As AI becomes more pervasive in the workplace, expectations for productivity will only grow. While new AI capabilities can help workers meet those expectations, there will be more tools to manage, some of which will be unfamiliar.
In order not to overwhelm workers and undermine the employee experience, IT leaders will need a strategic approach for deploying unified communications, especially as vendors introduce new AI features . Let's explore three drivers for managing UC with both productivity and employee experience in mind.
1. Need for UC platform consolidation
Despite the feature-rich nature of UC platforms, many enterprises deploy multiple UC platforms alongside standalone productivity apps. In theory, UC brings efficiencies by centralizing communications and collaboration tools into a common platform, but with so many features now, workers can easily spend more time managing applications than getting actual work done.
More is not better in this case, and consolidation is needed to make work more manageable, keep costs in line and improve employee experience. The key here is taking a human-centric approach, where consolidation is just as much about making workers feel more in control of their environment as it is about creating efficiencies for IT by streamlining their technology use.
Another characteristic of this being a strategic approach is thinking through the benefits of platform consolidation. By right-sizing and standardizing the UC tool set, workers will collaborate more effectively, whether in the office or at home, which supports hybrid work scenarios.
In terms of improving the employee experience, this should translate into better job satisfaction, and from there, better retention. Technology efficiency may be a tactical benefit of platform consolidation, but the strategic benefit comes from the effect on workers and how that makes the business more successful.
By extension, this should also make the IT department's job easier, as there will be fewer UC touchpoints outside their purview. Greater visibility into workplace network traffic reduces data security and compliance risks for UC platforms.
2. Be employee-centric when incorporating AI into UC
AI is a new layer to everything inside an organization, including UC, where it has already become a driving force. Everyone is adapting on the fly, including IT deploying AI and employees as the primary end users.
AI is playing a growing role not just in how we communicate, but in how work gets done. While AI can improve the employee experience by automating tasks and workflows, AI analytics can help IT consolidate platforms by identifying usage patterns and optimizing which ones enable the best workplace outcomes.
These operational efficiencies will be welcomed both by IT and senior management, but the transformational effect of AI will be even greater with an employee-centric approach. The strategy for UC platform consolidation should translate into better employee experience and technology gains.
Positioning these gains as setting the bar higher for productivity creates the specter of AI replacing jobs for those who cannot reach that bar. The role of AI must be positioned as enhancing worker performance, working together to create new forms of value for the business. AI can also turn UC platforms into orchestration hubs, where workers manage these tools to transform how work gets done.
Agentic AI is already here and will soon become an indispensable tool for workers to automate their daily tasks, freeing them up for what humans do best -- deep thinking, critical reasoning, nuanced judgment and creativity. Upskilling will be needed to get workers on that path, but the payoff comes from taking employee experience to new levels.
3. Measure the effect of consolidation on employee experience
Validating this strategic approach must go beyond the abstract notion that platform consolidation will improve employee experience. While it's reasonable to conclude that a more manageable set of tools will make workers more productive, their experience is highly subjective and may not align with how management views the term.
Given how UC platforms are constantly evolving -- especially with AI -- technology investment will be ongoing. The ROI story must go beyond the one-time savings that come from platform consolidation. This is where the connection between technology investment and employee experience becomes so important.
While it's reasonable to conclude that a more manageable set of tools will make workers more productive, their experience is highly subjective and may not align with how management views the term.
SaaS is now the norm for enterprise software, and IT leaders need to show an ongoing benefit to justify the continuing technology spend. On a strategic level, the best approach is to define success metrics that specifically tie the use of technology to job satisfaction.
AI can, in fact, be used to identify those metrics by analyzing patterns and causal relationships around how workers are using these tools. The digital, cloud-based nature of UC applications means AI can capture all of this activity over time.
Not only can this provide comparisons between pre- and post-consolidation of UC, but it can also tie that to measurable productivity outputs such as task completion, deadline adherence and budget management. Aside from using these metrics to assess individual performance, they can also help support hybrid work planning by comparing in-office and home-based performance when using the same tools.
Finally, AI can roll all of this up with metrics that characterize the employee experience. These types of metrics are not widely adopted, but need to be developed by both vendors and enterprise leaders. At a high level, employee experience can be measured in terms of job satisfaction and retention, but with the always-on nature of today's technology, wellness factors play a growing role.
With the right strategy and execution, platform consolidation combined with AI should make workloads more manageable, leading to less duplication of work, fewer mistakes and fewer missed deadlines. These are just a few examples of positive outcomes IT would like to see happen, and they are all measurable.
When workers are left alone to navigate too many platforms and applications, they experience work overload, screen fatigue, mental stress, emotional isolation and absenteeism. Connecting the dots between platform consolidation and employee experience reflects a more holistic approach for managing technology, and this should be a key pillar in shaping IT strategy.
Jon Arnold is principal of J Arnold & Associates, an independent analyst providing thought leadership and go-to-market counsel with a focus on the business-level effect of communications technology on digital transformation.
