Economic uncertainty is prompting many companies to think about how to do more with less. But what if they’re actually positioned to do more with more and just don’t realize it?
Many organizations already have the resources they need to improve efficiency and resilience in challenging times. Close to two-thirds of organizations manage 1 petabyte or more of data, which represents enough data to cover 500 billion standard pages of text. More than 40% of companies store even more data.
Much of that data sits unanalyzed while it incurs costs related to collection, compliance, and storage. It also poses data breach risks that require expensive security measures to prevent. The alternative is also costly: In 2024, the average data breach resulted in costs of $4.88 million, according to IBM. Additionally, most organizations that experienced a breach also endured “significant or very significant disruption,” not to mention the erosion of customer trust.
It’s possible to balance the costs and risks of data storage with the rewards that come from unlocking the data’s value, especially if you use AI for analysis and insights. This strategy can drive value by fueling improvements in operational efficiency, cost control, employee productivity, and real-time decision making. Here are three key areas where organizations can better leverage AI and the data already in their systems.
Streamline Employee-Facing Systems for Better Productivity
Employees at companies with large internal content repositories sometimes have a hard time quickly finding the resources they need. In systems where multiple versions of the same document accumulate, it’s not always obvious which edition is the most up-to-date. When search functions haven’t kept pace with intranet growth or the way employees search, simple tasks can take far longer than they should, and the results may be inconsistent.
Analyzing data from system usage can clearly show where the friction points are for employees. This can allow for changes to search tools, content organization, and other intranet and content library elements for simpler, faster searches.
For example, one major digital media and communications company needed to redesign and update its intranet, which served more than 20,000 employees. The goal was to make it easier for those employees to serve as more effective brand advocates in interactions with current and potential customers. The company analyzed employees’ intranet usage and content engagement data and then used the findings to deliver more personalized search results. Leveraging data that was already available allowed the company to increase engagement with internal content and centralize communication for consistency.
This strategy isn’t limited to intranets. The same principle can be applied to analyzing any system that employees regularly engage with in order to perform their jobs and can result in greater efficiency.
Audit Apps and Platforms for Performance and Cost Savings
Engaging with too many apps often makes employees less efficient than they could be. In 2024, companies used an average of 21 apps just for HR tasks. Multiply that across different functions, and it’s easy to see how finding ways to reduce the total could bring down costs.
Trimming the number of apps can also increase productivity by reducing employee overwhelm. Constantly switching between different apps and systems has been shown to distract employees while increasing their levels of stress and frustration. Across the organization, switching among tasks and apps consumes 9% of the average employee’s time at work by chipping away at their attention and ability to focus a few seconds at a time with each of the hundreds of tasks switches they perform every day.
Usage and performance data can show which tools and platforms are performing best and which ones have low engagement, either because they perform poorly or because they duplicate the functionality of another app. Eliminating the underperformers and duplicates can save organizations money on SaaS contracts and help employees maintain their focus. In addition, using role-based data already owned by the company can drive personalization of tools and content to be proactively shared with employees to reduce time spent searching for specific information.
Funnel Savings and Revenue Gains Into More Powerful Analytics
It’s possible to achieve cost savings and productivity gains using existing data and AI analytics. Companies that want to maintain an edge can reinvest savings that result from this strategy into more advanced analytics and generative AI tools to supercharge their ability to leverage data. For example, the savings from an optimized intranet could fund the implementation and training of a high-quality AI agent to allow employees to skip search altogether for a selected set of frequently requested basic tasks, saving even more time.
In cases where analysis of app usage data shows that employees spend a disproportionate amount of time on basic repetitive tasks, the company could use the savings from reducing its app stack to automate some of those tasks. Over the long term, employees whose companies use data strategically will have more time and focus to brainstorm, collaborate, and innovate. They’ll have more time to build solid relationships with customers or to provide mentorship.
Analyzing the data you have—and there’s almost certainly more than you realize—can create a flywheel effect that drives ongoing positive change and ROI. The end result is doing more by leveraging more data while using less budget, not out of a sense of scarcity, but because your organization has the insights required to optimize processes and tools for efficiency and productivity.