The top 7 digital adoption myths debunked

Leah Hegyi
By Leah Hegyi
Updated October 3, 2023

It’s no secret that digital technologies are transforming the way businesses operate. However, despite their popularity, there remains a lot of confusion and fear around these tools due to misinformation.

Here, we’ll debunk some of the most prevalent myths about digital adoption to clear up any confusion or uncertainty you might have when considering digital adoption for your business.

By understanding the truth behind these stories instead of relying on outdated conceptions about technology adoption, enterprises can stay competitive and capitalize on the innovative opportunities available now more than ever before.

What is digital adoption?

Digital adoption refers to when digital technology and digital tools are fully accepted, adapted, and implemented in an organization’s processes. This can occur at all stages, from design to delivery.

Digital adoption involves using digital platforms, digital strategies, and digital services to access customers, develop markets, increase productivity, and maximize efficiency.

With digital adoption comes improved customer and employee engagement, optimized use of resources, faster responses, reduced risk, and higher profitability.

Ultimately, digital adoption is essential for organizations seeking lasting success in their digital transformation journey.

Where do digital adoption myths come from?

As technology advances, companies can experience a sense of unease when it comes to making the switch from traditional methods to digital tools. This is usually because they either don’t understand how digital technologies work or what types of benefits they can offer. As a result, digital adoption myths are often rooted in fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD).

Unfortunately, this has led many organizations to miss out on the opportunities that come with leveraging modern technology solutions for their business processes.

How digital adoption can help you on your digital transformation journey

Digital adoption can be a powerful tool in helping businesses on their digital transformation journey. It enables organizations to access customers, develop markets, improve employee productivity and maximize efficiency.

With the right digital tools and strategies in place, companies can reap the rewards of improved employee engagement, better use of resources, faster responses, and higher profitability. 

By leveraging modern technology solutions for their processes, organizations can gain a competitive edge and make significant strides towards achieving their goals. Moreover, it is essential for businesses seeking lasting success through digital transformation initiatives.

The top 7 myths people believe about digital adoption

Myth #1: Digital adoption is only for tech-savvy people

FACT: Digital adoption is for everyone

With the tech boom, technology is no longer only for tech-savvy people. The reason the concept of digital adoption exists is because technology is everywhere, but not always approachable. Digital adoption makes it possible to harness the power of technology and create a sense of user empowerment versus user overwhelm.

Digital adoption is not only about mastering certain technologies or gadgets; it involves understanding digital concepts, developing digital skills, and learning how to use digital tools responsibly.

Digital adoption has become an essential part of our daily lives, so much so that digital literacy programs are now being offered by businesses, schools, and government organizations to help everyone become digital citizens. With the right guidance and resources available, digital adoption can be achieved by virtually anyone regardless of their technical background.

Myth #2: Implementing digital adoption tools is expensive

FACT: Digital adoption tools deliver a higher ROI on digital investments

While digital adoption tools may be seen as expensive at first glance, the truth is that they are designed to empower businesses to create digital experiences that deliver a higher ROI on digital investments  – and empower humans to complete those digital experiences with ease.

For example, digital adoption platforms are able to reduce training costs, accelerate time-to-value, and reduce IT burden and costs. So, once deployed, they quickly become invaluable assets to any organization.

With digital adoption platform technology, businesses can streamline processes for better efficiency and employee experience, further driving down expenses as digital transformation initiatives take root.

So, while your competitors may have access to the same systems as you, implementing digital adoption tools is a cost-effective way to ensure your business secures a sustainable competitive edge by maximizing the impact of that very technology.

Myth #3: The process of implementing a digital adoption solution is complicated and time-consuming

FACT: Digital adoption implementation can be accomplished quickly

Digital adoption solutions have the potential to revolutionize digital processes and increase efficiency in organizations.

But many executives mistakenly believe that the process of implementing digital adoption is complicated and time consuming, when it can be quite the opposite.

By committing to precise and intentional problem discovery, businesses can identify critical pain points. Think about a GPS – people may not need all of the directions, so which are the most critical or the most confusing? In-depth discovery optimizes the amount of digital adoption content that needs to be built, which allows businesses to quickly get up and running with enhanced digital experiences for their employees.

In addition to a focus on discovery, using the right digital tools, partnership, and experience can help, businesses make digital adoption a reality much sooner than expected! 

