Enterprises lost $104 million to underused tech in 2024
WalkMe has just released our 2025 State of Digital Adoption Report: Special AI Edition. As the pioneers and leaders of the digital adoption platform (DAP) category, WalkMe has consistently tracked digital adoption’s evolution.
Aptly for our time, this year’s report focuses on the state of AI adoption in organizations across the globe. There is no doubt that AI is transforming enterprise ambitions, but its success depends on people. The human part of the equation seems to be what is standing in the way of realizing the great promises of AI.
The findings must be considered in context of the consistently missed opportunity that has characterized many digital transformation efforts. BCG research shows that while digital transformation leaders generated $9 trillion in shareholder value from 2018 to 2023, others missed $5 trillion in potential gains. Enterprises now face a choice: continue accumulating transformation debt and lag behind the competition, or embrace digital adoption as the bridge to AI-powered success.
The report outlines seven digital adoption best practices and their business impact. Implementing even a single digital adoption best practice can nearly triple digital transformation ROI from 22 to 64 percent. Success in the AI era will not be won with technology alone, but with holistic adoption excellence.
For our fourth annual State of Digital Adoption Report, we surveyed nearly 4,000 enterprise leaders and employees globally and dove deep into AI adoption trends. Likely the most comprehensive research into today’s digital adoption efforts, it provides a blueprint for harnessing AI to achieve HyperProductivity. At WalkMe, we’re committed to helping you turn the promise of digital transformation into measurable business impact.
Here’s a peak into some of the findings:
Despite AI spending projected to grow 64 percent in 2025 — from $14 million to $23 million at large enterprises — many organizations struggle to translate investment into impact. Our research highlights that while 79 percent of executives express confidence in achieving AI transformation goals, only 28 percent of employees feel adequately trained, and just 25 percent can use AI to work more efficiently. This readiness gap proves that without strategic adoption, AI investments often fail to deliver meaningful business value. The cost of the resulting digital inefficiencies at large enterprises was found to be over $104 million in 2024 alone due to underutilized technology and poor productivity practices.
While executives estimate an average of 37 applications are in use at their organizations, WalkMe data shows the average large enterprise actually has on average 625 applications in use — a 17x discrepancy or visibility gap of 1,600 percent. How can organizations effectively optimize their technology investments if they lack the visibility into what applications are actually being used and how? The answer is, of course, they can’t. Enterprises must first discover precisely which applications are in use across their organizations before meaningful productivity gains can be realized. It’s the most basic first step in setting up each individual employee, team, and business unit for success using the technology tools that are already being paid for.
Ninety-three percent of enterprises surveyed are reevaluating their IT infrastructure, software applications, and talent strategies to ensure AI success. With so much in flux at even the world’s most innovative companies, one thing is clear: AI’s promise can only be realized if people are using it. Enterprises that invest in human-centric workforce AI adoption will not only maximize their AI investments, but will also lead the charge in shaping the future of work.
The digital adoption imperative is not only motivated by ROI, employees are all but crying out for help using these increasingly complex and numerous technologies at work. The report found that employees are still struggling with the technology tools available to them, so much so they waste an average of 36 working days a year dealing with technology frustrations. That’s akin to having every single employee take almost two full months off purely to deal with digital friction.
We can do better.
I invite you to explore more of this year’s findings and talk to WalkMe about how your workforce can thrive with AI and achieve HyperProductivity. Download the full 2025 State of Digital Adoption Report: Special AI Edition here and join our webinar, “Bridging the AI Divide,” on February 25, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. ET, featuring experts from WalkMe, Accenture, State Farm, and EDF Renewables (register here).
Dan Adika is CEO and co-founder of WalkMe.
