Dropbox research shows disorganisation is draining productivity and profit, hitting creative industries hardest and flags AI tools to help restore order
Research from Dropbox suggests that businesses are losing a significant amount of money each year due to disorganised digital files.
The study, which surveyed over 2,000 workers, found that the average employee spends more than 11 hours per week searching for files, resulting in notable productivity losses.
Digital clutter and its impact on revenue
The report, titled “The High Cost of Digital Clutter,” found that the problem is particularly acute in creative industries, where employees are often working with large files and multiple versions of documents. This can lead to confusion and errors, which can be costly for businesses.
“The creative industry is all about collaboration,” says Andy Wilson, director of Dropbox’s creative industries division.
“But when you have multiple people working on the same project, it’s easy for things to get disorganised. That’s why it’s so important to have a good system in place for managing your digital files.”
Human-AI collaboration in creative work
The study also found that many creative professionals are not taking advantage of the latest AI-powered tools that can help them to organise their work. For example, only 25% of respondents said they use AI to automatically tag their files, and only 20% use AI to search for files.
“There’s a huge opportunity for creative professionals to utilise AI tools to streamline their workflows and be more productive,” Andy says.
“But we need to do a better job of educating them about the benefits of these tools.”
Improving creative flow with AI tools
Dropbox is one of a number of companies that are developing AI-powered tools to help creative professionals to be more organized and productive. For example, the company’s new “Spaces” feature uses AI to automatically organise files and folders, and its “DBX” platform provides a central place for teams to collaborate on projects.
The goal is to help creative professionals to spend less time searching for files and more time doing what they do best: creating. “We want to help people to get into a state of ‘creative flow,’ where they’re not being distracted by the technology,” says Andy.
“AI can play a big role in that.”