An example of a great tool for optimizing time to value is WalkMe’s Solution Accelerators. These plug-and-play solutions allow you to use a customizable pre-built content template to deploy digital adoption solutions without having to start from scratch. 

Moreover, you can easily locate a WalkMe certified partner from our network of global system integrators, independent software vendors, and agencies to get you moving.

WalkMe's Solution Accelerators

Myth #4: You need special skills and training to use digital technology

FACT: Digital adoption makes tech usable by anyone, regardless of skills

One common digital adoption myth is that you need to have unique skills and training in order to benefit from digital adoption. The reality is quite the opposite.

In reality, digital adoption exists to reduce the amount of advanced technical instructions required of users!

Digital adoption technology was specifically designed to meet users where they are with contextual resources and easy-to-follow guidance. Anyone using any software can benefit from a simplified user experience.

Myth #5: Digital adoption is only for customers

FACT: Digital adoption tools also benefit employees

It’s not just customers who are adopting digital transformation, but employees as well, and many enterprises have realized the benefits of providing seamless digital experiences for their employees.

Alongside maximal ROI on digital investments, enterprises who invest in their employees’ digital experiences benefit from increased productivity and engagement with mission-critical applications, decreased tech burnout, and improved retention rates.

In addition, digital adoption tools enable employers to save countless hours on live training and onboarding with in-app guidance and self-service help, easing the burden on IT support teams. 

Improved analytics makes decision-making easier while driving growth opportunities, while streamlined information delivery enables workers to always be on top of current business trends.

All this serves to highlight why digital adoption is not just a tool to improve the experience of customers but employees, too.

Myth #6: It takes too long to see the results of digital adoption

FACT: Results from digital adoption can be seen almost instantaneously

Many mistakenly believe digital adoption takes years to deliver ROI. In reality, digital adoption can be a quickly-adopted means of improving efficiency, increasing data visibility, and boosting compliance enforcement. The result is often greater staff collaboration and successful digital transformation – all in surprisingly short order.

Companies who have invested in digital tools are often able to reap the benefits almost immediately with minimal disruption or manual effort. For example, using WalkMe’s Digital Adoption Platform, Sprinklr was able to realize 100% ROI within 90 days. By committing to intentional problem discovery and user journey mapping, they understood critical user friction points, went live with high-precision content, and realized value quickly.  

WalkMe Sprinklr Quote

Myth #7: Digital adoption is just about technology and not about people

FACT: Digital adoption is first and foremost about people

Digital adoption is often thought of as focused solely on technology; however, this is a misconception. The reality is digital adoption is actually much more about people than technology. Digital adoption is about harnessing the power of technology to make people more empowered and effective in their roles.

At the end of the day, for digital adoption projects to truly be successful, utilizing both people and technology must work in unison.

How to get started on your digital adoption journey

Getting started on your digital adoption journey doesn’t have to be difficult or intimidating. With the right guidance and resources, you can successfully implement digital tools into your organization’s processes in no time.

Begin by understanding the strategic objectives of your organization and which user experiences are critical to those objectives being achieved. Then identify areas in the user (employee or customer) journey where digital tools may be able to help improve processes or user experiences.

Once you’ve identified these areas, create a plan for how you will implement them and a data strategy for how you will measure their effectiveness over time.

Conclusion

As businesses begin to consider digital adoption and digital adoption platforms, it’s important for them to be aware of the myths surrounding this emerging category.

While there are many misconceptions about what is required and how long it takes to implement a digital adoption solution, with the right guidance and resources available, any organization can become digitally enabled.

By understanding the truth behind these stories instead of relying on outdated conceptions about technology adoption, enterprises can stay competitive and capitalize on the innovative opportunities available now more than ever before.

With a clear understanding of both people-centric approaches as well as technical expertise, organizations will be able to take full advantage of all that digital transformation has to offer in order to remain successful into the future.

Learn more about digital adoption

Are you looking to learn more about digital adoption and how it can benefit your business? Watch the video to get started.

Leah Hegyi
By Leah Hegyi
Customer Success Manager at WalkMe. Proven leader and consultant in Digital Adoption Strategy for enterprise organizations. Passionate about making technology easier to use and elevating the field of Digital Adoption as a career opportunity for aspiring professionals.