Most Enterprise IT Problems Are Never Reported: New Atera Research Pinpoints the Everyday Friction Costing Enterprises Millions

Findings fuel Atera's "Let People Work" movement — revealing a hidden "friction tax" that drains productivity at scale, with 61% of employees avoiding broken workflows entirely and 73% of leaders saying the blind spot is directly limiting AI ROI

NEW YORK, March 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Atera, the leading AI-powered Autonomous IT platform driving efficiency for the modern enterprise, today released The Friction Tax report conducted with Atomik Research, surveying 1,000 full-time employees and 500 C-suite and senior enterprise leaders at U.S. companies with 1,000+ employees.

The research was commissioned to quantify a simple but urgent belief: that too many employees spend their days fighting broken systems instead of doing the work that actually matters. That belief is at the heart of Atera's "Let People Work" campaign—a movement to remove the operational friction that quietly drains productivity across every enterprise, every day.

The findings reveal a growing disconnect at the heart of enterprise transformation: while organizations face increasing pressure to demonstrate ROI from their AI investments and deliver results more efficiently, everyday workplace friction continues to erode productivity and limit impact.

The study finds that the friction tax is massive and universal. Inefficiencies embedded in daily workflows are consuming a significant portion of employees' time. In fact, 68% of employees report spending more than 10% of their day on "meta-work," such as navigating processes, re-logging issues, and resolving technical difficulties, with 18% spending more than 40% of their time on these tasks.

The costs compound quickly: employees estimate stalled systems are taking a heavy toll on productivity each year. Among employees who experience time loss, 70% say these delays alone cost $100 or more per week, and 36% estimate losses exceeding $200 weekly—costs that, when multiplied across teams and over time, translate into significant enterprise-wide impact. At the same time, 61% say they have delayed or avoided taking action altogether because workflows were too complex, unclear, or broken. Leaders aren't spared the impact: 47% report losing three or more hours per week to these same inefficiencies affecting employees.

This accumulation of small, everyday disruptions reflects a broader reality highlighted in Atera's "Let People Work" campaign: what appears minor in isolation compounds into a measurable drag on productivity at scale.

While leaders experience this friction themselves, its full scale often remains underrecognized across the organization, distorting how work and productivity are understood. Thirty-seven percent of employees report experiencing an issue but not submitting a support ticket, with half finding their own workaround and 30% saying the process is simply too slow. As a result, organizations lack visibility into the full scale of operational drag—an issue 73% of leaders say is directly limiting AI ROI.

This "workaround culture" is not a minor nuisance; it is the single biggest blind spot preventing organizations from understanding where AI can make the most difference.

Despite these barriers, demand for AI remains strong, particularly when applied to the right layer of work. Fifty-eight percent of employees are comfortable with AI autonomously handling routine or Tier-1 tasks. When asked what "good AI" means in their day-to-day work, employees most often point to improving work quality (47%), reducing friction (43%), automating routine tasks (41%), and enabling focus on higher-level work (37%). Trust in AI also increases when it removes blockers, cited by 33% of respondents. Trust earned on low-stakes, background tasks builds the foundation for AI's expanded role over time.

Leaders are aligned on the need for better outcomes at scale. Sixty-eight percent prioritize ROI from AI initiatives, alongside reducing interruptions (60%), and increasing operational control (59%). At the same time, 91% report being comfortable with AI participating in higher-stakes, judgment-based work. Yet leaders also acknowledge a critical blind spot: 74% believe their IT teams are aware of 75% or fewer of the problems employees actually experience, and 26% believe IT sees less than half. Delivering on that ambition starts with a simpler step: applying AI to the everyday workflows where friction slows work down.

Yet many organizations are not set up to do this effectively. Leaders point to structural barriers holding AI back, including workflows not being ready for AI (41%), lack of integration (38%), and insufficient training and change management (32%).

"What this data makes clear is that productivity isn't limited by a lack of technology—it's limited by the friction people encounter using it every day," said Gil Pekelman, CEO and co-founder of Atera. "Too often, that friction goes unresolved, forcing employees to wait, work around issues, or avoid broken processes altogether. And because most of that friction never surfaces as a ticket, organizations are making AI investment decisions based on an incomplete picture of where work actually breaks down. That's why many AI initiatives haven't delivered on their full potential. When AI is applied to remove those barriers, it allows people to stay focused and contribute at a higher level—and that's where organizations begin to see real impact."

"This research highlights how deeply embedded everyday friction has become in modern workflows," said Alex Hinojosa, Executive Director at Atomik Research. "While organizations are investing in AI, the findings suggest that its impact will depend on how effectively it is applied to the points in the workday where employees experience the most disruption."

This research is the evidence behind Atera's "Let People Work" campaign: a call to action rooted in the belief that AI's biggest opportunity at work is not replacing what people do, but removing what prevents them from doing it well. The data makes the cost undeniable: the friction tax costs hundreds of dollars per employee per week, most of it never reported, and never fixed. The employees who feel it most—younger, digital-native workers—are also the most ready for an AI solution.

With Robin by Atera—its autonomous, action-oriented AI agent—Atera is advancing this vision by enabling organizations to resolve issues directly at the source, proactively detecting friction before it requires a ticket, and reducing reliance on traditional ticket-based workflows. By addressing the everyday friction highlighted in the research, Atera helps enterprises improve productivity, increase operational efficiency, and drive measurable outcomes at scale.

Join the movement by visiting https://letpeoplework.atera.com/.

About the Employee Survey: Fight or Flight, on behalf of Atera, commissioned Atomik Research to conduct an online survey of 1,000 adults throughout the United States. The sample consists of full-time employees within organizations of at least 1,000 employees. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points with a confidence level of 95%. Fieldwork took place between February 27 and March 3, 2026.

About the C-Suite and Senior Enterprise Leader Survey: Fight or Flight, on behalf of Atera, commissioned Atomik Research to conduct an online survey of 500 adults throughout the United States. The sample consists of full-time employees in technology or information technology departments of organizations with 1,000 or more employees. Respondents hold job titles of President/Business Principal, C-Suite (CEO, CISO, COO, CTO, etc.), or Vice President (EVP, SVP, VP, AVP, etc.). The margin of error is +/- 4 percentage points with a confidence level of 95%. Fieldwork took place between February 27 and March 16, 2026.

About Atera: Atera is building the future of IT, one where AI agents, not humans, resolve the majority of IT incidents. Our mission is simple: Let People Work. At the heart of this vision is Robin by Atera, an autonomous IT agent built on patented technology that detects issues, diagnoses root causes, executes fixes, and verifies resolution end to end, without a technician ever touching it. This is not copilot-assisted IT. This is Autonomous IT that resolves 92% of technical issues.

Unlike legacy solutions that layer AI on top of broken workflows and still require a human to act, Atera is the only platform that autonomously resolves technical IT incidents from detection through diagnosis, remediation, and closure, without human intervention. When IT issues resolve themselves, instantly and silently, employees stay in flow, projects don't stall, and deadlines aren't missed.

Trusted by more than 13,000 customers across 120+ countries, Atera helps modern enterprises eliminate the IT ticket, scale operations, and turn IT into a driver of lasting business growth.

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SOURCE Atera