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LITSLINK Study: Software-Breaking Updates Cost Billions While Widely Cited Stats on UX-Related Losses Remain Unproven
- GOOG
- SONO
LITSLINK finds updates that break functionality cost far more than UX changes users dislike; the three most-cited figures on the cost of bad UX lack a verifiable source.
PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Software development company LITSLINK reports that the largest risk for companies is an update that breaks functionality rather than one that prompts user complaints. Researchers examined 12 products: 10, including Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, and Figma, were assessed via regulatory filings and peer-reviewed research; CrowdStrike and Sonos were examined as the costliest failed updates on record. LITSLINK commissioned the research after its own website rebuild showed how little companies know about what a release costs.
In July 2024, a faulty CrowdStrike update sent 8.5 million Windows devices into a boot loop and cost Fortune 500 companies an estimated $5.4 billion. In May 2024, Sonos launched a redesigned app that removed existing features and left older speakers unresponsive; recovery cost the company $20–30 million, about 100 jobs, 8% of annual revenue, and its CEO. Yet even this redesign produced less than 1% of the losses from a single CrowdStrike update.
Companies cannot say what a single update costs them. The nine public companies in LITSLINK’s study reporta combined $115.8 billion in annual research and development expenses, yet none itemizes the cost of updates or redesigns. Much of what that spending produces also goes unused: a Pendo analysis found that 80% of shipped features are rarely or never used.
The cost of lost time due to UX updates depends on where an employee works. If 10,000 employees each spend 30 minutes relearning a tool after an interface change, that time is worth €284,000 in Luxembourg and €60,000 in Bulgaria at Eurostat’s 2025 labor rates.
The three most-quoted figures on the cost of bad UX, including the claim that every dollar invested in UX returns $100, trace to a software vendor’s blog post citing its own audits and to a Forrester attribution that no Forrester publication supports.
“We started research after rebuilding our own website, when almost nothing went according to plan. That experience raised a bigger question: what do companies like Microsoft, Figma, or Zoom actually pay for their setbacks?” — Serhii Antoniuk, CEO at LITSLINK
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