There are approximately 7.6 billion people in this world and nearly half of them are connected to the Internet. The possibility of connecting with everyone, everything and everywhere is changing the way we do things. With most business and corporates offering solutions in IoT and AI, there are tremendous opportunities for further growth. Technology coupled with constantly evolving management practices, has changed the functioning of traditional Indian offices too. Nowadays workspaces are not limited to being just a place to work. With every new innovation, they have been transformed to a space where employees can freely collaborate, communicate and connect with each other, thereby, boosting employee morale and in turn increasing the workplace productivity.
Another reason why technological advancements are increasingly becoming more important is that today’s workplace environment has become more competitive and complex than it was before. According to a Deloitte report, a manager is able to save 43 minutes a month if they have access to new and improved workplace tools.
In today’s day and age, where employees value their work-life balance more than ever, they want a workspace that is technologically advanced and interactive while being cool and edgy. Today’s always connected, instant access environment helps in dissolving the distinction between personal and professional life. A study conducted by CBRE has shown that about 70% of millennials would make various trade-offs that will help them in securing a workplace that allows them to maintain work-life balance. This can be easily achieved through collaborative and tech enabled workspaces.
Technological advancements at coworking spaces are enabling the workforce to achieve their full potential, which has now led to a number of large corporates opting for these smart workspaces. To accurately reflect in changing work experience, organizations have begun to implement an entirely new working environment – the digital workplace.
Integrating IoT and Artificial Intelligence at Workspaces
Cloud computing, web conferences, instant messaging and e-diaries have enabled better communication around the world and within the organization. By further leveraging IoT and integrating it with AI, workplaces will now be transformed to smarter, dynamic and interactive offices. It is not far when gadgets such as laptops and smartphones will become redundant and will give way to voice activated assistant, wearable technology, including wearable glasses, embedded chips, and wrist devices, connected with Internet of Things (IoT), ensuring seamless connection between work surfaces and individuals, thereby creating a self-sustaining working environment.
Automating Preferences
Utilizing the ability of these wearable devices to adopt to individual’s preferences will provide insightful data that will further help create workplace solutions that are customized to individual work styles. With time, space infrastructure including lighting, air conditioning and air quality will adjust automatically to the task at hand including the number of users and work setting.
Virtual Reality
With continuous evolution of technology, the future of tech-enabled workspaces is tinged with virtual reality. The definition of workspace has been evolving, from being defined, as ‘physical’ and ‘virtual’, digitization is further transforming the future of work across varied dimensions. Virtual workplace is no more a thing of future as VR technology is already playing a significant role in setting up virtual meetings. Soon enough an individual will be able to put on a VR headset and have access to a virtual mouse, keyboard and unlimited monitors. The use of avatars, 3D visualizations, and resilient telepresence, will be the new online meeting norm, essentially creating a truly collaborative and interactive environment that web and video conferences have been unable to achieve.
Blockchain
An ingenious invention, blockchain has always had industry disrupting capabilities. Right from market giants such as Amazon to publishing houses, blockchain has played a crucial role. In the year 2020, the same is being said for the coworking sector. Blockchain can perform tasks such as agreement management, payments, and procurements with better efficiency and traceability.
Technology is slowly and steadily becoming a compulsion and not an option. For an organization to sustain in this time and age of Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning they need to adapt themselves to the technological advancements and cater to their clienteles needs / workforce requirements. As machines become more advanced and gain new cutting-edge performance capabilities that match or exceed human capabilities, the adoption of automation in this sector will steadily pick up.
This story appeared in the 10 February , 2020 issue of Economic Times and is authored by Amit Ramani, Founder and CE0, Awfis. This article was originally published at : Building better workspaces with technology, IT News, ET CIO (indiatimes.com)