- The maturity of American digital transformation is lower than the global average
- Workers do not have the right tools or training
- Basic safety measures are missing
Despite world class investments in AI and other technologies, American companies are lagging behind with regard to digital transformation, said new research.
A Zoho report revealed that two out of five American organizations (39%) were still only in the early stages of transformation, the whole country ranking 1.2 percentage points under the global average in terms of processing maturity.
Slow progress is blamed for safety weaknesses and the delayed adoption of tools, with only 15% of workers estimating that the workplace tools meet their expectations – with distinct Walkme research noting only 28% of employees feel adequately trained.
American digital transformation is lagging behind
Zoho noted that the increase in level 2 (standardization) at level 3 (structured operations) could take between three and five years, at a cost of $ 250 to 500 per employee per year. Reaching level 4 (optimized digital operations) requires about double resources – 10 years or more and 500 to $ 1,000 per employee each year.
The majority of companies (85%) were still based on the manual delegation of tasks on automation, with hospital, logistics and retail trade in difficulty more than their technical counterparts in IT and financial industries. SMEs are also lagging behind large companies, probably due to more limited resources – and Walkme’s research supports this, discovering that only one in four uses AI to improve efficiency.
Some of the problems highlighted include a poor implementation of multi-factory authentication (used by only half of the companies analyzed), the supply of secure access policies such as VPN (available for one in four) and limited physical security checks (adopted by less than one in three).
To put a price on losses, Walkme estimates that $ 104 million losses throughout 2024 due to underused technology, as well as 36 days wasted each year by ineffective workers. On the other hand, good digital adoption could almost triple yields on transformation investments.
“American companies have solid foundations in collaboration and digital tools, but the security and ineffectiveness of the processes are major obstacles to transformation,” noted the chief of Zoho Evangelist Raju Vegesna.
