UK workers are secretly building their own IT systems because the official ones don’t work

Two-thirds of workers in Britain’s physical industries have built their own unofficial tools to do their jobs because official company systems are falling short, new research by Cogna has found.

The AI firm surveyed 500 frontline workers and 250 senior decision-makers across the construction, logistics, manufacturing and utilities sectors, and uncovered a stark gap between what executives believe about their technology investments and what staff experience on the ground.

While leaders remain confident that digital transformation is succeeding, 65% of workers admitted to creating their own workarounds, including spreadsheets, templates, ad-hoc processes and personal messaging tools, to compensate for shortcomings in official systems.

This so-called “shadow IT” is becoming deeply embedded across organisations, the report warned, creating security risks and fragmenting company data in the process.

The findings suggest that the problem is not a lack of investment as organisations surveyed have spent an average of £13 million on digital transformation over the past five years, with more than one in five (22%) spending over £20 million.

Despite this outlay, operational staff estimate that nearly two-fifths (39%) of their working week goes to repetitive or unnecessarily manual tasks which they believe better tools could significantly improve or automate.

Nearly a third (29%) of workers said at least half of their working week is wasted on manual jobs. Only 22% of senior decision-makers believe the same, highlighting how differently the two groups see the state of day-to-day work.

Bosses see a different picture

Senior leaders remain overwhelmingly positive about the impact of their technology spending.

Three-quarters (75%) believe productivity at their companies has improved over the past three years, despite UK macro-economic productivity figures remaining flat. A further 89% attribute these gains to technology, while 83% say their technology investments have met or exceeded expectations.

Workers point to more mundane obstacles. The biggest barriers to productivity, according to staff, are slow approval processes (20%), poor communication (19%), and outdated systems (17%). These are persistent operational bottlenecks that technology roll-outs have yet to resolve.

Cogna CEO and founder Ben Peters said the workaround culture should serve as a signal to leadership rather than a cause for alarm.

“Digital transformation does not succeed in the boardroom; it succeeds when it changes the work people do every day,” he said.

“The fact that two-thirds of workers are creating their own workarounds shows that teams are not rejecting technology, they are showing leaders exactly where official systems need to go further.”

Workers do back AI – when it works

The research found that workers are not hostile to new technology when it is deployed well.

Over a third (34%) said AI or automation has already made parts of their job faster or easier, and a quarter reported that AI’s overall impact on their role has been positive. Just 6% said the impact has been negative.

Organisations have introduced AI across several key areas in the past 24 months, including data analytics and forecasting (47%), cybersecurity (47%), customer services (42%), and operations or production (41%).

Leaders also face mounting pressure to keep pace.

Almost four in five (79%) worry that competitors are moving faster on AI-driven solutions, and 95% say customer and public expectations have shaped their digital agendas. However, 41% cite cost as the biggest obstacle to further adoption.

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