In any modern organization, workers should be able to efficiently access the information they need to do their jobs. Yet, despite the billions of dollars invested every year in content management software and enterprise search systems, employees still lose valuable time hunting for answers.

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To get a closer look at this problem, Pryon worked with Unisphere Research to survey a cross-industry group of enterprise leaders and knowledge workers. The survey revealed a troubling reality. A combined total of 70% of respondents reported that the average professional will spend one hour or more looking for a single piece of information — with nearly a quarter (23%) spending more than five hours.

70% of employees spend an hour or more searching for a piece of information.

This finding was in stark contrast to the fact that nearly all survey respondents (92%) agreed that access to fast, accurate information from their organization’s content is vital to their business.

Knowledge friction is holding enterprises back

This frustrating disconnect between content creators and content consumers is what we call knowledge friction. Content creators work hard to produce content that delivers answers to end users, but end users still struggle to find, access, and consume content to get the answers they need. As a result, content creators spin their wheels while end users remain frustrated.

For too many organizations, knowledge friction results in negative business outcomes like lost productivity, poor customer experiences, compliance risks, and stalled growth.

Knowledge friction is the disconnect between content creators and content consumers that results in negative business outcomes.

Knowledge friction can take many forms and impact a variety of key business functions:

• Customer service reps are unable to quickly find answers for their customers, resulting in long wait times and low CSAT scores.
• Salespeople waste time hunting and pecking for answers, leading to wasted productivity and lost revenue opportunities.
• Maintenance engineers must track down and comb through lengthy manuals and procedural documents, incurring high operational downtimes and unnecessary costs.
• R&D engineers are bottlenecked by a lack of SMEs, resulting in delayed releases and stalled time to market.

Enterprises are looking to AI for help

Frustrated by the lack of progress made by traditional content management solutions and enterprise search vendors, enterprise leaders are now turning to artificial intelligence.

In fact, the 2024 Survey on Enterprise Information Discovery found that the top two use cases for AI involve helping users better understand and get answers from the content scattered across their organizations. In other words, enterprises are focused on using AI to eliminate knowledge friction.
 

The top two AI use cases for 2024 involve helping users better understand and get answers from information spread across the enterprise.

Unlock enterprise content with Knowledge AI

Knowledge AI presents a promising opportunity for enterprises ready to tackle knowledge friction once and for all. A Knowledge AI platform enables organizations to extract useful knowledge from their existing content, instantly providing their teams with accurate and reliable answers. End users no longer need to navigate massive content libraries or waste hours searching for information, freeing up time for more critical work.

Catch the highlights from our webinar with KMWorld where we delve into the report’s key findings and discuss strategies for introducing Knowledge AI to your organization.