Hybrid work, the spread of artificial intelligence and growing cost pressures are fundamentally changing how companies think about office space. The old method of calculating required area strictly by headcount no longer provides an adequate basis for planning; organisations must now understand what functions the office serves and why employees should come in.
On the Portfolio Business podcast, Major Krisztina, head of office transactions at iO Partners, and Agócs Balázs, head of Workplace Services CEE & SEE at iO Partners, discussed how the office has become simultaneously a business decision, a tool for culture-building and a source of competitive advantage. The experts argued that the pre-Covid logic — sizing space solely by employee numbers — is no longer sufficient.
Under hybrid arrangements it is far more important to identify the specific functions an office must fulfil: collaboration, focused individual work, mentoring, knowledge transfer, community experience or client meetings. Each of these needs different spatial layouts and services, so leasing decisions must move beyond square-metre arithmetic.
The speakers noted that companies now face a dual expectation: to achieve smaller, more flexible and cost-efficient workplaces while also providing higher-quality, more attractive environments. Resolving this tension requires more than intuition or past leasing habits; it calls for data, organisational analysis and an explicit workplace strategy.
iO Partners’ iO4Workplace tool was presented as an aid in this process. As a data-driven decision-support platform, iO4Workplace helps organisations evaluate the financial, cultural and operational implications of different scenarios early on in lease renewal or relocation planning.
The rise of artificial intelligence does not necessarily reduce the importance of a physical office. While repetitive or administrative tasks can be increasingly automated, areas such as creative collaboration, learning, mentoring and spontaneous human interaction remain ones where in-person presence can be particularly valuable.
In the coming years, workplace planning is likely to become increasingly data-driven and a continuous strategic function, much like financial, HR or IT planning. Thus the central question becomes not whether to have an office, but what kind of office best supports a company’s future operations.
The article and the accompanying video were supported by iO Partners.
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Tags: real estate city, real estate office, office market, artificial intelligence, office area, office, Portfolio Business, podcast, hybrid work, iO Partners
