Many companies rely on Microsoft SharePoint for document management and team collaboration because it integrates well with other Microsoft tools. However, as organizations scale, SharePoint’s limitations become more apparent, and instead of streamlining work, it often ends up creating inefficient workflows and bottlenecks:

• Finding documents takes longer than it should – SharePoint’s search relies on exact keywords, which makes it difficult to locate the relevant files.
• Collaboration becomes fragmented – Teams still rely on emails and meetings to stay aligned because SharePoint lacks real-time knowledge sharing.
• Automating workflows requires too much effort – Setting up processes that should be simple often demands IT involvement.
• Integrating with other business tools is cumbersome – Many companies use a mix of platforms, but SharePoint doesn’t connect information across them.

These are structural issues that cause friction in daily operations. When users say, “SharePoint is not working,” they don’t mean it’s broken. They mean it’s failing to serve its purpose efficiently.

Organizations don’t need another tool that simply stores information. They need a system that makes knowledge instantly usable. That’s exactly what Akooda delivers.

As an AI-powered knowledge management platform, Akooda connects to SharePoint and all of the business tools, making everything searchable in one place. Instead of wasting time hunting for documents or requesting access, employees can simply ask Akooda and get answers instantly.

Akooda addresses SharePoint’s limitations at the root, providing capabilities SharePoint was never designed to handle. And when companies make the switch, the difference is immediate—faster workflows, fewer interruptions, and smarter decision-making.

The question isn’t whether SharePoint has challenges. It’s whether businesses can afford to keep struggling with them when a better solution exists.

Common Problems with SharePoint in Business Environments

SharePoint is widely used for document storage and collaboration, but as businesses scale, its limitations become more apparent. Instead of improving efficiency, it often introduces bottlenecks that slow teams down.

If finding a file takes longer than actually using it, or if your team still relies on emails and meetings to stay aligned despite using SharePoint, the problem isn’t just poor adoption—it’s structural inefficiency. Here’s why:

Document Management Inefficiencies

Keeping files organized and accessible is one of SharePoint’s biggest challenges. Over time, document libraries become cluttered, making retrieval slow and frustrating.

• Ineffective Search & Cluttered Content – SharePoint’s search requires exact keywords and often fails to return the right file. Employees waste time digging through deep folder structures or asking coworkers for links.
• Version Confusion – While SharePoint offers version control, it can get messy. Employees save multiple copies of the same document, leading to uncertainty about which version is current.
• IT Overhead & High Maintenance – Customizing SharePoint to fit business workflows requires ongoing IT support. Admins must configure permissions, metadata, and workflows, which is time-consuming and resource-intensive.

Collaboration and Communication Bottlenecks

Despite being designed for collaboration, SharePoint often makes teamwork more complicated rather than seamless.

• Low User Adoption – Many employees find SharePoint too complex for daily use and instead default to emailing documents or storing them in Google Drive or personal OneDrive folders, fragmenting knowledge.
• Slow Access to Information – If an employee lacks the right permissions, they must request access—waiting for approvals before they can view or edit a file. This disrupts workflows and delays projects.
• Lack of Real-Time Knowledge Sharing – Unlike tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams, SharePoint doesn’t facilitate real-time discussions around documents. Conversations happen elsewhere, making it difficult to track decisions and changes.

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Workflow Automation Limitations

SharePoint offers workflow automation, but in practice, setting up effective processes without IT support is often unrealistic.

• Rigid and Hard-to-Modify Workflows – While Power Automate extends SharePoint’s functionality, complex workflows often require coding or third-party tools, making automation difficult for non-technical users.
• Dependency on Emails & Meetings – Since SharePoint workflows don’t always cover real-world scenarios, employees default to email updates and meetings just to stay aligned—reducing, rather than increasing, efficiency.
• Lack of Process Visibility – Managers struggle to track task progression because SharePoint doesn’t provide built-in insights into bottlenecks or stalled approvals.

Integration and Ecosystem Challenges

Most businesses rely on a mix of tools—Slack, Jira, Google Drive, Salesforce, and others. SharePoint struggles to unify information across different platforms.

