From Automation to AI: How Modern Digital Workplace Empowers Employees?

As enterprises become more technologically advanced, the future of work grows increasingly personal. There is a rising demand for greater flexibility, improved information exchange, and diverse workstyle options—and organizations that meet these expectations are rewarded with enhanced employee productivity and stronger business outcomes. The emergence of the digital workplace has addressed the need for agility and workstyle versatility. However, a modern digital workplace can go even further, amplifying employee skills and unlocking their full potential. 

This article explores the modern digital workplace landscape, identifying key digital enablers and analyzing their role in employee empowerment. 

Rethinking the modern digital workplace

Initially developed as a solution for enterprises adopting hybrid work models, the digital workplace has significantly expanded its role and become a vital asset for organizations. Estimated to reach $181 billion by 2031, the digital workplace solutions market is no longer driven solely by the rise of remote work. Today, it is also shaped by several other factors: 

• Engaging modern workforce
  As enterprise leaders grow their teams with millennial and Gen Z employees, they find that these new hires are more enthusiastic about digital tools than their older counterparts. Not only do younger employees expect digitized work experiences, but they also have clear preferences and know which features help optimize their productivity. The catch? If they don’t find the tools, they need at work, they’re more likely to either seek out a more tech-savvy employer or adopt their own solutions independently. 
  
  
  
  
• Pursuing data-driven decision-making
  Data is critical to enterprise success. A timely recognized pattern, an insightful report delivered to the right expert, or a newly discovered opportunity can lead to breakthroughs or competitive advantages. Leaders and employees alike want to make decisions based on comprehensive knowledge of the challenge at hand. Yet in large enterprises, essential information is often scattered across various systems and data sources. As a result, employees spend excessive time locating and interpreting data. Digital workplaces offer tools and technologies that streamline these processes, delivering relevant insights within seconds. 
  
  
  
• Operating across regions
  Global enterprises rely heavily on efficient collaboration and rapid communication. The fewer steps these processes involve, the better—and agility becomes even more crucial when navigating different time zones. Digital workplaces help organizations streamline information exchange, connect distributed teams, and manage operations with consistent effectiveness, regardless of location. 
  
  
  
• Accelerating innovation adoption
  Across industries, 39% of companies cite innovation as their primary competitive advantage. However, internal complexities and resistance to change often hinder progress. Implementing a modern digital workplace enables enterprises to guide employees through intuitive modernization, introduce digital tools seamlessly, and collect meaningful feedback on new initiatives.

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Considering the factors mentioned above, the role of the modern digital workplace has evolved beyond simply connecting locations—it now connects employees with growth opportunities, employers with innovation possibilities, and customers with organizations. 

The pace of change is incredibly dynamic right now. The key challenge is that the full role of the modern digital workplace is still being defined in real time. There’s no way to predict which technological shift will spark the next wave of transformation. However, if you're an enterprise leader, you can't afford to wait and see—you need to take action now.

Slava Korchenok, Delivery Director, Product Solutions at Trinetix 

The role of automation in driving workplace efficiency

Regardless of the business unit, every modern digital workplace is fast and intelligent. Technology handles the speed, enabling employees to focus on the smart part. This synergy is made possible by advanced forms of automation. 

It’s important to distinguish between artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA). The latter uses bots to handle repetitive tasks and steps, but these bots aren’t necessarily powered by AI. When your goal is to eliminate repetition and ensure consistency, there’s no need to train an AI model—software bots can perform the task effectively and more cost-efficiently.

Volodymyr Horovyi, RPA Architect/Consultant at Trinetix 

Is RPA still relevant in the age of artificial intelligence? 

While some IT professionals speculate that traditional automation may soon be replaced by AI agents, this remains more of an assumption than a forecast. Despite its more limited capabilities compared to AI, automation continues to be a reliable asset—it reduces human error, streamlines operations, and lowers costs. Because it’s relatively easier and less expensive to implement than AI technologies, it remains a robust solution across a wide range of industries. 

How can automation augment the modern digital workplace?  

