How IT Teams Can Use DEX Tools to Facilitate and Monitor Employees' AI Adoption

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini become embedded in daily workflows with the goal of transforming productivity, decision-making and collaboration, enterprises face a challenge in understanding how these tools are actually used.

Despite widespread deployment, many organizations struggle to answer basic questions:

Who is using AI tools?
How often and for what tasks?
Are these tools improving productivity or causing friction?
Is adoption equitable across departments?
Are they getting ROI from their AI investments?

That is where Digital Employee Experience (DEX) tools come in. These platforms provide measurable insights into how employees interact with digital tools, including AI, enabling IT and business leaders to track usage, measure impact and optimize adoption.

Using DEX tools to drive AI adoption strategy

The deployment of AI tools across an enterprise is more than just a technical deployment: it is a strategic transformation. However, success hinges not only on access to powerful AI platforms like Copilot, ChatGPT, or Gemini, but on how effectively employees adopt and engage with them. That is where DEX tools come in, offering the necessary insights into user behavior, sentiment, and readiness.

The first wave of innovation around AI in DEX platforms has centered on IT operations: leveraging AI for anomaly detection, integrating Generative AI (GenAI) into admin consoles, and deploying Agentic AI to autonomously identify and resolve technical issues.

However, the next evolution is underway. The realization was that the same rich telemetry and behavioral data used to support IT can also be harnessed to drive AI adoption among end users. DEX platforms already collect detailed insights into how employees interact with devices and applications, which makes them uniquely positioned to track AI tool usage, identify adoption gaps, and deliver targeted enablement campaigns. This shift marks a transition from only AI for IT efficiency to being inclusive of AI for workforce empowerment, where DEX becomes a strategic enabler of enterprise-wide AI readiness and productivity. DEX platforms can play a crucial role in ensuring that AI tools are not only deployed but also effectively embraced, optimized, and scaled.

Here are five ways that DEX solutions can be leveraged to drive a successful AI rollout by aligning technology with the people who use it.

1. AI usage visibility across devices and apps

DEX tools are commonly used to measure which applications are used and how often by an organization's users, so extending this to AI tools was an easy and logical progression. Many DEX platforms offer dashboards that track AI usage across both desktop and web-based applications. They can log how often employees use AI tools, session durations, and interaction types, which is critical for targeted training and support. Examples of metrics that can be captured and reported on include:

Total user counts for tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Claude, and other enterprise AI tools
Time spent on each AI tool, broken down by device, department, or user cohort
Usage trends over days, weeks, and months to monitor adoption velocity

This granular visibility helps IT and business leaders understand which tools are gaining traction and which are underutilized, enabling targeted enablement strategies.

2. Sentiment and engagement analysis

Once we know which users are using or not using AI tools and which ones, we can create targeted sentiment and enablement campaigns. This is often done using either the built-in sentiment tracking of the DEX tool or through external corporate tooling, leveraging targeted campaigns from the DEX usage reports. User sentiment can be gathered using:

Surveys
App ratings
Feedback forms
Behavioral analytics
Service desk ticket

By correlating performance data with employee feedback, DEX platforms provide a comprehensive view of whether users find AI tools helpful or frustrating, offering valuable guidance for UX improvements and support interventions.

3. Personalized training and support

DEX solutions enable organizations by providing them with the necessary information to tailor training, support and communication to the specific users and AI tools they use, thereby accelerating adoption where it is needed most. Utilizing the usage data and sentiment insights provided by DEX, it is possible to build personalized and targeted support to help ensure employees know how to use the AI tools available to them effectively and confidently. Some key enablement initiatives that DEX can enable are:

Department-level comparisons to help identify AI champions and laggards to focus enablement efforts where they will have the greatest impact
Create targeted campaigns for users who have not engaged with AI tools recently and gather feedback on barriers, and share enablement resources
Offer contextual aware training and upskilling at the moment of need, such as when a user opens an AI tool for the first time
Leverage sentiment feedback to collect insights from users with low AI usage compared to peers to uncover friction points and improve adoption strategies

By transforming raw usage data into actionable insights, DEX enables AI adoption to shift from a passive rollout to an active, personalized experience, empowering organizations to ensure every user has the necessary tools, knowledge and confidence to unlock the full potential of AI.

4. Device AI readiness and optimization insights

Similar to how DEX tools assess whether users' devices are performing as expected and need to ensure a good digital experience, they can also be used to evaluate the capability and performance of AI PC hardware and applications. DEX data can be used to determine the hardware readiness for advanced AI tools like Copilot+, along with measuring how much an NPU is being used and by what applications. Organizations can confidently plan their AI PC refreshes because they have the tools to measure and understand NPU usage. This helps IT deploy the right devices to the right users by:

Detecting and categorizing systems that meet the hardware and OS requirements for AI tools or ones that require component upgrades, such as memory
Identify users who are using applications known to benefit from an NPU on an unsupported device and prioritize an AI PC refresh for them
Visualize across the organization how effective the deployment of AI PCs is in impacting user experience and productivity

These insights enable IT teams to plan upgrades, guide procurement and ensure that AI investments are matched by adequate infrastructure readiness.

