Feature
Businesses are perpetually on the hunt for technology that will boost productivity, enhance employee experience and improve organizational efficiency. Enter the dynamic realm of company intranets, where innovation meets necessity in the quest for seamless communication, collaboration and digital workplace enablement.
Intranets have been around since the mid-nineties and have evolved over the decades to incorporate cutting-edge workplace technology, from social features through to generative AI. Today’s intranets offer an array of tools designed to propel your organization to new heights. Gone are the days of mundane interfaces, clunky systems and static content repositories — today’s intranets are intuitive, personalized and designed to deliver measurable business value.
Let’s take a look at the most important intranet features organizations should prioritize in 2026.
Table of Contents
- 10 Essential Intranet Features for 2026
- 1. An App Launcher
- 2. Generative AI
- 3. Personalization
- 4. Meaningful Integrations
- 5. Employee Directory and People Search
- 6. Cultural Purpose
- 7. Intranet Management Tools
- 8. Single Pane of Glass
- 9. Multi-Channel Communications Support
- 10. Mobile Experience for the Frontline
- The Biggest Emerging Intranet Trends in the Next 5 Years
10 Essential Intranet Features for 2026
“For the best part of 20 years, I've talked about the five fundamental purposes of intranets: content, communication, culture, collaboration, and social and activity,” said James Robertson, owner of Step Two Designs and author of “Essential Intranets” and “Designing Intranets.”
Two of these aspects we can almost take for granted, he said. “Intranets will always be the primary source of information for employees, and will play a key role in delivering internal comms.”
So, he continued, what does that leave in terms of must-have features for modern intranets?
1. An App Launcher
One key feature in intranets is an app launcher, said Robertson — a “set of links to key applications, which can be personalized by each user.”
An app launcher acts as a central gateway for the digital workplace, enabling employees to navigate and launch different software applications, tools or resources they might need to perform tasks and get things done. These links are often displayed prominently on an intranet homepage through icons and are targeted to specific roles or teams — for example, giving sales employees fast access to CRM software.
This feature creates a more user-friendly experience compared to having to remember multiple URLs or search for the applications they need. It also reinforces the intranet as the “front door” to the digital workplace, supporting stronger intranet adoption.
However, many intranets rely on jargon-filled tool names. Clear, plain-language labels are critical for usability and discovery.
Anna Kaley, senior user experience specialist at Nielsen Norman Group, said intranets should also provide supporting information about tool usage.
“Providing context for the tool (what it's used for, when employees might use the tool, VPN requirements, etc.) is also important as new employees won't always know what tools are used for what purpose and when (when we use Slack versus use Teams?)” Kaley said.
2. Generative AI
GenAI is front and center in every area of workplace technology — and employee intranets are no exception, said Dori Gray, director of strategy at Social Edge Consulting.
“Intranet platforms are incorporating AI in numerous ways, from improving search to chatbots that can answer employee questions to content creation and much more. Any intranet worth considering will have AI on its roadmap.”
As generative AI advances, next-generation intranets are incorporating AI to unlock new capabilities, including using the intranet as a place to orchestrate multiple AI agents.
Kaley emphasized the importance of effective search — an area where AI can make a significant impact.
“Many employees in our research often say they expect the intranet's search to work like Google, but it often falls short of meeting that expectation. Teams can use AI to improve search results, with some using natural language processing to understand employees’ search intent before displaying results,” said Kaley.
Frequently Asked Questions About Modern Intranets
Organizations looking to boost intranet adoption and deliver real business value need a strategic, user-focused approach.
Establish a Strategic Foundation
Start with a clear vision that aligns with your company’s goals and solves real employee problems. Engage stakeholders early and implement governance that supports continuous improvement, not just a one-time launch.
Prioritize User Needs
Don’t just broadcast leadership messages — segment your audience, personalize content and streamline access to information and tools. Integrating the intranet with core business systems like HR or workflow platforms can make it indispensable for daily work, driving both adoption and productivity.
Define & Track Metrics
Set clear KPIs such as reduced search times, faster onboarding, higher self-service rates and fewer support tickets. AI-powered analytics can help you spot usage patterns and content gaps. Regular feedback loops and user input are essential to keep your intranet relevant and valuable.