Automating routine tasks in accounting, customer service, or workflow management may seem like a minor improvement—but employees spend around 13 hours of their workweek on these repetitive steps. Those 13 hours could be redirected toward tasks that are more valuable to both the enterprise and employee productivity. 

RPA isn’t going anywhere. When it comes to reducing operational complexity and eliminating monotony, an RPA framework remains a reliable solution. However, changes are underway. According to UiPath and Blue Prism, RPA is already evolving, with some of its capabilities being enhanced through artificial intelligence.

Volodymyr Horovyi, RPA Architect/Consultant at Trinetix 

AI as a catalyst for smarter decision-making

Gartner predicts that by 2028, over 20% of digital workplace applications will be more personalized thanks to AI algorithms. This is a natural outcome of organizations racing to adopt AI. The challenge, however, is that many organizations aren’t sure where AI adoption will be most effective—or how to implement it successfully. 

AI is the word. Everyone is chasing it, everyone wants it—in any form. Yet not everyone can clearly explain why they need it or what results they expect to achieve.

Slava Korchenok, Delivery Director, Product Solutions at Trinetix 

AI in the modern digital workplace currently occupies a very interesting position. On the one hand, it holds immense potential for employee empowerment and offers the possibility of completely overhauling traditional, rigid business operations. On the other hand, the number of successful, proven business cases remains limited and carefully curated—causing hesitation among adopters and prompting stakeholders to demand more evidence before committing to innovation. 

For example, several verified and successful applications of AI in the modern digital workplace exist, and nearly all of them are related to data analysis and employee collaboration. 

• Accelerated onboarding with LLM
  Only 12% of employees are satisfied with their company’s onboarding processes, and 51% of organizations cite a lack of data and insights as the main culprit. Considering that a great onboarding experience has been shown to increase employee retention by up to 80%, addressing this issue is critical—especially amid the ongoing talent war. In fact, around 94% of employees say they are more likely to stay with employers who provide sufficient training and onboarding. 
  
  How can AI in the modern digital workplace help solve this equation?  

In our modern digital workplace consulting and development practice, we developed a great AI-powered digital workplace tool for onboarding client’s employees on the enterprise app. It allowed for fast and smart navigation across all the app’s features, providing tooltips and interacting with users to ensure they can use the application as intended. This solution enabled a more memorable and productive onboarding experience.

Slava Korchenok, Delivery Director, Product Solutions at Trinetix 

• Timely updates with agentic AI
  AI agents are emerging as the next big thing in enterprise environments. Designed to perform tasks and manage operations on behalf of employees, these software systems are set to become a major component of the modern digital workplace—thanks to their flexibility, versatility, and positive impact on productivity. 
  
  For example, ATB Financial, a leading Canadian financial institution, empowered its 5,000 team members with a workspace that enabled fast task automation, instant access to information, and more efficient data collaboration—all while keeping sensitive business data secure from third-party access. In another success story, Equifax improved change management and boosted the productivity of its 22,000 employees by leveraging the capabilities of a modern digital workplace powered by AI agents. 

The power of AI agents lies in their ability to keep you informed—not just about your own tasks, but also about what’s happening across the enterprise. A modern digital workplace can include a range of AI agents responsible for summarizing key meeting insights, facilitating interactions between teams and departments, connecting employees with company policies, and much more.

Volodymyr Horovyi, RPA Architect/Consultant at Trinetix 

• Smart trend and pattern identification
  Intelligent recognition of trends, behaviors, and patterns is one of the most valuable benefits of AI in the modern digital workplace—when implemented correctly. Whether used for computer vision, sentiment analysis, or business data classification, AI provides all business units across the enterprise with one crucial advantage: visibility. 
  
  As organizations grow, one common challenge they face is the loss of important information due to the sheer volume of processes and operations. This issue affects a wide range of activities—from basic office space management to high-level decision-making. Obsolete steps and routines often hold teams back, but they remain hidden beneath layers of other urgent tasks that executives must address. 
  
