Here are six things every workplace is now being asked to prove, and what we’re already carrying into project conversations.
1. The workplace has to be worth the commute.
The days of the attendance mandate are quietly ending. In their place, a harder question: is the workplace worth travelling for?
The strongest workplaces are designing for how people actually connect, learn and collaborate, not around desks. Workplaces are increasingly being seen as destinations and venues, curated around moments that matter.
2. Workplace briefs are starting to read like hotel briefs
Hospitality has moved from perk to strategy. Shared amenity, informal encounters, food, wellness, client moments are being treated as social infrastructure, not extras.
Experience-led service offerings, food, cultural moments, landlord-subsidised shared spaces, multi-purpose settings that flex between social, client and team use are being recognised as core drivers of culture, connection and retention. Facilities is shifting into workplace experience management, and briefs are starting to reflect that.
3. More data hasn’t meant better workplace decisions
Organisations are collecting more workplace data than ever – utilisation, sensors, booking patterns, sentiment. However, interpretation is where most stall. Utilisation numbers on their own can lead to the wrong decisions. Data needs to be clean, structured and read in the context of business needs, team behaviours and culture. Data should sharpen decisions, not replace them.
4. AI as thought partner
The AI conversation is more than about “doing more with less” – it’s about “what can we do with the same?”. AI is showing up as a thought partner across people, process and new services, not just a productivity tool.
However, the discipline around it matters. Clear inputs, sense-checked outputs and treating AI as something to test and iterate rather than perfect upfront. Used well, it makes room for more human work, not less of it.
5. Leadership over design
Change management came through as the single biggest determinant of project success or failure.
Design alone doesn’t land a project. Leaders have to be brought on the journey early, with engagement supported from both the top down and the ground up. In complex organisations, external change support can help create clarity, momentum and alignment across stakeholder groups.
6. The fitout is only the beginning of the experience
A fitout is a moment. Experience is what happens for the life of the workplace.
The workplaces holding up over time are the ones designed to respond to actual behaviour, not planned use. They also adapt as ways of working shift. That means battery-powered settings over fixed infrastructure, open feedback loops, and lifecycle thinking. It also means taking wellbeing seriously, with burnout, cognitive overload and difficulty switching off being common challenges. Environments need to support recovery, not rely on willpower.
The strongest theme across both days
The workplace is becoming more intentional. Technology, data and AI continue to advance, but the conversation consistently returned to people, behaviour, leadership, wellbeing and creating places that are genuinely used.
What this looks like on a live project
At LinkedIn’s Sunnyvale campus, Buildings 950 and 1000 were renewed to bring people back together after the pandemic. Refreshed dining and café spaces, a wider mix of work settings, and a stronger connection to the outdoors have re-energised two key buildings and given people a reason to be on campus.
Here’s a question worth sitting with
When you last briefed a project, did the ratio of focus space to social space reflect how your teams actually work? Or how they used to?
If you’re mid-brief right now, it might be worth pausing to revaluate your next steps.
We hope you found these insights useful, if you’re planning a project and need some guidance, book a discovery call with Annabel today.