Modern intranets function as centralized digital hubs that support employee engagement and organizational culture through several key mechanisms:
- Communication & Transparency
Intranets centralize company communications, providing employees with providing employees with consistent access to organizational news, resources and updates regardless of their work location. This transparency helps build trust across remote, hybrid and in-office workforces. - Cultural Alignment
A well-designed intranet can reflect an organization's brand and values, serving as a digital representation of company culture. Features that support this alignment include peer recognition systems, achievement celebrations and open communication channels that help employees feel valued and connected to the organization's mission. - Community Building
Modern intranets support community formation through dedicated spaces for social groups, Q&A forums and knowledge sharing. These features aim to create a sense of belonging that can improve morale and retention. - Employee Empowerment
Intranets provide employees with tools and information access that supports job performance. When employees can efficiently locate needed resources, they tend to demonstrate higher engagement and productivity levels.
As generative AI reshapes the digital workplace, many organizations are questioning whether intranets still have a role—or if GenAI can fulfill the same purposes intranets historically served.
Despite recurring predictions of obsolescence, intranets remain a foundational element of the digital workplace for mid-sized and large organizations. In fact, AI makes effective knowledge management more important, not less. Generative AI tools perform best when they can access well-organized, accurate, and governed company information.
However, relevance is not guaranteed. Organizations with poorly managed, outdated, or cluttered intranets risk seeing these platforms become obsolete, according to industry analysis. Sustained relevance requires ongoing investment, strong governance, and integration of emerging technologies.
Intranet platforms that remain relevant in 2025 shared several characteristics:
- A focus on people, process and technology, not technology alone.
- Integration of AI capabilities to enhance the employee experience.
- Regular updates and modern features aligned with employee needs.
- Strong governance frameworks to prevent information sprawl.
3. Personalization
“Personalization is a key feature in improving the employee experience, and intranets are incorporating it more than ever,” said Gray.
Employees can log on and see only the news, content and information relevant to their role, location and team, rather than having to sift through irrelevant content.
“Companies are looking for intranets that can not only personalize and target employees with the right information, but can also broadcast that information to them at the right time,” said Gray.
Personalization often works by leveraging employee profile data from HR systems — such as location, role or division — and ensuring content is delivered to the appropriate audiences. Employees may also be able to subscribe to topics and configure their own intranet experience.
Overall, personalization underpins strong intranet adoption, more effective internal communications and better message targeting.
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4. Meaningful Integrations
According to Robertson, intranets are finally delivering meaningful integrations with core business systems, including HR and service platforms. These integrations have the ability to streamline workflow processes and improve user experience by offering a seamless transition between different applications.
“Whether this is displayed in a ‘card’ interface or presented as a ‘digital assistant,’ the surfacing of personalized tasks is a game-changer for firms and a real value-add for intranets,” Robertson said.
Modern intranet software — including Microsoft SharePoint intranets — often include libraries of pre-built integrations with tools such as ServiceNow, Workday or Slack. These low-code or no-code integrations allow employees to complete simple transactions without having to leave the intranet.
5. Employee Directory and People Search
One of the most popular intranet features is the employee directory and people search functionality, where employees can find and connect with colleagues.
“A recurring top task in our intranet research employees mention initiating from the intranet during their workdays is finding colleague contact information,” said Kaley.
Regardless of remote, hybrid or in-person work, employees still need to easily connect with co-workers, Kaley added. The most sought-after contact information includes:
- Titles
- Email addresses
- Phone numbers
- Supervisors
- Org charts
“Features like employee profiles that include a consistent photo and prioritize the right types of details, as well as being indexed and ranked in search results for relevant keyword searches, help to satisfy this need,” said Kaley.
The employee directory can also support build community by displaying information including mini-bios, areas of expertise and LinkedIn-style details of former work experience. Employees can use this additional information to uncover common interests, locate experts and learn more about their colleagues, beyond their job title.
6. Cultural Purpose
It’s increasingly important for intranets to convey a real passion around the organizational purpose and the role of employees in it, said Robertson.
“Focusing on the culture purpose, intranets can do a lot to foster a stronger culture, whether via tailored branding, engaging content or peer recognition.”
By sharing values, celebrating achievements and facilitating open communication, intranets become a central platform for building and sustaining a positive organizational culture.
A number of different intranet features contribute to this including:
- The ability to brand the intranet with the company brand, or sub-brand.
- News feeds and internal communications messaging that convey company successes and values.
- Peer-to-peer recognition tools for employees to praise their colleagues.
- Commenting, discussion groups and social feeds to reflect the employee voice throughout the intranet.
7. Intranet Management Tools
While front-end features often get the spotlight, intranet management and governance tools are just as important.
