Understanding how people actually use the digital world—and what it means for mission-driven organizations

From Transformation to Alignment

For decades, “digital transformation” has been used as a rallying cry for modernization—a shorthand for keeping up with whatever the newest technologies happen to be. In the 1990s, this meant launching a website. In the 2000s, it meant optimizing for search. In the 2010s, it meant building apps and social-media campaigns. Today, it means adopting artificial intelligence.

With each wave of innovation comes a familiar scramble—to understand what the technology can do, how it can multiply impact (and profits), and how to stay relevant amid the noise. But technology doesn’t emerge in a vacuum. Each new tool is a response to something human: a behavior, a need, or a desire. What changes are the means; what endures are the motivations.

As organizations experiment with the current rallying cry for digital transformation—the AI transformation—it helps to pause and remember what people are actually trying to do before deciding what to build, what to adopt, and how to proceed.

Across nearly every digital context, user behavior can be traced to three core priorities:

1. Tasks and Jobs (Including Gathering Information)
2. Entertainment, Distraction, and Novelty
3. Connection 

These three behaviors define how audiences move through the digital world—and, for mission-driven organizations, where to focus efforts to create real value and impact.

Tasks and Jobs

The internet’s most essential function has been helping people get things done. From booking flights to paying bills to registering to vote, digital technology has become the universal tool for completing tasks. The underlying expectation is efficiency—low friction, clear direction, and confidence that the action will succeed.

For companies and organizations, this layer includes both external user tasks (donations, event registrations, applications, and petitions) and internal operational tasks (managing data, coordinating teams, processing grants, and reporting outcomes). Organizations that excel in this space think like product teams; they continuously improve workflows, increasing reliability and reducing friction for users and staff alike. 

Sub-Task: Information Gathering — “I Want to Understand”

Before anyone completes a digital task, they typically seek understanding. People research, compare, and build confidence before taking action. In this sense, information gathering is the precursor to action—it helps users know what to do and why.

AI is rapidly changing this process. Search engines once directed people toward web pages, giving organizations control over their content and message. Now, AI-powered interfaces like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google’s AI Overviews summarize and synthesize content directly. The user’s “understanding” increasingly happens elsewhere, mediated by machine-generated summaries that collapse multiple sources into one synthesized answer.

For organizations, this means information must be structured for both human comprehension and machine interpretation. The visibility of your knowledge no longer depends on clicks but on whether it’s discoverable and trusted within AI-driven systems. This also means accepting some loss of control over your information.

How to Operate in the Task and Information Gathering Spaces

Mission-driven organizations can succeed here by treating user or staff interactions as a product experience—something to be designed, tested, and continuously improved.

• Design for outcomes, not traffic. Measure success by task completion rates, not page views.
• Treat processes and content as products. Every form, workflow, and content design can be refined through testing and user feedback.
• Leverage AI as an enabler. Use AI to automate repetitive steps, generate summaries, and help staff focus on meaningful work.
• Anticipate AI mediation. Structure and label your information so that AI systems can cite it accurately.

Entertainment, Distraction, and Novelty

The next dominant behavior in the digital ecosystem is the pursuit of stimulation and relief. People open their phones to be entertained, to escape boredom or stress, to seek joy, or simply to feel okay. This desire is not new. The attention economy—media built around capturing and selling human attention—has existed since the dawn of newspapers, radio, and television. What’s changed is the scale and precision of how attention is now captured.

Today, attention has become the currency of the digital economy—hyper-monetized and measured by machine-learning algorithms. Social-media platforms no longer just sell ad space; they use AI to optimize every pixel of the feed to maximize engagement. They reach out to us across modes, sending emails and texts to bring us back. Infinite scroll eliminates stopping cues. Algorithms learn what keeps each user hooked, creating individualized “attention highways” where each swipe trains the system to hold us longer.

How to Operate in the Attention Space

For mission-driven organizations, this can be complex and volatile terrain. Attention is abundant but fleeting; winning it requires speed, authenticity, and risk tolerance. Yet, used wisely, attention can open doors to awareness, empathy, and action. Organizations can succeed here by;

• Meet audiences where they already are. Participate thoughtfully in platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, or YouTube when it aligns with your mission and audience.
• Use attention as a gateway, not a goal. Craft campaigns that capture interest and then channel it toward connection or contribution.
• Balance speed with integrity. Rapid response content can be powerful but must stay rooted in organizational values.
• Experiment with AI in creative storytelling. Use generative tools to draft adaptive narratives, visual content, or personalized engagement while maintaining human oversight.

