From digital workplace business cases to accelerating AI adoption: DWG’s 2025 Research Programme helps members excel in critical practices
In 2025, we’ll be helping DWG member organizations accelerate AI adoption through workforce readiness, harness the power of data and storytelling to make robust business cases, gain valuable insights on the future of intranets – and more. This year we’re excited to add six new original research papers to our existing library of more than 100 reports and 200 case studies. You can see all the details in the new 2025 fact sheet for the programme.
DWG’s CEO, Nancy Goebel, says: “In 2025, we’ve got closer alignment than ever before between my digital workplace predictions and the member research programme. Members help shape the themes and topics we prioritize for research and we relish the opportunity to support their strategies and initiatives with robust guidance and examples. Over many years, members have told us the difference it makes for them, repeatedly saying that research and case studies are one of the best things about DWG membership.”
In 2025, we’ll explore the following topics in depth:
Intranet futures 2025–2030
Intranets are at a critical juncture in their evolution. Intranet professionals, perhaps more than ever before, are trying to understand the role of the intranet both now and in the near future. This member-only report will explore the current situation and what will come next for intranets by first briefly taking stock of the journey so far before looking to the present and then forward to the 2025–2030 horizon. It will bring together ‘signals’ apparent in the industry to understand the direction of travel for intranets, building on DWG’s recent The road ahead: A practical guide to futuring report to help intranet teams integrate ‘futuring’ into their strategic planning process.
AI-ready workforce
The rapid advance of AI capabilities in workplace technologies is raising concerns among digital teams about the readiness of the workforce to understand and adopt them safely and optimally. This research will investigate the current state of AI literacy in the workforce, explore the specific skills and competencies needed, and set out approaches to addressing gaps and weaknesses. It will investigate how AI literacy fits into a bigger picture of digital and data literacy, and the need for organizations to support staff across these skills areas. In doing so, it will build on DWG’s earlier research on raising the organization’s digital IQ.
Digital workplace teams and careers
High-performing digital workplace teams are critical to delivering successful digital employee experiences. In this research we will focus in on the evolution of digital workplace teams and the professionals that lead them. The report will delve into the skills for the digital workplace team, especially in the context of AI developments, as well as the unfolding career paths for digital workplace professionals. This report will build on insights from previous research we’ve done into leading and managing the digital workplace effectively, most recently in Digital workplace management: Teams, structures and methods.
Digital workplace business cases
This critical examination of how to build a robust digital workplace business case will fold in both data-driven decision making and powerful storytelling for digital workplace leaders. It will be the latest in DWG’s measurement and analytics research track, most recently represented by papers on Engaging with data: New perspectives on digital workplace analytics and How to demonstrate digital workplace impact: Crafting a story from the data. The research will consider the optimal use of data and analytics to power strategic decisions and provide practical guidance on using storytelling techniques to bolster the business case..
New approaches to change management
In this report we’ll investigate the latest techniques in the digital workplace change manager’s toolkit. It will build on existing DWG research on digital workplace adoption and engaging employees. It will draw on insights from areas such as adaptive learning, behavioural science, storytelling, cultivating champion networks – and more – with a view to cultivating resilience and engagement as the digital workplace evolves at speed.
Toolkit for creating human-centred digital experiences
Building on previous DWG research on setting up a UX programme, this paper will provide a compendium of tools and techniques that place the employee at the centre of the digital workplace strategy. It will cover the approaches that help teams to minimize friction and road bumps in the employee digital experience, such as user research techniques, journey mapping and personalization approaches to radically enhance the experience. Illustrative examples and vignettes will bring these practices to life, signposting useful resources to explore them in greater depth.
Download the 2025 DWG Research Fact Sheet to learn more about our research programme and the new topics on the roster for the year ahead.
DWG’s Director of Research, Elizabeth Marsh commented: “When a DWG report lands in a member’s inbox, I want to know that it will have real practical use and impact. So we focus on the topics members tell us are important, as well as stretching them to look at the broader horizons. And our research is characterized by toolkits, models, checklists and other tools to help members use it day to day. Bring on the 2025 programme!”
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Categorised in: Research reports, Uncategorized
