04/09/2025
Some companies are falling ill because of the very technology they adopt. Not because it fails, but because excess, combined with lack of purpose, creates a paradox: the more systems, software, and platforms acquired, the fewer effective results appear.
The term infotoxicity was originally used to describe the information overload affecting individuals in the digital era, but it can—and should—be extended to the corporate environment. It refers to the intoxication caused by the abundance of digital tools without clear objectives, value metrics, or disciplined usage.
What should be a solution often turns into noise.
The logic is familiar: a new platform appears on the market, full of promises of productivity, integration, and intelligence. The offering is abundant and captivating, promising extraordinary results. Decisions, often based on PowerPoint slides, are made emotionally or impulsively, spurred by “unmissable” discounts. Executives feel the need to “adopt” it to keep up. The arguments are always the same: “our competitors are using it,” “Gartner recommended it,” “it’s the trend,” “it’s the future…”
But rarely is it defined:
What specific problem this technology will solve?
Which business indicators will be impacted and how will they be measured?
What human, cultural, and process changes are necessary for it to work?
Without these answers, technology becomes merely a symbol of modernity: impressive in innovation reports, good for investor decks, but incapable of sustaining real competitive advantage.
The rush to adopt novelty often ignores planning. Studies show that 30–50% of SaaS budgets are wasted on unused licenses and automatic renewals, clear evidence of decisions made without context, metrics, or governance after procurement.
The Human Paradox Behind Technology Overload
The discourse of digital transformation is seductive, but practice reveals another truth: everyone wants change, as long as they themselves do not have to change. Humans prefer constancy and comfort. “Innovation” is often misused in daily corporate life because it ignores the shortcut syndrome: seeking technology as a quick fix for problems that require deep human and cultural transformation.
Technology is treated as a magical prosthesis that will correct historical inefficiencies, when, in reality, without cultural change, any tool is just another obstacle.
The human paradox:
Managers want technology to transform “other areas” but not themselves.
Managers want dashboards but do not want to review manual processes.
Employees ask for easier platforms but resist learning new workflows.
The problem is never “mine.” It’s always someone else’s.
The Digital Tower of Babel
Just as we accumulate apps on our smartphones but use only four or five daily, organizations build true digital towers of Babel: redundant systems, overlapping functionalities, and data scattered across multiple platforms, with the same documents stored dozens of times in folders, applications, and emails.
Common cases include:
Underutilized ERPs, where only 40% of contracted modules are in operation. In large projects, ERP often represents 2–5% of annual revenue—a significant cost potentially consuming corporate treasures.
Duplicated collaboration tools, causing overlap and confusion.
Analytics software producing sophisticated reports but with no alignment to business strategy.
Robust security solutions stacked one over another, yet ignored in daily use, leaving space for human vulnerabilities.
Thus, the promise of integration becomes fragmentation. The taller the tool castle, the more unstable its base.
A personal question: how many apps on your smartphone promise to solve all your daily personal problems? Much of what happens with app overload in your life also happens in corporations.
Organizational Infotoxicity
Excess technology without purpose and governance creates silent intoxication:
For employees: a burden of passwords, accesses, and redundant processes that hinder more than help.
For managers: an avalanche of reports that do not communicate with each other, confusing decision-making.
For business areas: a constant feeling of being “digitized,” while still relying on parallel spreadsheets.
The consequence is serious: technology stops being leverage and becomes dead weight. Budgets inflate, productivity stagnates, and culture is tainted with cynicism—no one believes the next digital initiative will bring real change.
The Illusion of the Next Technology
Faced with frustration over poor results, the usual solution is always to seek the next technology:
“If this tool didn’t work, the next will.”
“If this system didn’t generate ROI, the next will have more features.”
“If this project didn’t engage, the next will have better adoption.”
Hope is always projected into the future. But as long as the organization does not recognize that the problem is not technological but human—in its inability to contextualize, measure, and transform behaviors—it will remain trapped in an endless replacement cycle.
Responsibility is Human, Not Technological
Technology is not to blame; it merely exposes the absence of clarity, method, and governance—quickly.
Gartner studies indicate that 55–75% of ERP projects fail to meet their initial goals. Even when delivered, they often exceed timelines and affect business expectations. Delays average around 30%, generating costs beyond predictions and user experiences below expectations.
True power lies in three factors rarely given the same attention as license prices or software contract discounts:
Decide with awareness: contextualize each acquisition in the company’s strategic purpose—called PROCUREMENT PLANNING.
Measure rigorously: define value indicators before procurement—called PROCUREMENT GOVERNANCE.
Transform behaviors: prepare people and processes to absorb technology—called CHANGE MANAGEMENT.
Until these three pillars are prioritized, innovation will remain just an expensive mirage.
In the end, innovation without purpose is not innovation—it is corporate infotoxicity. And the taller the tower of useless technology, the farther the company moves from the simplicity that generates real business value.
Good business to all! The time to change is running out.