  As a result, barriers to improvement go unresolved. AI-powered trend and pattern recognition, embedded within the modern digital workplace, enables employees to take a more proactive role in driving change by uncovering underlying issues or hidden opportunities—and bringing them to the attention of decision-makers. 

We’re talking about all vectors here—Talent Management, Accounting, Travel, Finance, and Marketing. AI-powered recognition enables employees to process large volumes of information in a single day, helping them identify recurring anomalies or customer behavior patterns. These insights can be used to create productivity levers or resolve long-standing issues.

Volodymyr Horovyi, RPA Architect/Consultant at Trinetix 

• Improved data search and organization
  The data navigation potential of AI is so significant that it has already influenced people’s information-seeking habits. Users who previously relied on Google to look up information now admit they prefer AI-generated summaries for their convenience and speed. This advantage is already being utilized by Google, Meta, and other Big Tech corporations—and is further leveraged by enterprises. With unstructured enterprise data growing at an annual rate of 23%, organizations across industries need more than just updated data management policies—especially those operating with hybrid work models. 

Every piece of data can be vital for anticipating what’s around the next corner, managing change, or navigating rapid challenges. When considering how to implement a modern digital workplace, it’s essential to connect your employees to enterprise data. 

Slava Korchenok, Delivery Director, Product Solutions at Trinetix 

While AI-powered changes offer immense opportunities and significantly enhance employee efficiency, they often fall short of the revolutionary promises made by AI vendors. Executives explore enterprise AI features expecting the technology to uncover unique productivity levers and propel their companies toward next-level business models—but the transformation rarely happens as quickly as anticipated. 

However, this isn’t a sign of flawed technology or deception by IT vendors. Rather, it highlights that achieving positive outcomes requires organizations to become more dynamic, responsive, and aligned with emerging milestones. 

Digital workplaces built on Microsoft infrastructure have access to Copilot. Since it integrates with Microsoft’s ecosystem—including documents and chats—it serves as a powerful tool for accelerating data search and consolidation, generating reports, and visualizing data. However, this represents only a fraction of true AI capabilities. To fully unlock its potential, organizations must first address their own internal limitations.

Slava Korchenok, Delivery Director, Product Solutions at Trinetix 

How to implement a modern digital workplace and evade AI adoption pitfalls?

Although it’s tempting to attribute AI adoption challenges to a single factor—such as poor AI literacy or insufficient research—the reality is far more complex. 

Many executives responsible for shaping innovation strategies and aligning them with business values are already aware of the AI features they want in their digital workplace. They actively explore available solutions and monitor changes experienced by competitors, with a clear vision of the outcomes they hope to achieve. 

Moreover, AI is already embedded in modern enterprise tools, acting as a powerful engine that drives results. 

For projects where the goal is big data consolidation and formatting, it’s GenAI. When the goal is to create knowledge bases or provide instant access to data and feedback, it’s agentic AI. The latter is particularly present in banking, where AI-powered assistants became a staple, taking pressure off human teams and letting them focus on addressing requests and solving issues immediately. 

Slava Korchenok, Delivery Director, Product Solutions at Trinetix 

So, why does the prospect of AI adoption remain a challenge? 

The most persistent complication is the gap between AI’s potential capabilities and its current limitations. Technically, artificial intelligence can be leveraged by every department across an organization. 

But in practice, not every enterprise environment is ready for it. If legal and governance teams begin using AI without first adjusting their policies, security protocols, and procedures, it won’t solve their existing problems. On the contrary, it could create new ones—such as exposing the company’s intellectual property or damaging its reputation due to insufficient oversight. 

Before you can talk about leveraging AI to its max capacity, you must be sure your enterprise governance and security can handle it. Developing enterprise solutions means working with your enterprise’s intellectual property: code, data, and other information. Without proper measures, the bits and pieces of this property are at risk of becoming part of public AI data.

Slava Korchenok, Delivery Director, Product Solutions at Trinetix 

This stage is undoubtedly the most challenging for AI adopters. Unlike previous waves of innovation, laying a solid foundation for AI in the modern digital workplace may require an entirely new rulebook—one shaped by the contributions of prominent and successful adopters. Since AI is highly customizable to a company’s specific goals, industry, or internal objectives, every success story will be uniquely individual. 