• Data Silos Across Multiple Tools – Storing documents in SharePoint while managing projects in Jira and communicating in Slack results in disconnected information. Employees waste time searching across platforms instead of focusing on work.
• Cumbersome Third-Party Integrations – While SharePoint can integrate with other tools, it often requires custom development. Even within the Microsoft ecosystem, getting apps to work seamlessly together isn’t always straightforward.
• Limited Mobile Experience – The SharePoint mobile app lacks full functionality, and its web interface isn’t always mobile-friendly, making remote access unreliable.

The Real Cost of These Challenges

If your team has ever:

❌ Spent more time searching for documents than actually working
❌ Struggled to find files because SharePoint search failed
❌ Sat through unnecessary meetings due to poor workflow automation
❌ Waited days for approval to access a simple document

Then, you’ve already experienced SharePoint’s limitations firsthand.

Employees lose up to 9 hours per week searching for information due to inadequate search tools. That’s wasted time and resources businesses can’t afford.

For many companies, SharePoint starts as a solution but eventually creates more problems than it solves—pushing them to seek AI-powered alternatives that make knowledge instantly accessible.

How Akooda Solves SharePoint’s Limitations

SharePoint may start as a practical solution, but as companies scale, the cracks begin to show. Employees struggle to find the information they need, workflows become rigid, and knowledge remains trapped in silos. 

As an AI-powered enterprise search and operations intelligence platform, Akooda removes these inefficiencies by transforming how businesses access and use knowledge. Instead of forcing employees to navigate complex folder structures or depend on outdated search functions, Akooda delivers immediate, AI-driven answers—no matter where the information is stored.

Advanced Document Search & Knowledge Discovery

One of SharePoint’s biggest struggles is search inefficiency. Akooda makes knowledge instantly accessible across all platforms—not just SharePoint.

❌ SharePoint Problem: Requires exact keywords, leading to frustrating searches.
✅ Akooda Solution: AI-powered search understands natural language, retrieving relevant documents even when filenames don’t match search terms.

❌ SharePoint Problem: Employees waste time searching in multiple platforms.
✅ Akooda Solution: A unified search indexes files across SharePoint, Google Drive, Slack, and more—so employees can search once and find everything.

❌ SharePoint Problem: Information becomes outdated without constant manual updates.
✅ Akooda Solution: Continuous syncing ensures employees always access the latest version of documents.

❌ SharePoint Problem: Time lost digging through folders and requesting links.
✅ Akooda Solution: Businesses report that employees save hours each week by getting instant answers instead of hunting for files.

Seamless Collaboration & Knowledge Sharing

SharePoint was built for team collaboration, but its complexity often leads employees to work around it rather than within it. Akooda removes these barriers, making knowledge easily accessible and shareable.

❌ SharePoint Problem: Knowledge silos prevent cross-team collaboration.
✅ Akooda Solution: Instantly connects information across SharePoint, Slack, Confluence, Google Drive, and more.

❌ SharePoint Problem: Employees rely on email to ask for document locations.
✅ Akooda Solution: Employees can self-serve knowledge instead of emailing colleagues for file locations.

❌ SharePoint Problem: No built-in conversations around documents.
✅ Akooda Solution: Integrated with Slack and Microsoft Teams, allowing employees to retrieve answers instantly within their workflow.

Workflow Automation & Productivity Boosts

SharePoint offers workflow automation, but most organizations still rely on email, meetings, or manual processes because SharePoint workflows are rigid, complex, and require IT expertise. Akooda streamlines knowledge workflows without IT intervention.

❌ SharePoint Problem: Workflows are rigid and difficult to modify.
✅ Akooda Solution: Flexible, AI-driven workflows ensure employees get the right information at the right time.

❌ SharePoint Problem: Lack of transparency in workflows causes bottlenecks.
✅ Akooda Solution: Tracks workflows and identifies process delays so managers can resolve them before they slow things down.

❌ SharePoint Problem: Teams spend too much time in meetings

✅ Akooda Solution: On-demand updates eliminate unnecessary meetings, allowing teams to focus on work instead of status check-ins.

