Staff who repeatedly use synthetic intelligence are spending much less time working alone and extra time studying and socialising with colleagues, suggesting that the unfold of AI may enhance reasonably than diminish the significance of the bodily office. Gensler’s World Office Survey 2026 discovered that 30 per cent of staff repeatedly use AI instruments in each their skilled and private lives, a gaggle the structure and design agency describes as “AI energy customers”. An additional 36 per cent are classed as late adopters who hardly ever or by no means use AI.
Opposite to predictions that AI may make work extra solitary, energy customers spend 37 per cent of their working week working alone, in contrast with 42 per cent amongst late adopters. They spend 12 per cent of their time studying {and professional} improvement, in opposition to 8 per cent for late adopters, whereas the proportion dedicated to socialising rises from 9 to 11 per cent.
The variations lengthen to relationships with colleagues. Some 85 per cent of AI energy customers say they’ve fashioned significant friendships at work, in contrast with 70 per cent of late adopters. They’re additionally extra prone to say they take pleasure in their workforce’s firm, can depend on colleagues and imagine their workforce produces high quality work.
Gensler argues that the findings problem the concept that widespread AI adoption will scale back folks’s dependence on places of work and colleagues. As an alternative, automation of routine work could enhance the relative significance of studying, collaboration and human interplay.
The reference to studying is especially pronounced. Seventy per cent of AI energy customers regard studying {and professional} improvement as extremely essential to their efficiency, in contrast with 44 per cent of late adopters. Throughout the broader workforce, staff who place a excessive worth on studying spend 12 per cent of their working week doing it, in opposition to 7 per cent amongst different staff, and are significantly extra prone to experiment with new methods of working — 60 per cent in contrast with 41 per cent.
The researchers discovered that office traits most intently related to efficient studying embody the appear and feel of the house, noise ranges, the flexibility to rearrange furnishings in assembly rooms, entry to up-to-date expertise and locations the place staff can chill out and recharge.
But the survey additionally identifies extra prosaic shortcomings in present workplaces. Two-thirds of staff make DIY modifications to their workspaces to beat design issues, together with points with ergonomics, temperature, privateness and storage. Greater than 60 per cent resort to taking calls at their desks or in hallways and staircases, or cancelling conferences altogether, as a result of they can not discover appropriate assembly house.
Unassigned seating additionally seems to be out of step with many staff’ preferences. Though 17 per cent of respondents now work with unassigned seating, 59 per cent of that group would like an assigned desk.
Regardless of persevering with debate about hybrid working and return-to-office mandates, the survey means that working patterns themselves have grow to be comparatively steady. Staff spend a median of 55 per cent of their working time within the workplace, unchanged from 2025 and up from 51 per cent in 2024. House working has fallen from 20 per cent in 2024 and 2025 to 18 per cent this 12 months.
What staff need from these places of work can be turning into clearer. Forty-six per cent say they need future workplaces to incorporate facilities supporting bodily and psychological wellbeing, 43 per cent need outside areas and views of nature and 40 per cent need quiet areas for centered work. The identical proportion need areas for coaching, teaching {and professional} improvement.
Productiveness however stays the dominant aspiration: half of respondents need their future office to really feel productive, adopted by skilled at 45 per cent and artistic and galvanizing at 42 per cent every, in line with the chart on web page 9 of the report.
Gensler concludes that AI ought to be understood as a “folks transition” as a lot as a technological one, arguing that organisations will want workplaces designed round studying, adaptability, wellbeing and collaboration as staff modify to the expertise.
The findings are based mostly on a web-based survey of 16,459 full-time, office-based staff in 16 nations performed between July and September 2025. Respondents labored for organisations with no less than 100 staff, besides within the authorized sector the place the brink was 50. Gensler says the country-level samples have a margin of error of plus or minus three share factors.
Picture: Adobe White Collar manufacturing unit, London