Connection

The final major digital behavior is the desire for connection. From the earliest days of the internet—message boards, email lists, and online forums—people have used technology to build community. This instinct to connect is fundamental: we are social beings, wired to seek belonging.

Social media amplified this drive. Platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and early Reddit created digital commons where people could exchange ideas, reconnect with friends, and join groups around shared causes or interests. For a while, the internet seemed to be fulfilling its most hopeful promise—a truly global network of connection and participation.

For better or worse, connection is difficult to monetize directly. With the exception of elite circles, few users are willing to pay for the ability to stay in touch or belong to an online community. As a result, the economic model that underpinned most digital connection spaces began to mirror entertainment: generating revenue through advertising. This model wasn’t new—television and radio had long sold audience attention to advertisers—but digital platforms introduced something revolutionary: hyper-personalization through machine learning.

As platforms matured, connections slowly transformed into content. Algorithms optimized not for the genuine community but for engagement—likes, shares, comments, and views. The goal was to keep users scrolling, not necessarily relating. What began as tools for connection evolved into highly sophisticated attention machines, powered by vast datasets and predictive algorithms that measure and monetize every glance.

Today, most people experience digital connection as a paradox. We are more networked than ever, yet rates of loneliness and disconnection continue to climb. The promise of belonging still drives behavior, but the platforms that dominate the digital landscape have monetized it into the attention economy.

Sliding From Connection to Attention

When connection becomes content, belonging becomes performance. Platforms profit from engagement, not from genuine relationships. What started as a digital commons has become an ecosystem of individualized feeds and algorithmic advertising, optimized to maximize time spent rather than trust built.

And yet, there are signs of change. The attention economy is showing early signs of softening. Younger audiences are increasingly skeptical of hyper-curated feeds. Many are retreating to smaller, private group chats, in-person local events, and curated digital spaces that feel more authentic. This shift opens new opportunities for mission-driven organizations: to design digital communities that prioritize trust, depth, and shared purpose rather than algorithmic reach.

How to Operate in the Connection Space

For mission-driven organizations, this dynamic presents both challenge and promise. Unlike commercial platforms, nonprofits are not required to monetize engagement—they can focus on authenticity, safety, and depth.

• Reclaim belonging. Build digital spaces where members feel seen, safe, and valued, free from algorithmic manipulation. This could be as robust as a members-only community, smaller-scale synchronous, ephemeral experiences such as interactive webinars, or something else.
• Blend digital and in-person engagement. Use technology to coordinate real-world participation—events, volunteering, advocacy, and learning.
• Measure what matters. Track repeat participation, satisfaction, and community trust instead of impressions or follower counts.
• Use AI to enhance connection, not replace it. Let AI handle logistics like matching users with interests or moderating discussions while staff focus on genuine human interaction.
• If attention was the byproduct of past digital strategies, belonging can be the foundation of the next era. Organizations that design for genuine connection will not only stand apart in an overcrowded digital landscape—they’ll offer something people are increasingly craving: community grounded in meaning rather than metrics.

Choose Your Strategy—and Stay Human

Digital transformation has never been about technology alone. It has always been about aligning organizational purpose with the behaviors that shape people’s digital lives. People go online to get things done, be entertained, and connect with friends and family. Every technology that succeeds does so because it helps people accomplish one of these things more effectively. AI will be no different.

For mission-driven organizations, the opportunity is not to compete with commercial platforms but to clarify where you can create the most value.

• If your strength is helping people complete tasks or gather information, structure and build for clarity, speed, and usability.
• If your strength is fostering connection: design for trust, belonging, and depth.
• If your strength lies in storytelling or inspiration, use attention wisely—tie it back to meaning and community.

As AI reshapes every layer of the digital ecosystem, the most successful organizations will not be those who adopt every tool, but those who understand the human motivations that drive behavior—and use technology to serve them more authentically. Ironically, thriving in the digital era requires something profoundly analog: empathy, clarity, and purpose.