to find that sales teams still rely on old systems and processes? And with system updates happening all the time, today’s enterprise employees are overwhelmed and frustrated with all the changes.

Enterprises need to develop a way to maintain a seamless user experience regardless of digital updates. This is critical to maintaining digital adoption in a constantly evolving workplace. Failing to do so can result in serious consequences, such as poor employee morale and productivity, customer frustration and churn to name a few.

3. Deeper training and adoption metrics

Data makes the world go round. If you’re not using your data properly and learning from it to deliver better experiences, you’re wasting it.

Smart enterprises today are opting to equip themselves with tools that provide feedback on how their new digital systems are being used. Not only that, but how well new hires are onboarded to existing systems.

Armed with this data, it’s possible to make meaningful improvements to applications and online platforms with rapid adoption in mind. Because the faster users get to grips with your technology, the better the ROI.

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4. Adaptive technology and machine learning

This is one of our favorite emerging digital adoption trends for enterprises. When it comes to learning new systems and software, technology can actually learn to better serve users. This is our vision exactly. Technology should adapt to users instead of the other way around.

A Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) is an example of adaptive technology — it uses an algorithm to analyze various contextual factors and understand who is using the system, what guidance they need, and when. In this way, it provides a personalized experience to each and every system user.

Remember how frustrating it is to undergo training on a new platform? You were so comfortable and efficient using the last one. Now you have to start from the beginning again, learning where everything lives and how to complete tasks.

The technology is in control and you’re desperately trying to play catch up.

Adaptive technology, like the DAP, completely overturns this nightmare scenario. The DAP adapts to you and it gives you the information you need to use any new system right from the get-go.

Think about how transformative this is for onboarding, training, technology roll-out, and digital change everywhere.

5. Taking a digital-first approach

We’re no longer in the age of digitization (turning analog data into digital). We’ve also passed the age of digitalization (turning analog processes into digital).

As we head closer to a new decade, enterprises need to take a digital-first approach to the core business model as well as internal operations.

Healthcare, entertainment, corporate, and financial services — all organizations are advised that if they don’t follow suit, they’re going to get left behind.

Catch the wave

Be strategic about what digital adoption trends you invest in. The clock is ticking and the tide isn’t going to change. Digital is the present and the future of enterprise.