Still, there are several key areas organizations can focus on to build a strong foundation for functional and productive AI-augmented workflows. 

The consensus on AI is that it remains something of a terra incognita for enterprises, revealing hidden benefits and pitfalls in equal measure. However, by building a solid foundation and developing strategies to mitigate risks while maximizing advantages, organizations can better navigate the complexities and focus on delivering real value. 

The complexity of AI adoption can be overwhelming, but when you are a technology executive shaping the future of your tech assets and your enterprise strategy, stopping is not an option. You should experiment, explore, and discover opportunities to keep up with competition and keep your AI knowledge up to date.

Slava Korchenok, Delivery Director, Product Solutions at Trinetix 

Future outlook: the next evolution of work

The future of work is personalized, agile, and deeply rooted in digital enablement. 

Every sector that processes large volumes of information and generates unstructured data will require system modernization—and a transformation of employee experiences. 

Life always finds a way. We all know that quote. In our modern digital workplace consulting practice, we can say that innovation finds a way. People gravitate toward better, faster, and more convenient ways of working—and when their workplace doesn’t provide them, they seek tools and solutions outside the organization. In other words, your employees shape the future of work—and the faster you adapt, the greater the impact will be.

Slava Korchenok, Delivery Director, Product Solutions at Trinetix 

Among the many tools, platforms, and solutions available, human talent and skills remain of immeasurable value—placing the human workforce at the forefront of any innovation initiative. 

Empowering employees in a digital workplace

One important thing to keep in mind during digital workplace transformation is that no modern digital workplace will drive outcomes on its own. Enterprise leaders should approach this shift as a strategic transformation rather than merely a technological upgrade. 

The implementation of new technologies will inevitably impact the experiences and perspectives of employees across the organization. This is where leaders and executives need to step in—not just as decision-makers, but as active and engaged participants. 

What makes the modern digital workplace such a powerful innovation acceleration asset is that it puts employees in a new, yet familiar environment, where every feature is tailored to improve their experiences, help them build their workstyle, and reduce their stress. As a result, employees are less resistant to new technologies, and more eager to participate in change management, master new skills, and build their expertise.

Slava Korchenok, Delivery Director, Product Solutions at Trinetix 

So, how can enterprise leaders create a journey that combines workplace transformation with employee empowerment? The answer lies in incremental progress. 

Balancing human creativity and machine intelligence

52% of employees across the United States feel anxious about AI in the modern digital workplace. Among them, 32% expect fewer job opportunities due to an AI takeover. These concerns are at the core of organizational resistance, resulting in limited engagement with AI and growing skepticism toward innovation. Executives should address these concerns with understanding, knowledge, and empathy. 

Artificial intelligence is going to change jobs, but it’s far from replacing them. At the end of the day, AI is a tool—and no tool is fully autonomous. Human knowledge, perspective, and strategy will always lie at the heart of organizational processes. This statement should be an integral part of the enterprise AI adoption journey.

Volodymyr Horovyi, RPA Architect/Consultant at Trinetix 

• Ensure certainty
  To successfully reinforce the modern digital workplace with AI and gain employee support, leaders must present artificial intelligence from a practical and realistic perspective. They should clearly explain why the enterprise needs AI, how it will be used, and what benefits teams can expect. 

As the executive leading the journey and strategy, you must ensure your departments understand which processes will be changed by AI and which will remain untouched. They should know where AI fits into their operations—the less vague the journey, the more comfortable they’ll feel about innovation.

Slava Korchenok, Delivery Director, Product Solutions at Trinetix 

• Nurture AI leadership
  Balancing human-AI collaboration requires active employee involvement. Their feedback and perspectives are essential for refining AI tools and their applications. Identifying employees who are enthusiastic about AI and experienced in using AI solutions can help facilitate this process. These individuals can lead the AI adoption efforts within their departments—sharing knowledge, addressing questions and concerns, monitoring KPIs, and fostering excitement. 

