If there’s one thing Snapchat addicts and people with Yahoo email addresses can agree on, it’s that most enterprise software lags behind consumer technology. To attract talent, improve productivity, and stay competitive in 2019, companies will want to consider these three digital workplace trends that are set to give enterprise technology a much needed upgrade.

1. Leverage machine learning to improve employee experience: Machine learning has fast been on the rise, helping companies automate processes and leverage their data. Now, enterprises are looking for tools that use machine learning to improve employee experience, surfacing important information from complex systems without requiring employees to waste time searching for metrics or generating time-consuming dashboards. For example, a digital experience solution might use machine learning to monitor for shifts in data from business applications and notify a marketing manager when website traffic registers an atypical increase or decrease. Similarly, the system can monitor how a manager typically responses to expense requests under $100 and suggest an automated task.

2. Deliver personalization to reduce unnecessary communication and interruptions: Time is a precious resource these days. Employees find themselves struggling to filter through an influx of messages, updates, and notifications as they go about their daily work.Today’s worker cannot focus for more than 11 continuous minutes without being interrupted and will spend around 25 minutes getting back on task after being distracted. Personalizing enterprise applications to deliver only the most relevant tasks and information enables employees to get more work done, quickly work through routine tasks, and avoid missing deadlines. Instead of wasting time sorting through irrelevant information, workers are able to reclaim time in their work week and stay engaged.  In fact, personalized apps have been proven to increase productivity by 45 percent, saving companies as much as 240 hours of lost time per year.

3. Provide automation to remove bottlenecks: More than 40 percent of employees spend at least a quarter of their work week on manual, repetitive tasks.  In fact, business spend a shocking $1 trillion a year on lost productivity and poorly managed processes. With the rise of task automation in the workplace, companies have the power to streamline tasks, remove bottlenecks, and free up more time to focus on valuable work. Companies can benefit from automating tasks, such as approvals and simple requests, and intelligently delivering personalized information and communications. And it’s not just companies—89 percent of employees say automation in the workplace makes them work more efficiently. .

The Rich Rewards of Using New Technology

Machine learning, personalized notifications, and automation are more than just trends, they are proven ways companies can invest in technology to gain a competitive advantage.

  • Machine learning in the auto industry is expected to grow by 48 percent.
  • Netflix increased profits by $1 billion by delivering personalized notifications.
  • Improved data delivery helps employees reduce data collection time by 12.5 percent.

The Consequences of Not Adapting

Employees expect a digitally-driven workplace, especially as younger workers enter the workplace. In fact, sixty percent of Millennials report being open to a new job opportunity, but the right technology will keep them engaged, happy, and productive. According to a recent survey of Millennials by PWC found:

  • 59 percent said state-of-the art technology was important to them when considering an employer.
  • 41 percent prefer digital communication at work rather than face-to-face conversations or even phone calls.
  • Nearly half of Millennials surveyed felt held back by outdated and rigid work styles.

Are You Planting the Seeds of Growth?

Enterprises need to understand that when employees are forced to use complex, hard-to-use applications to do their daily work, they become frustrated—and as a result, less productive. By personalizing tasks and information and delivering simplified workflows to employees on any device, intranet, or messenger, Sapho users have experienced:

Delivering the application experiences that employees expect from their enterprise technology may be the difference between companies that stay ahead of the pack and those that fall behind as we enter the future of work.

This post originally appeared on the Sapho blog. In November, Citrix announced the acquisition of Sapho, a leading micro app platform that enables a better and smarter work experience.