As routine tasks become automated, offices have an opportunity to become places where people learn from each other, test new ways of working and build the skills needed to use AI effectively.
Learning Becomes Part of the Workplace
The growth of AI is changing jobs quickly enough that conventional training cannot always keep pace. Much of the learning employees need happens informally, through colleagues rather than courses. A quick question, watching how somebody tackles a task or sharing a useful discovery can all help employees develop new skills as part of the working day.
This matters particularly for employees who make extensive use of AI. Gensler’s Global Workplace Survey 2026 found that 70% of AI power users consider learning highly critical to their job performance. Employees who put a high value on learning are also more likely to experiment with new ways of working and learn from the people around them.
A Different Reason to Come to the Office
The findings add another dimension to the debate over office attendance. Video meetings can connect dispersed teams, but they do not always reproduce the small, unplanned encounters that occur when people share a workplace. The office can provide the everyday contact that helps knowledge move between people, Gensler claims.
For facilities and property managers, this suggests that the value of an office may increasingly depend on the interactions it enables, rather than simply the number of desks it provides.
What About The Design?
Gensler’s research links effective learning environments with factors including controlled noise, flexible meeting areas, good technology, attractive surroundings and easy access to both quiet concentration space and areas where people can relax.
That gives facilities teams a practical reason to look again at how space is planned and managed. A workplace designed mainly around individual workstations may not provide the range of settings employees now need.
Connection Needs Space
The same argument applies to collaboration. Employees need places to exchange knowledge without every interaction becoming a scheduled meeting. Communal areas can support informal conversations, while smaller spaces can be used for mentoring, coaching and one-to-one discussions.
Technology remains part of the equation. Employees need reliable digital tools and workplaces capable of supporting AI-enabled work, but technology alone does not create the relationships through which people share experience, judgement and practical knowledge.
A New Brief for Facilities Managers
For facilities and property managers, the shift raises a useful question: what is the building there to achieve? Occupancy and space efficiency will remain relevant, but workplace performance may increasingly be judged by whether the environment helps people learn, connect and adapt.
AI may reduce the time employees spend on some tasks, but that does not necessarily reduce the need for workplaces. It may instead give the office a clearer purpose: bringing people together to learn what machines cannot teach them on their own.