How AI-powered digital employee experience programs are reshaping IT [Q&A]

Digital employee experience, or DEX, is about how employees engage with the technology and services they use every day: everything from laptops, apps, collaboration tools to networks.

We spoke to Dean Fernandes, CTO of NWN.ai to find out more about the importance of DEX and how it’s changing the world of IT.

BN: What exactly is digital employee experience, and how is it different from traditional IT support?

DF: IT support is about providing employees with tools and systems to help them perform their jobs, but DEX is more about how those tools actually feel to use.

With DEX, we aim to surpass traditional IT metrics, such as uptime and ticket resolution. The goal is to understand the experience from the employee’s perspective with the goal of enabling employees to do their jobs without digital friction. It’s a subtle shift in mindset, but an important one, particularly in hybrid work environments where your employees expect workplace technology to be as seamless as the tools they use in their personal lives.

BN: Why is this becoming such a high priority for IT teams?

DF: Expectations have changed. Employees today don’t want to file tickets and wait days for a fix. It’s the legacy of Steve Jobs: people expect technology to just work, wherever they are. Hybrid work has made this even more critical, as the traditional perimeter is no longer in place. IT no longer controls every aspect of the environment, but it’s still responsible for delivering a smooth experience.

That’s where DEX comes in. It gives IT leaders visibility into how things are working from the user’s point of view. They can spot friction, such as slow devices or poor video call quality, before it turns into a ticket. They can determine whether employees are utilizing the correct tools or experiencing connectivity issues. Most importantly, DEX helps teams shift from reacting to problems to preventing them in the first place. It’s not just a better way to manage IT. It’s a smarter way to support people.

BN: What kinds of issues can DEX programs actually prevent or resolve?

DF: Many of the problems that frustrate employees on a day-to-day basis can be identified earlier or avoided entirely with a well-designed DEX strategy. Think about a device that’s gradually slowing down, apps that crash randomly, or collaboration tools like Zoom or Teams that don’t perform well because of network instability. Traditionally, it’s taken someone to complain about these issues before they’re fixed. With DEX, IT teams can proactively address issues before productivity is impacted. DEX also helps with tool adoption. If users default to old platforms or misconfigure newer ones, it can harm efficiency and increase security risks.

BN: How does this translate into value for both IT teams and employees?

DF: Added visibility is a huge win for IT. DEX will give IT teams early indicators that a problem is brewing. They don’t have to wait for something to break first. That means fewer tickets and quicker time-to-resolution. Another IT benefit: DEX helps them justify new investments. When you can clearly demonstrate that certain devices or apps are consistently dragging down the experience -- and hurting productivity -- it becomes much easier to make a case for upgrades.

Employees stand to gain as well, in the form of fewer disruptions, better support, and less digital friction when they’re trying to do their jobs. People have challenging jobs, and they become a lot more challenging when employees are spending a chunk of their time troubleshooting tech issues. Effective DEX allows workers to focus on what they’re getting paid to do. They don’t have to explain what’s going wrong or chase down fixes: it’s just… handled. As an added bonus, that kind of smooth experience contributes to higher engagement and lower turnover. People want to feel like their time matters. When their digital environment adds to that feeling, it makes a pretty big difference.

BN: Where does AI come into the picture?

DF: AI has been jet fuel for DEX. It has made systems truly proactive, enabling them to utilize insights gained from user behavior, performance data, and past issues to identify problems before they escalate. One example: let’s say a laptop starts to show signs of performance decline: longer boot times, memory spikes, app crashes, etc. AI can correlate those symptoms and recognize the issue before the user even realizes that it’s a real problem. AI can also identify broader patterns across teams and departments, allowing IT teams to focus on systemic fixes -- not just a series of one-offs.

AI has also fueled a ton of automation for DEX processes. At NWN, we’ve integrated virtual assistants that enable employees to troubleshoot some of the more common problems and support requests in real-time, without needing to contact the IT team. AI routes these interactions intelligently, recommends solutions, and often resolves issues on the spot. And if it can’t be resolved with automation, the request will get kicked to the IT team. AI has also turbo-charged analytics in DEX. It can correlate telemetry with sentiment and usage patterns, which gives IT teams a clearer picture of where experience is improving (or falling short).

BN: What advice would you give to organizations looking to start or mature their DEX programs?

DF: First and foremost, it’s important to consider DEX as a long-term initiative. It’s not a quick fix or another IT metric. And it’s not about simply adding more tools. DEX is a strategy for rethinking how you deliver support and measure success. Getting started doesn’t have to be a huge lift. The first step is pretty simple: map out the employee journey. What tech are your employees using? Where are they getting stuck? What is the impact on their productivity?

After that, you need to find the platform that will give you a unified view of experience spanning your organization’s entire digital environment. It can’t just be device health or ticket stats: it should include sentiment, adoption, and real-time performance insights. Integration with your existing systems should be a priority. Most importantly, make sure that you are listening to your employees as you move forward on your DEX journey. Their feedback -- combined with telemetry and AI -- is important and should help shape your roadmap for where to invest and improve.

Image credit: denisismagilov/depositphotos.com