The office is full again. But is it working? What our 2026 AI survey reveals

As return-to-office mandates fade from the headlines, many organization leaders assume that they have tackled the biggest hurdle. However, the results of our 2026 AI & Digitalization in Facilities Management Survey tell a slightly different story.

The survey results, which analyzed responses from business leaders and facility managers from organizations with at least 200 employees, reveal strong in-office numbers, but a persistent blind spot in workplace data, particularly space utilization.

Many organizations are turning to technology such as workplace sensors and AI to help them make smarter decisions and better investments. Below are five key findings from our research.

Finding #1: Workplace attendance has stabilized

More than six years after COVID left bustling offices suddenly empty, employee attendance patterns have stabilized.

• 67% of employees now work in the office five days per week, up from 57% in 2025 and 48% in 2024
• 95% of employees are now in the office at least three days each week, compared to 89% in 2025 and 78% in 2024

After a headline-grabbing return-to-office push in 2025, few organizations today appear to be planning significant changes to their workplace attendance policies.

• Only 8% of business leaders said they want employees in the office more often, while 9% said they would prefer employees spend less time onsite

This renewed predictability in workplace attendance is giving organizations a stronger foundation for making decisions about space utilization, technology investment and real estate portfolio strategy.

Finding #2: Organizations still lack the workplace data needed to make confident workplace decisions

Now that the dust around work arrangements has largely settled, many organizations are turning their attention away from workplace attendance and toward workplace performance. But optimization requires visibility — and on that front, real estate and facilities teams still have work to do.

• When asked to highlight the biggest challenge in managing their workplaces, the most popular answer among business leader respondents is gaining reliable insights into workplace performance

When asked to pinpoint which aspect of workplace usage takes up most of their time, manually tracking and reporting utilization was the top response – both this year and last.

• Utilization is the second most popular response to the question “what would you like more visibility into?,” after cost
• Manually tracking and reporting utilization also consistently ranks as one of the functions that leaders would most like to hand over to an automated system

That reliance on manual tracking helps explain why so many organizations struggle to answer a deceptively simple question: Is my workplace actually working? Getting a real answer — and acting on it — requires better tools.

Finding #3: Digital solutions have become the mechanism for achieving that visibility

With reliable data still out of reach for many organizations, technology investment is increasingly focused on closing that gap, delivering real-time insights and enabling advanced analytics and automation.

• Among respondents who are using a workplace management solution, use of space management and planning technology has risen steadily – from 54% in 2024 to 70% last year, to 75% in 2026
• Use of workplace analytics tools has grown from 46% in 2024 to 67% this year

That growth in adoption shows no signs of slowing.

• 56% of respondents who plan to deploy a workplace management solution in the next year will be rolling out space management and planning tools – up from 40% in 2024
• Planned adoption of workplace analytics has risen from 37% in 2024 to 52% this year

Maximizing the value of these tools requires reliable and accurate real-time data, so it's not surprising that adoption of workplace sensors has also risen.

• Among the 67% of business leader respondents who are currently using a workplace management solution, 45% are using environmental and occupancy sensors – up from 30% in 2024
• 45% of business leaders who are planning to implement a workplace management solution in the next year are rolling out workplace sensors – up from 35% last year and 33% in 2024

As organizations collect more operational data, AI is becoming an increasingly important tool for turning that information into actionable insights.

• 65% of business leaders said they are already using AI to improve the operation, utilization and maintenance of their workplaces
• 65% plan to adopt AI or expand its use over the next year

This is empowering organizations to make better-informed decisions – not just about how they manage the space they have, but whether they really need more of it.

Finding #4: Organizations are optimizing workplaces rather than expanding them

Armed with better visibility, more organizations are choosing to optimize their existing space rather than expand their real estate footprint.

• Changing existing space to better align with employee needs is cited by 36% of leader respondents as their top workplace priority over the next year, by far the top response and up from 22% last year
• Meanwhile, the share of respondents who are looking to expand their real estate footprint has dropped to 23% this year from 33% in 2025

This year’s findings mark a notable shift in workplace strategy; our survey suggests cost considerations may be influencing those decisions.

• When asked what aspect of their workplace they'd like more visibility into, cost was the top response – selected by nearly a quarter (24.5%) of respondents
• Among respondents who are planning to relocate, reducing overhead costs was by far the biggest driver behind that decision – as it was last year

As organizations focus on getting more value from their existing workplaces, understanding how those spaces are being used becomes increasingly important. Stakeholders may be convinced they need more meeting space, for example, but without reliable utilization data it’s impossible to know whether that perception matches reality.

Finding #5: Efforts to optimize existing workplaces focus on supporting collaboration

While a lot has changed over the past few years, one thing certainly hasn’t: Organizations see facilitating collaborative work and team meetings as the primary benefit of maintaining workplaces. It stands to reason that efforts to optimize the workplace focus primarily on increasing meeting and collaboration space.

• Among respondents who say their current office isn’t well-suited to its primary function, 51% cite not enough meeting space as the reason – up from 44% last year
• 32% of respondents who are planning to improve their current workplace in the next year cite adding collaborative and meeting space as their top priority in those improvements

These findings underscore an important point: now more than ever, optimizing your workforce requires optimizing your workplace. That means designing your office around how employees actually work and interact with it — based on data and insights, not assumptions and guesswork.

What does this mean for the future of workplaces?

Return-to-office initiatives have largely succeeded in getting employees back to the office. What remains to be seen is how well organizations can make the most of having them there.

That's the throughline across this year's findings: As attendance patterns settle into a predictable rhythm, organizations are shifting their attention – and technology investments – toward enhancing visibility. They want to understand how their space is being used, and they're turning to sensors, analytics and AI to make that happen.

That shift in mindset is also reshaping real estate strategy. Rather than expanding their footprints, organizations are prioritizing getting more value out of the space they already have. Much of that effort is focused on creating workplaces that better support meetings and collaboration, an area where actionable insights can have an immediate impact on the value a workplace represents for the organization.

For real estate and facilities teams, the combination of more reliable data and AI-driven tools to leverage it is enabling a shift from intuition to intelligence when it comes to driving the next evolution of the workplace.

FAQs

What are the biggest workplace priorities for organizations today?

Organizations are increasingly focused on optimizing the workplaces they already have rather than expanding their real estate footprints. Priorities include improving space utilization, supporting collaboration, controlling operating costs and using AI and digital technologies to make more informed workplace decisions.

How can workplace analytics improve space utilization?

Workplace analytics provide insights into how employees actually use offices, meeting rooms and collaboration spaces. By analyzing occupancy and utilization data, organizations can identify underused space, improve workplace layouts and make more informed decisions about future workplace investments.

Why are organizations investing in workplace sensors?

Environmental and occupancy sensors provide the real-time data needed to understand how workplaces are performing. Combined with workplace analytics and AI, this data helps organizations optimize space, improve the employee experience and support better decision making.

How are organizations using AI in facilities management and workplace operations?

Organizations are increasingly using AI to improve workplace operations by analyzing occupancy patterns, automating routine processes and generating insights that help facilities teams make faster, more informed decisions. With better workplace analytics, these organizations can uncover details to help optimize space utilization and inform maintenance scheduling. 

Why is workplace data important for real estate planning?

Reliable workplace data helps organizations move beyond assumptions when making real estate decisions. By understanding how employees use existing space, organizations can determine whether to reconfigure current workplaces, relocate or expand. This helps maximize the value of their real estate investments.