IT’s mandate is changing. If the last decade was about building better tools, the next one is going to be about making sure people can actually use them—with clarity, with confidence, and in ways that feel meaningful to their work. We’re entering a new era of AI-powered digital transformation which, according to recent research, almost every IT leader (95%) expects to be the most intensive and impactful era ever seen.
This means the role of IT cannot just be providing laptops, pushing updates, and ensuring system uptime. Today, IT needs to be centrally involved in everything from training and adoption to engagement and productivity. In short, IT is moving from being a cost-center to being a consulting partner with our businesses.
The shift can start small.
When customers implement Nexthink they immediately unlock visibility into their digital environment—what’s working, what isn’t, and where their employees experience can improve. Automatic campaigns help drive small but powerful changes that allow IT to experiment with targeted ways to engage users.
One of the biggest realizations we’ve heard from customers and DEX leaders is this: the digital employee experience cannot be built from an IT mindset of services, planning, releases and updates. In practice, employees experience everything all at once. They think in terms of friction: Why does this form take forever? Why can’t I find what I need? Why is this process different every time?
That’s where DEX comes in. It’s not just about making things prettier or faster. It’s about reducing those frictions in ways that are visible, measurable, and—ideally—collaborative.
The IT–HR Partnership That’s Already Happening
One of the most promising, if still under-recognized, shifts happening right now is the growing alignment between IT and HR.
For some organizations, this partnership has emerged organically. Someone in IT has a formal title reflecting digital employee experience; while their counterpart on the HR side concentrates mostly on HR applications (and how those apps impact DEX).
Even if the tools and focus areas are different—one person is running platforms like Workday and SuccessFactors, the other handles IT communications and adoption—they’re both working toward the same goal: to help people have a better, more seamless experience at work.
It starts by sharing data. Aligning your plans. Converging your information platforms. And what stems from those actions is the creation of a solid partnership—one based on mutual respect, and a shared understanding that no single function owns the employee experience anymore.
That might be the most important takeaway here. While structural change (like combining HR and IT teams under a DEX umbrella) may happen in some organizations, what’s more realistic—and more valuable, in my view—is intentional collaboration. Shared priorities. Joint planning. And a willingness to see DEX not as an initiative, but as a connective tissue between functions.
Adoption Is Not a Project
Where this collaboration really comes to life is in digital adoption. Many IT teams still think of adoption as a final step—something that happens after rollout. But the DEX market and thought-leadership out there has taught us it needs to start much earlier. It’s not just about whether employees have access to a tool. It’s about whether they understand it, trust it, and feel confident using it.
That’s not a one-off effort. It’s an ongoing conversation. Many Nexthink customers echo this strategy. When they launch a new initiative, they don’t just write a help page—they build a full campaign: training, micro-content, in-platform guidance, messaging over time. They pull in data from multiple systems to understand engagement, then adjust based on what they see.
The real lesson?
Success doesn’t come from tools alone. It comes from how those tools are introduced, supported, and sustained. And that, increasingly, is IT’s responsibility.
AI Changed the Conversation
The emergence of AI has only sharpened this point. Many tech leaders are faced with the challenge of helping employees become more literate and comfortable with generative AI. Which means they have to start from scratch: What is AI? What can it do? What can’t it do?
For many, the talk around AI is about shifting internal perceptions. Suddenly, conversations about tools aren’t just technical—they’re cultural. Employees have real questions: Will this replace me? Can I trust it? Should I use it at all? And while tech training can help, what really matters is that IT leaders treat those concerns seriously. They need to create safe spaces for learning. They need to respond to feedback. And they should admit what they don’t know.
A Broader Role for IT
All of this points to a broader shift in what IT is—and what it’s becoming. IT departments are no longer just service providers or systems managers. They’re facilitators of change. They’re experience designers and consultants for their business colleagues. They are, increasingly, partners in people’s daily work.
That doesn’t mean IT has to reinvent everything. In fact, one of the biggest challenges is doing more with the resources they already have. Unlike other teams, IT doesn’t always get dedicated budgets for change management or communications. But that constraint forces creativity—and often leads to better solutions.
And it raises an important question for leaders: As technologies evolve, are we evolving with them? Are we investing in not just infrastructure, but in understanding how that infrastructure affects people’s day-to-day work? Are we making room for roles that blend tech with empathy, data with storytelling?
Because if we want to keep pace with the changes ahead—especially around AI and digital transformation—we’ll need more of that hybrid thinking. Not just technical skills, but human ones.
Where We Go From Here
Every organization will approach this differently. Some may formalize DEX roles. Others may foster grassroots collaboration. What matters most, in my view, is recognizing that experience is no longer someone else’s job. It’s all of ours.
IT is no longer operating behind the scenes. They’re on the frontlines of change—helping people adapt, learn, and succeed in an increasingly complex digital world.
That’s not a side project. It’s the future of IT.