“It's never been hard to access intranet content, the real challenge has been to ensure it is up-to-date, useful and accurate,” said Robertson. “Good intranet platforms recognize this challenge and provide tools for intranet teams, site owners and authors, not just end users."
Intranet management tools take on extra importance when a small intranet team serves thousands of employees and supports a distributed community of intranet publishers who lack formal communications or content management training.
The following tools support intranet teams:
- Search optimization.
- Content lifecycle management.
- Analytics and reporting.
- Feedback and survey collection.
- Onboarding and adoption.
8. Single Pane of Glass
Today’s digital workplace include many applications that employees must use daily. In the past, said Gray, intranets tried to be everything to everyone — and it never worked.
“Employees use different tools for different purposes, and one single intranet couldn’t do it all," said Gray.
Fortunately, Gray added, modern intranets function as a “single pane of glass,” bringing together applications, tools and information in one centralized experience.
“This means that employees can view and access the many apps and tools they need to do their jobs directly from the intranet,” said Gray.
Some intranets are going beyond the single pane of glass, aiming to be an “employee experience layer” where employees can perform multiple tasks in a consistent and user-centric way without ever leaving the intranet. Employees no longer have to visit multiple applications which can be jarring, overwhelming and inefficient.
9. Multi-Channel Communications Support
Another change underway in modern intranets is their evolution into broader employee experience platforms (EXPs). These platforms extend beyond traditional content hubs to support the full spectrum of employee engagement, communication and enablement.
One of the most impactful capabilities within EXPs is multi-channel communications support. Leading intranet platforms now include features that help internal communications teams plan, manage and distribute messaging across a wide range of channels, all from a central hub. These channels can include:
- Collaboration and communication tools such as Microsoft Teams
- Social platforms like Slack or Viva Engage
- Mobile intranet apps
- SMS and email
- Digital signage for on-site visibility.
These communication capabilities — highly valued by internal communicators — often include
- Email newsletter builders
- Campaign scheduling tools
- Flexible notification options
- Content calendars
- Digital signage integration and support.
10. Mobile Experience for the Frontline
Most modern intranets are optimized for mobile use, either via responsive browser design or a dedicated mobile app. SharePoint-based intranets can also be accessed through the Teams or SharePoint mobile apps. While mobile usage among desk-based knowledge workers can be modest, mobile access is essential for frontline, field and mobile employees.
The best mobile intranet experiences purpose-built functionality for frontline, field and mobile staff, such as:
- Simple onboarding and authentication options, even for staff without corporate IDs.
- Secure chat tools that eliminate the need for unauthorized apps like WhatsApp.
- Mobile workflow and apps that support frontline business processes, such as shift swapping.
- Essential operational content, optimized for smaller screens.
Editor's Note: This article was updated on Dec. 19, 2025 to reflect new information.
The Biggest Emerging Intranet Trends in the Next 5 Years
AI remains the biggest emerging trend, said Gray.
“Five years ago, people weren’t talking about incorporating AI in intranets, and now every major intranet platform is incorporating AI in some form. Intranet partners are also investing in the growth of AI to supplement what the platforms are offering,” she said.
Gray expects to see major changes in how intranets support the way we work in the next five years. "The digital workplace landscape as a whole will look drastically different, thanks to AI.”
Robertson added that organizations are also gaining a clearer understanding of how employees seek information.
“If you're looking for a specific document, you search,” he said. “If you want an answer, you'll ask a GenAI-based solution. But if you don't even know what to ask for, you'll browse the intranet. What will become increasingly apparent is that all three experiences will draw on the one structured, managed repository of content — the intranet.”
Another fast-advancing area is intranet analytics—tracking content engagement, search performance, adoption, sentiment, and more. AI will amplify these analytics with deeper insights and proactive recommendations, drawing from data both inside and beyond the intranet.
Whatever happens next, one thing is clear: the intranet remains the backbone of the digital workplace.
Editor's Note: What other trends are changing the intranet landscape?
- Looking to Replace Your Intranet With AI? — Generative AI currently can augment, not replace your intranet. Here is what early adopters have learned.
- How to Move Your Intranet From Good to Great — There are plenty of bad intranets and a fair number of good ones. But great ones remain few and far between. Here's what it takes to achieve greatness.
- Having a Single Source of Truth for Internal Communications Helps, But Don't Stop There — If internal communications ever felt like playing a game of telephone in your workplace, you might want to create a single source of truth. Here's why.
- The Only Intranet That Matters — Too much information causes stress. How does this apply to our intranets?
