Businesses are investing in workplace technology faster than employees can learn to use it effectively, with disconnected systems and artificial intelligence tools adding to productivity, governance and security challenges, according to a new survey by Ricoh USA Inc.
The 2026 Workplace Technology Adoption Gap survey, which polled 2,017 employees and business decision-makers in Canada and the United States, found that leaders were more confident in the benefits of technology investments than employees were in their day-to-day experience using those tools.
The findings suggest that deploying new technology alone does not necessarily improve workplace efficiency, with employees reporting difficulties navigating systems, finding information and integrating tools into their workflows.
AI investments face an employee experience gap
The survey found that 91 per cent of business decision-makers were confident their artificial intelligence investments were delivering the expected value. However, 53 per cent of employees said AI created friction or additional work, while 55 per cent reported that time spent managing workplace technology interfered with their productivity.
AI tools also generated the lowest employee-reported productivity gains among the four workplace technology categories examined. The other categories were communication and collaboration, information and data access, and workflow and process management.
"AI creates value when it makes work easier, not when it adds another layer of complexity," said Carsten Bruhn, president and CEO of Ricoh North America. "Strategy must drive technology decisions, not the other way around. That strategy should start with people, and understanding what employees need to do their jobs effectively. Leaders need to understand how work gets done and where it breaks down before determining where AI and other technologies can make the greatest impact. The opportunity is to connect technology to the way people actually work, so adoption, productivity and business value improve together."
Workflow and process-management tools were another source of reported difficulties, with 60 per cent of employees saying those systems created friction or additional work. Searching for information and navigating systems that do not function well together were among the main problems identified.
Employees report disconnected systems
The survey found a significant difference between how decision-makers and employees viewed the integration of workplace technology. While 90 per cent of decision-makers believed their organization's technology tools, systems and processes were connected, 76 per cent of employees said their jobs would be easier if those same tools, systems and processes worked better together.
The gap also extended across departments. Seventy per cent of decision-makers said their organization's technology was highly or well integrated across teams such as information technology, human resources and facilities, compared with 55 per cent of employees who shared that assessment.
Hybrid work presented additional challenges, with 25 per cent of hybrid employees reporting difficulty collaborating with colleagues in different locations. That compared with 16 per cent of employees working fully in person and 14 per cent working fully remotely.
Amy Loomis, group vice-president of workplace solutions at IDC, said organizations must address the differences between leadership's technology plans and employees' daily work practices to expand adoption of AI tools.
"With AI deployments becoming more agentic, organizations cannot scale adoption without addressing the disconnect between leadership vision and daily work practices. Fragmented technology, data and workflows create avoidable complexity that many employees are left to navigate themselves," said Loomis. "Ricoh's findings show that many leaders do not always see the disconnect their employees face, and closing it takes shared priorities across departments, strong governance and a common foundation for data and workflows, which can move AI from isolated use cases to scalable business value."
Workarounds raise security concerns
Difficulties accessing information and navigating workplace systems may also create risks for organizations trying to maintain oversight of their data and processes.
More than half of employees, or 56 per cent, said information, knowledge and data-access tools created friction or additional work. Nearly half, or 45 per cent, reported using non-approved tools to make their work easier at least once a month.
The survey also identified a gap in perceptions of responsible AI use. While 90 per cent of decision-makers said employees had clear guidance on using AI-enabled tools responsibly, only 66 per cent of employees agreed.
"When employees have to search across multiple systems, re-enter information or use unapproved tools just to complete routine work, those workarounds create friction and expose organizations to greater risk" said Bob Lamendola, chief digital services and delivery officer at Ricoh North America. "Organizations need to better orchestrate the technology, information and workflows they already have, while identifying where agentic capabilities can support manual work. Connecting those components can reduce risk and make the approved path the easiest path for employees to get work done."
Employee input and training lag technology investment
The survey also found that 60 per cent of employees believed there was a disconnect between the tools their organizations considered most useful and the tools that would actually help them.
While 71 per cent of decision-makers said their organizations usually sought employee input before introducing new technology, fewer than half of employees, or 43 per cent, said that typically happened. In addition, 81 per cent of decision-makers said their organizations invested in new workplace technology faster than they helped employees learn to use it effectively.
The findings point to the importance of incorporating employee feedback before new systems are introduced, aligning technology with existing workflows and providing guidance to help workers use the tools effectively.
The survey was conducted in September 2026 among full-time employees at organizations with at least 10 employees in Canada and the United States. The respondents included 1,511 employees, comprising 1,005 in the U.S. and 506 in Canada, and 506 business and information technology decision-makers, including 375 in the U.S. and 131 in Canada.
The employee group included individual contributors, non-managerial employees and people leaders below the director level who use workplace technology. Decision-makers held director-level positions or higher and had a role or influence in decisions involving AI, workplace technology, workplace experience, operations or digital transformation.