5. Shadow AI detection and compliance monitoring

Many employees experiment with unsanctioned AI tools, which can lead to challenges for companies around maintaining data security and compliance, especially in regulated industries. Even though most DEX tools were not directly built to enforce compliance, they can be an integral part of providing the visibility to organizations' efforts to detect, educate and report on this "shadow AI" usage by:

Monitoring known browser URL activity and application launches
Flagging AI tools not on the approved list
Enable sentiment campaigns to suggest corporate-approved tools

This capability provides valuable tools for governance to help manage AI risk, ensure data security, and educate users on the appropriate platforms for overall adoption.

Top DEX tools for AI usage monitoring

While all DEX tools should provide insights into the user experience through real-time analytics and sentiment data, there are a few that have developed specific tools to facilitate the adoption of AI across an organization. The following are examples of key WWT partners that offer AI-specific solutions and capabilities to provide IT with data on AI readiness, usage and adoption, enabling them to maximize their investments in AI.

Nexthink

Nexthink's AI Drive is a solution within the Nexthink Infinity platform designed to close the enterprise "AI value gap." It provides centralized visibility, guidance, and measurement of AI adoption across the workforce, helping organizations turn scattered AI activity into measurable productivity gains. Key features of what AI Drive offers include:

AI usage across sanctioned and shadow tools, including ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Claude and custom enterprise platforms
Engaged time and hours saved per user, offering a clear view of how AI enhances daily workflows
Department-level and persona-based adoption trends, enabling targeted enablement and training
Sentiment and feedback through real-time surveys and nudges, helping users overcome adoption barriers
Benchmarking against 1,000+ global organizations, showing leaders where they stand in AI maturity

This platform empowers IT and business leaders to visualize AI adoption, guide change, and measure impact with precision. It is filterable by department, role, and workflow, making it highly customizable for organizations seeking to scale AI confidently and sustainably.

Lakeside Software

Lakeside SysTrack empowers companies with real-time AI PC and application usage and performance data. Lakeside delivers AI-powered endpoint device performance monitoring that can identify underpowered devices, unused software and anomalous behaviors. The SysTrack AI Awareness pack is tailored for tracking AI usage and readiness within an environment and includes features such as:

Dashboards to help identify what machines have the necessary hardware to support Copilot+ readiness
Usage and non-usage tracking for ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Claude and Firefly, with the ability to add custom applications
NPU assessment for AI tool usage and productivity impact
- Show what applications have the potential to utilize an NPU
- How many systems have the NPU capability vs do not for NPU-capable applications
- Which applications use an NPU the most
- Which end users use applications that would benefit from an AI PC

Using Lakeside, organizations can gain the clarity and control needed to drive smarter, more secure AI adoption across the enterprise and optimize AI PC deployments.

ControlUp

ControlUp's AI Report Dashboard is purpose-built to meet the need for enterprises to accelerate their adoption of AI tools, offering granular insights into AI usage across devices, users, and departments. It empowers IT teams with the data they need to understand adoption patterns, optimize performance, and guide enablement strategies. Insights it provides include:

AI app and website usage, including ChatGPT, Copilot, Cursor and more
Measures the time spent per user and device for each AI application
Visualizes adoption trends across departments
Filter and detect Copilot+ ready devices
Helps IT plan training, security, and policy interventions

This dashboard helps organizations identify AI champions, assess training needs and ensure the safe and productive use of AI tools. It is filterable by device group, site, and user cohort, making it highly customizable to provide the insights needed for IT to make informed decisions.

Evaluating a DEX tool for AI adoption: What to look for

To evaluate a solution, start by defining your goals: Are you trying to boost adoption, reduce risk or enhance support? Then match those goals to the platform's capabilities. The right DEX tool won't just monitor AI, it will empower your workforce to thrive in the age of intelligent automation.

Consider these 5 pillars in your evaluation for a DEX solution that can empower your AI adoption journey:

Visibility - Make sure it offers real-time dashboards for AI usage across apps, devices, and users
Sentiment & Engagement - Tools should offer timely feedback loops and sentiment scoring that can be correlated with AI usage
Automation and AI Features - Prioritize platforms with self-healing, predictive analytics, and AI-powered service desks
Scalability – Verify that the solution is suitable for your organization's size and complexity
Integration – Consider if the solution can connect with your existing ITSM, employee AI assistant and analytics platforms to extend its capabilities on its own or with other tools

Organizations often begin with a pilot in one department, measure the outcomes, and scale up gradually. Prioritize vendors with proven enterprise deployments and transparent ROI metrics. By focusing on these pillars and choosing a solution that aligns with your strategic goals, you can leverage both DEX and AI adoption into a scalable and measurable driver of enterprise transformation.