Teams | Collaboration | Customer Service | Project Management

A developer with the right AI tools can now build in days what used to take a quarter. So a lot of CIOs are asking a fair question: Why buy an enterprise platform when my team can spin something up in a sprint? The answer depends on what you think you’re replacing.

For many organizations, employee newsletters remain one of the most reliable ways to keep employees informed. But too many newsletters have become catch-all containers for every update, announcement, and reminder. When everything is important, nothing feels important.

Enterprise AI pilots are stalling in every industry I work with, and the buyers themselves can tell you why. They aren’t buying AI capability. They’re buying organizational trust at scale, with the least possible integration debt. The vendors still selling capability to IT leaders are losing deals to the vendors selling trust.

Most enterprise AI programs don’t fail at the model level. They fail at the foundation — the data strategy, governance model, access controls, and measurement discipline that determine whether a pilot ever becomes a production system. The organizations scaling AI well did the unglamorous work first.

Your intranet can showcase beautiful branding and engaging content, but it still needs internal champions and partnerships to succeed. The organizations recognized by the 2026 Simpplr Employee Experience Excellence Awards demonstrate how executive visionaries, technical experts, and cross-functional collaboration create intranets that deliver results.

Successful intranets display intentional design choices that reflect their organizational identity. The 2026 Simpplr Employee Experience Excellence Award winners illustrate how distinctive design, thoughtful naming, and unexpected features turn standard digital workplaces into memorable brand experiences.

What separates a well-used intranet from one that collects digital dust? The organizations honored with the 2026 Simpplr Employee Experience Excellence Awards have cracked the code. Their platforms are places employees actively participate in, return to daily, and rely on to get things done.

Internal communicators don’t need more tools. We need fewer handoffs, less chaos, and more space to do the work that requires our superpowers of context, clarity, and judgment. Internal communications professionals understand the exhausting effort of balancing daily chaos. You might find yourself running three campaigns simultaneously, announcing a critical leadership transition, updating your hybrid work policy, and preparing for a quarterly town hall all at once.

Internal communications teams are being pulled into enterprise AI strategy at a scale the org chart doesn’t reflect. They’re shaping rollout plans, building adoption workstreams, and managing the human side of AI implementation — on top of their existing responsibilities.

Unsanctioned use of AI is a major cybersecurity risk, but your employees need the latest tools to be more productive. By the time you’ve developed a framework for managing shadow AI, technology has already progressed. This means you’re left constantly playing catch-up while the risks of shadow AI continue to accumulate.