AI should be presented realistically because all the white noise and buzzwords surrounding the technology can be alienating—especially when there’s no explainability. Teams don’t need promises—they need tools. When trusted colleagues guide them through the process using familiar terms and speaking their language, their perspective on the technology becomes much more positive.

Volodymyr Horovyi, RPA Architect/Consultant at Trinetix 

Building a culture of trust, flexibility, and autonomy

The larger the organization, the harder it becomes to track innovative ideas and breakthrough productivity concepts. Incorporating a modern digital workplace is only half the battle—large enterprises must also evolve their organizational culture. 

Numerous studies show that the future of productivity begins with personalization. Employees want to be efficient and help their companies thrive but often feel constrained by rigid practices and workflows. These limitations prevent them from managing their time effectively, growing their skills, or sharing their ideas. This disconnect stems from fast-paced work environments clashing with bureaucratic and fragmented systems. While consistency and discipline are important, ignoring modern employee needs can stifle talent and potential. 

How can modern businesses avoid this? 

• Trust in employees
  Trust is reciprocal: leaders want teams to trust their vision and planning, while employees want confidence in their leaders’ ability to receive honest feedback and suggestions. That’s why healthy communication must be at the core of organizational culture. Employees should have access to tools and channels for responding to changes, proposing solutions, evaluating leadership, and expressing their needs. 
  
  Leaders must also demonstrate that feedback has an impact—by highlighting employee contributions to positive changes and rewarding suggestions that improve company-wide experiences. 
  
  
  
• Embrace flexibility
  Flexibility goes beyond workplace models—it’s about how organizations respond to change. Enterprise flexibility brings advantages like faster onboarding, smoother technology integration, and greater visibility into outcomes, as teams become more aware of what to look for and where. 
  
  Leaders aiming for seamless change management and innovation adoption must foster a positive outlook on both change and failure. 

Sometimes, when an initiative doesn’t deliver the desired results, it’s abandoned without evaluating what went wrong or what could be improved. As a result, companies miss out on potential benefits by not exploring further or adjusting pilot projects. A culture of flexibility allows room for trial and error, helping organizations make the most of every opportunity.

Volodymyr Horovyi, RPA Architect/Consultant at Trinetix 

• Enable autonomy
  The search for ideas doesn’t follow a formula—it requires creativity, attention to detail, and fresh perspectives. That’s why leaders must stay attuned to their employees and external talent, giving them platforms and resources to express their concepts. 
  
  Many core elements of modern digital experiences were born from giving visionaries the autonomy to turn ideas into proofs-of-concept and, eventually, real features. While not every enterprise needs a Palo Alto-style research center, every organization should empower employees across departments with creative freedom and decision-making opportunities. 

Designing digital ecosystems for collaboration and innovation

Today’s business landscape doesn’t demand infinite growth—it demands resilience. Resilience means readiness for sudden obstacles, rapid changes, and new variables. The modern digital workplace plays a crucial role in building this resilience by helping companies transition from fragmented systems to unified digital ecosystems that support multiple transformational milestones. 

Deloitte’s survey revealed that organizations committed to their digital ecosystems are 33% more likely to discover new revenue streams and 20% more successful in entering new markets and industries. These findings suggest that establishing connected enterprise systems helps create a framework for confident change management, adaptation to a fast-paced environment, and rapid response to evolving industry needs. 

A digital ecosystem and a digital mindset go hand in hand. The former is a catalyst for implementing next-generation solutions; the latter is essential for agility and for leveraging these solutions in ways that keep your business competitive, and your employees engaged and equipped for any task.

Slava Korchenok, Delivery Director, Product Solutions at Trinetix 

If you want to keep your enterprise prepared for the future of work, let’s chat! 

 At Trinetix, our teams were among the trailblazers helping enterprises worldwide embrace and integrate digital workplace in their environments. Our modern digital workplace consulting, guidance, insight, and technology acumen will be your launchpad for successful and results-rich employee empowerment.