What once took months can now be done in a matter of days. An entrepreneur can use AI to research a market, develop a business idea, structure a plan and create the first drafts of a website, proposals and agreements.
At the same time, much of the work can be done from the kitchen table, a train or a holiday home with a good internet connection. This raises an obvious question: if work can be done almost anywhere, what do we actually need the office for?
My short answer is that we still need it – but not necessarily for the same reasons as before.
AI changes more than where we work
The office debate is often reduced to a question of attendance: how many days should employees come in? In my view, that is too narrow.
The more important question is how work should be organised when technology can take over or accelerate a growing share of individual tasks. As analysis, information searches and first drafts become easier, value shifts towards judgement, prioritisation, coordination and relationships.
The office is no longer primarily a place with desks. It is part of the company’s social and managerial infrastructure.
Start with the work – not an office policy
There is no single right model for every business. A creative team, a consultancy and an independent specialist have different needs. The decision should therefore begin with the work, not with a general rule about working from home.
Three questions provide a useful starting point:
- Which tasks require peace and concentration? They may be best handled at home, in a quiet office or at times with few interruptions.
- Which tasks improve when people are together? These may include developing ideas, making difficult decisions, onboarding, learning and coordination.
- What will make people feel part of the same company? A sense of belonging rarely emerges from scheduled video meetings alone.
Only when the answers are clear does it make sense to decide how often and why people should meet in person.
The office’s new functions
As routine tasks are increasingly supported by AI, the office can take on a more specialised role. It can be a place for:
- focused work without the practical distractions of home
- quick clarifications that would otherwise become long message threads
- informal learning between experienced and new colleagues
- conversations where trust and nuance matter more than efficiency
- shared direction, identity and belonging
- a clear boundary between work and private life
This also means that an office should be judged on more than the number of workstations. A space can be inexpensive per square metre yet costly if it does not support the work and meetings the company needs.
Hybrid work is a management responsibility
Flexibility does not work by itself. When some people work from home, others in the office and more alongside AI tools, clear expectations become more important.
Who makes decisions? Where is knowledge stored? When are quick answers expected, and when may people work without interruption? Which meetings require physical attendance? How do we notice when a new employee is not becoming properly integrated?
If these questions are unclear, flexibility can easily become fragmentation. The problem is then neither working from home nor the office, but a lack of deliberate collaboration design.
Run an experiment instead of declaring a truth
Companies do not need to find the perfect model on the first attempt. A more practical approach is to test a way of working for four to six weeks and evaluate it.
For example, monitor:
- whether decisions are made faster or more slowly
- whether employees have enough uninterrupted time for concentrated work
- whether knowledge is shared across the team
- whether new employees and partners are properly integrated
- whether customers experience better or worse availability
This provides a better foundation than gut feelings and general debates about whether the office is good or bad.
The question is not whether the office will disappear
AI can make us more productive and less tied to one particular place. But the more individual work technology can help us with, the more important the human functions may become: understanding one another, challenging an idea, building trust and developing a shared direction.
The more interesting question is therefore not whether we still need an office. It is what the office should make possible that does not happen as well elsewhere.
For some companies, the answer will be fewer square metres. For others, it will be better meeting places, more flexible settings or a stronger professional environment. The right solution emerges only when the business considers its work, people and customers as a whole.
Do you need an office – or a better way of working?
Waltham helps owners and leaders explore opportunities, structure decisions and turn them into practical experiments. If AI and new working patterns are prompting you to reconsider your organisation, a focused advisory session can be a useful place to begin.