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 [AI & Technology](/categories/ai-technology)

 # Every Moment of Digital Friction Carries a Cost

 

##### The greatest threat to workforce productivity is no longer major system failure, it's digital friction.

 

 

 Aug 28, 2026 9:05 AM ET

  ![Three people working amongst many computer screens](https://3blcdn.com/styles/carousel_2x/s3/2026-07/IT_Leidos_072326_1_1784829486.jpg)

 

*How Digital Experience Optimization helps organizations proactively eliminate workforce disruptions and build self-healing, productivity-enhancing digital environments.*

Slow applications, unstable collaboration tools, recurring password resets, and service desk delays may appear minor in isolation. But across an enterprise environment, these persistent disruptions compound into lost workforce hours, operational inefficiencies, and growing frustration with the digital workplace.

For many organizations, the problem is not system availability alone. It is the inability to proactively identify and resolve issues before users feel the impact.

### **Why reactive IT is no longer enough** 

Traditional IT operations were designed around reactive support models: users encounter problems, submit tickets, and wait for resolution. These models were built to restore systems after failure, not to continuously optimize the workforce experience or prevent disruption before users feel the impact. In increasingly complex hybrid environments, that approach creates a continuous cycle of disruption and recovery that slows operations, impacts productivity and user satisfaction, and places additional strain on already overloaded support teams.

### **How digital experience optimization reduces workplace disruption**

Organizations are now shifting toward a different approach, one focused not simply on maintaining system availability, but on continuously improving the digital experience of the workforce.

This is where Digital Experience Optimization (DXO) is changing the equation. By combining endpoint visibility, experience analytics, and automation, DXO is designed to allow organizations to move beyond reactive support models and proactively detect, diagnose, and remediate issues in real time, often before users experience disruptions or mission performance is affected.

> The future of IT operations is not faster recovery after disruption: it’s preventing disruption from occurring in the first place. Organizations that reduce digital friction will create a measurable advantage in workforce productivity, mission performance, and operational resilience.
> 
> **Tim Gilday,** VP, Enterprise Digital Experience Practice Lead

### **Building self-healing digital work environments**

The most significant shift is the rise of self-healing environments. Automated remediation capabilities can detect and resolve common issues, restore degraded services, and proactively address friction without requiring service desk intervention. Increasingly, problems can be addressed before users are impacted.

The impact extends beyond IT efficiency. Organizations adopting experience-driven operations are reducing service desk volume, accelerating issue resolution, improving workforce productivity, and strengthening trust in the digital environment supporting the mission.

### **Digital experience as a strategic advantage**

As agencies and enterprises continue modernizing their environments, digital experience is becoming a strategic operational priority, not simply an IT metric. The organizations that gain advantage will be those that move beyond reactive support and build resilient, self-healing environments capable of minimizing disruption before it affects the workforce.

At Leidos, we believe this shift requires more than modern infrastructure alone. It requires designing digital environments that anticipate user needs, reduce friction, and create experiences that enable people to perform at their best, what we call “[**Delight by Design**](https://leidos.widen.net/s/5cr2d85dbj/edx-delight-by-design).”

Because in modern mission environments, every moment of digital friction carries a cost.

**Related**

- [**Designing What’s Next: Turning IT Modernization into "Delight By Design”**](https://www.leidos.com/insights/designing-whats-next-turning-it-modernization-delight-design)
- [**Breaking Defense: Tim Gilday and Bethany King on the Future of Experience-Driven IT Operations**](https://breakingdefense.com/2026/02/why-enterprise-it-modernization-matters-now-and-how-to-delight-by-design/)
- [**From Compliance to Confidence: Designing Government Experiences That Build Trust**](https://www.leidos.com/insights/compliance-confidence-designing-government-experiences-build-trust)



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 [![Leidos logo](/sites/default/files/2024-11/Leidos-logo-horz-uv-mid-rgb-%404x.png)](/profiles/leidos)

 



 

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