AI is becoming a bigger part of everyday work. According to the Omnissa State of the Digital Workspace 2026 report, the use of AI assistants rose by nearly 1,000% in 2025 across most of the operating systems analyzed. 

That rapid growth is also making the digital workplace harder for IT teams to manage. Employees are using a wider range of devices and applications, often beyond formal IT oversight. This creates a growing visibility gap that can increase security risks, drive up costs, and affect productivity. 

To track these shifts, Omnissa analyzed anonymous, aggregated telemetry from millions of enterprise endpoints worldwide throughout 2025. The report focuses on four key areas: device choice, shadow perimeter, security hygiene, and employee experience. 

Shadow AI Challenges and the Rise of the Shadow Perimeter in the Workplace

The growing use of AI assistants is one of the digital workspace trends 2026 that businesses need to pay attention to. The Omnissa report shows nearly 1,000% growth in the AI assistant category. However, employees are not only using AI tools officially provided by their organizations, such as Microsoft Copilot, but also public applications such as ChatGPT and Gemini. 

Using these applications outside formal IT governance can create shadow AI risks within organizations. Employees may potentially enter internal data, proprietary code, or sensitive information into platforms that are not fully controlled by the organization. 

Beyond AI, personal communication applications are also increasingly blurring the boundaries between professional and personal activities. Combined with the growing use of SaaS, the browser now functions much like an operating system while also becoming a new endpoint for modern workers. 

Therefore, digital workspace security cannot rely solely on blocklists or application restrictions. Businesses need visibility into the applications being used, along with governance that balances security and productivity. 

Device Choice Strategies Are Shifting Workplace Provisioning Toward Persona-Based Procurement

Providing workplace devices through a one-size-fits-all approach is not always efficient. The device requirements of a developer, for example, are different from those of a frontline worker, healthcare professional, or administrative employee. 

The Omnissa report shows that OS, OEM, form factor, and device specifications vary depending on industry and user persona. This means businesses need to consider performance, device lifespan, application requirements, and maintenance costs when developing their device procurement strategies. 

1. OS and Form Factor Preferences Across Industries

Android devices are more common in the retail and healthcare sectors, particularly due to the need for ruggedized devices. Meanwhile, Zebra devices are widely used in retail, wholesale, and transportation because of their durability, replaceable batteries, and barcode scanning capabilities. 

In the high-tech and services sectors, MacBook Pro is a dominant choice for workloads that require high performance. Meanwhile, the government sector shows significant growth in desktop usage. 

These findings indicate that device selection should be aligned with operational requirements rather than based solely on a standard device catalog. 

2. Device Lifecycle Management and Device Configuration

Device lifecycle management also plays an important role in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). According to the report, 11.5 percent of Mac devices remain in use through their sixth year, compared with 1.8 percent of Windows devices in the analyzed desktop dataset. 

Beyond device age, configurations such as the processor, RAM, and storage should also be aligned with user persona requirements. With observability, businesses can understand resource utilization and determine when devices should be replaced based on actual data rather than relying solely on fixed refresh schedules. 

Closing Security Hygiene Gaps Across the End-User Computing Ecosystem

The increasing complexity of the digital workspace can expand security and endpoint compliance gaps. Differences in patching speed across operating systems are among the key findings in the Omnissa report. 

Within the dataset, macOS was updated 1.5 times faster than Windows, while iOS was updated 8.1 times faster than Android. Industries such as healthcare, pharmaceuticals, retail, and wholesale also showed higher usage of older OS versions. 

The report also highlights a high number of desktop devices that remain unencrypted across several sectors. This indicates that compliance with security policies does not always reflect the actual security posture of devices. 

IT teams need to move from reactive auditing toward proactive remediation. With continuous monitoring, businesses can identify unencrypted devices, disabled firewalls, or endpoints vulnerable to CVEs, and then prioritize remediation based on risk levels. 

Reducing Digital Friction to Improve the Digital Employee Experience (DEX)

A device that is still operational does not necessarily provide an optimal work experience. System crashes, app crashes, app hangs, and system slowdowns can create a forced interruption tax, resulting in lost productivity caused by technical disruptions. 

According to the Omnissa report, Windows devices experienced 3.1 times more forced shutdowns, 2.2 times more app crashes, and 7.5 times more app hangs than Mac devices in the analyzed dataset. 

Therefore, businesses need to establish an endpoint performance baseline to measure the digital employee experience more objectively. This data can help IT teams identify the causes of disruptions, from problematic applications and network bottlenecks to hardware limitations. 

This approach enables businesses to improve the employee experience while also measuring its impact on overall productivity. 

Why IT Observability Is Key to a Successful Modern Digital Workspace

The growing diversity of devices, applications, operating systems, and work patterns makes managing the digital workspace through separate monitoring tools increasingly difficult. Businesses cannot secure or optimize what they cannot see comprehensively. 

End-to-end IT observability helps connect data from devices, applications, security posture, and user experience into a more integrated view. With this approach, IT teams can: 

  • Identify shadow AI and unmonitored application usage. 
  • Optimize device procurement and lifecycle management. 
  • Detect security and compliance gaps continuously. 
  • Measure endpoint disruptions that impact productivity. 

Observability in IT is not simply about seeing the condition of systems. It is about turning operational data into a foundation for more proactive decision-making. 

Download the Full Omnissa State of the Digital Workspace 2026 Report

The Omnissa State of the Digital Workspace 2026 report provides data-driven insights into the digital workspace challenges businesses face, from AI adoption and endpoint complexity to security hygiene and digital employee experience. 

As an official Omnissa partner, Virtus Technology Indonesia (part of CTI Group) helps businesses understand their requirements and implement digital workspace solutions holistically, with security, operational efficiency, and user productivity in mind. 

Gain deeper insights and comprehensive telemetry data to help shape your organization’s IT strategy. Download the Omnissa State of the Digital Workspace 2026 report or consult with the Virtus Technology Indonesia team about your infrastructure needs today. 

Writer: Ary Adianto
Content Writer, CTI Group