Future tense or future perfect?

This data was to be inputted and indexed through the integrated use of head-mounted cameras, microphones and typewriters, devices that could all be used or accessed from a single desk – the forerunner of today’s workstation. Bush even predicted hyperlinks and voice recognition software. In one form or another much of his original vision has come to pass – and has even surpassed it in scale and function, as microfilm has made way to digital memory and head-cameras to VR headsets. But the sheer amount of data now available to us goes way beyond this conception, as does the computing power and the range of systems at our disposal: big data, AI, AR, IoT, RFID, cloud computing, machine learning and robotisation – these are all integral to the evolution of the smart office. What Bush could maybe not envision was how the development of the internet and mobile systems would actually untether office workers from their desks, enabling work to be done remotely and more flexibly. Mobile tech also has a myriad of other uses, such as replacing traditional forms of access to offices and buildings, assisting navigation around them and the geo-location of employees, among many others. All of this is very much on the minds of the office developers, tech suppliers, designers and investors who have been surveyed and interviewed for this supplement, as they strive to create the office of the future for employees today. And as the technology races forward, office formats themselves are being forced to adapt – into such forms as co-working, green offices and office-hotel complexes – bringing with them a whole set of fresh challenges, which are also put under the microscope in this publication.

But from speaking to office market players what comes across quite clearly is that the technological revolution is entering a new phase: Proptech 4.0. This involves a paradigm shift away from simply rushing to install all the latest systems and towards the end-users of the space themselves: the office workers. In a time when staff are hard to come by (particularly in Poland), being left behind in the march towards the office of the future is quite simply no longer an option for office developers or tenants.