Smart Integrations & Unified Ecosystem

Most businesses don’t rely on Microsoft tools alone. They manage projects in Jira, communicate in Slack, store files in Google Drive, and track customer data in Salesforce. But SharePoint doesn’t connect all these pieces, leaving employees to search multiple platforms just to find what they need.

❌ SharePoint Problem: Data silos force employees to jump between tools to gather information.
✅ Akooda Solution: Brings everything into a single, searchable system—so employees don’t waste time switching between platforms.

❌ SharePoint Problem: Integrating third-party apps requires custom development.
✅ Akooda Solution: Comes with over 50 pre-built integrations for all the most popular workplace tools. They include SharePoint, Google Drive, Slack, Jira, Salesforce, and more, so teams can use it immediately. Akooda even offers customizable APIs to connect with custom industry-specific tools and databases.

❌ SharePoint Problem: IT teams spend time maintaining integrations instead of improving workflows.
✅ Akooda Solution: Automatically syncs information across platforms, reducing IT overhead.

Operational Intelligence & Actionable Insights

Unlike SharePoint, which passively stores files, Akooda actively analyzes how information flows across an organization—helping teams and leadership make better decisions.

❌ SharePoint Problem: No visibility into how teams use and share knowledge.
✅ Akooda Solution: Maps team communication flows to identify knowledge gaps and improve onboarding.

❌ SharePoint Problem: Managers lack insight into project priorities.
✅ Akooda Solution: Tracks attention and effort across projects, helping managers optimize resources.

❌ SharePoint Problem: Employees struggle with information overload.
✅ Akooda Solution: AI-driven content curation surfaces only the most relevant data, cutting through clutter.

Why Businesses Choose Akooda Over SharePoint

Many companies start with SharePoint but outgrow its limitations as their teams scale. If your company has ever:

❌ Spent too much time searching for files instead of working
❌ Relied on emails and meetings just to get basic updates
❌ Struggled with disconnected knowledge across multiple tools
❌ Felt like workflows were making things slower, not faster

Then, it’s time for a better solution.

By breaking down silos, making information instantly accessible, and integrating with the tools teams already use, Akooda eliminates the bottlenecks that slow businesses down—helping teams work smarter, faster, and more efficiently.

Beyond SharePoint: How Akooda Transforms Knowledge Management

While SharePoint serves as a document repository, Akooda takes knowledge management to the next level by integrating AI-powered search, analytics, and real-time collaboration across an entire organization. Not only does Akooda fix SharePoint’s inefficiencies, but it also provides unique capabilities that enhance productivity and decision-making:

✅ AI-Powered Insights & Analytics – Visualizes how teams collaborate, identifies bottlenecks, and ensures no critical project is overlooked.
✅ Cognitive Search with Generative AI – Finds answers in plain language, summarizes key takeaways, and improves search accuracy over time.
✅ Single Source of Truth – Connects SharePoint, Slack, Google Drive, Salesforce, and more into a unified, searchable platform.
✅ Smart Dashboards & APIs – Tracks content trends and integrates search into internal tools, unlike SharePoint’s static storage.
✅ Faster Onboarding & Knowledge Access – New hires can instantly find training materials, policies, and FAQs—no more searching multiple systems.
✅ Lower Learning Curve – Works like a company-wide Google, eliminating the complexity that makes SharePoint difficult for everyday use.

Why Akooda is the Smart Upgrade from SharePoint

Accessing information should be effortless, but too often, employees waste time searching across different platforms, requesting access, or navigating cluttered folder structures. SharePoint was built for storing documents, but today’s teams need more than just storage. They need a system that delivers the right information exactly when they need it.

Akooda makes that possible. Instead of searching tool by tool, employees can ask a question and get an instant answer, whether the information is in SharePoint, Slack, Google Drive, or another platform.

Beyond search, Akooda improves collaboration, automates workflows, and gives leaders real-time insights into how knowledge moves through an organization. Companies that switch to Akooda don’t just make SharePoint more usable—they transform the way information flows, making knowledge an asset instead of an obstacle.

For teams that can’t afford inefficiency, the real choice isn’t about making SharePoint work better. It’s about moving to a system designed for how businesses operate today. Request a demo and see the difference yourself!