Next year the World Wide Web will be celebrating the Big 3-0, yes, the internet will be 30 years old.  It’s almost impossible to imagine our working lives without the internet, email or the ability to work with people across the globe as if they are sitting in the same office.

In 1989 who could have imagined a device that was small enough to fit in your pocket and could be used to access messages from colleagues, share and edit documents with teams around the world and send and receive a wealth of information on all topics?

It is unlikely something with a similar seismic impact like the internet will arrive soon, but what technological innovations are set to drive the next 25 years of workplace evolution?

 

Our colleagues at Ricoh Europe recently surveyed employees from a range of industries – including financial services, healthcare, education and the public sector – and discovered how they expect their workplaces to change. Will they be dominated by highly-sophisticated technologies that will drastically change the way they work?

78% of employees predict that by 2036 their workplace will be transformed by technology and processes that don’t even exist today.
The study highlighted some interesting predictions from employees, with the majority anticipating the arrival of a tech-evolved workplace that will make use of innovations such as augmented reality, desk-based robots and drones.

59% of employees predict that holograms will feature in their workplace in the next 20 years.
Of course, it is difficult to predict with certainty how companies will embrace such technologies, yet, considering the number of emerging innovations it’s reasonable to suggest that these three tech advances will transform the way businesses operate.

Robots and Artificial Intelligence

Cognitive machines that can pass the Turing Test and exhibit intelligent human behaviour have been broached as a first step towards commercial applications for Artificial Intelligence (AI). We know from research results from employees that there is a real desire to reduce the amount of repetitive tasks and automate administrative tasks. Could such technology be paired with robots to perform time-consuming tasks or augment human knowledge?

I can imagine a day when a virtual doctor’s assistant makes a diagnosis and offers treatment recommendations based on what it has learned from medical books, observing how doctors apply their knowledge and accessing information from an extensive repository of information.

With the pace in the development of robotics, there’s also a very real chance we will be greeted by a robot as we arrive into a workplace. The phone, email and meeting systems will be seamlessly connected so the robot can handle the entire meeting and greeting process.

As the technology evolves towards true AI, where cognitive computing is developed that can talk, learn and interact in a truly human way, potential applications within the workplace can only increase.

Wearable technology

The era of smart accessories is underway, where mobile phones and tablets will be replaced by wearable technology. In 2017, Fitbit announced that its active users grew to more than 25 million1 in 2017, while data from Canalys reports that Apple Watch sales grew 54% in 2017 compared to 20162.

Internet analyst Mary Meeker also estimates that as many as two-thirds of mobile uses could be taken over by wearable devices, including common workplace activities such as the sending of emails and web browsing.

 

Implantable devices

Looking further ahead, wearable technology could one day be replaced by implantable devices. In Sweden some workers are already volunteering to have a chip the size of a grain of rice implanted in their bodies to help them unlock doors, open lockers and operate printers. Since the middle of 2017, a Swedish rail company has been offering a biometric chip implanted into travelers’ hands instead of a paper train ticket.

I’m not sure how I feel about having something inside my body, but what surprises me is how quickly this technology is being introduced. You can imagine how easy this could make your day-to-day life in the future if it extends to banking, shopping and the airline check in process.

Holograms

Star Wars anticipated the use of holographic messages as early as the 1970s, but the technology is now tantalizingly close to reality. Back in 2013, Brent Council in the UK invested £12,000 in Shanice, a virtual assistant that ‘sits’ behind a Civic Hall desk. While not a true hologram as it is projected onto a screen, it demonstrates how the workplace could benefit from holographic receptionists and assistants.

When combined with the more advanced interactive surfaces that are currently in development, augmented reality could take this technology to a more sophisticated level. It could potentially project 3D, interactive representations of colleagues from a workstation and make you feel like you’re in the same physical space. Employees would then be able to remotely attend meetings, run through presentations and have ‘face-to-face’ calls with stakeholders, without ever leaving their seat.

Evolution of the office

The creation of an office that feels like home or a recreational space – as pioneered by tech-savvy startups – is becoming an increasingly popular concept. Organizations are building workplaces that employees want to spend more time in, where leisure activities are encouraged in a bid to increase productivity. However, as mobile networking and information sharing become even more sophisticated, the idea of working together may transition from physical to digital interaction. Time-intensive tasks could be carried out by virtual colleagues and with the right technological environment, employees will be equipped to work in whatever way is best for them – at any time and on any device.

Ultimately, the workplace of the future might end up not being an office at all. Many millennial workers have already instigated a shift towards more flexible, mobile working habits, leading to a predicted reduction in office space.

The next generation – Generation Z – are the most digitally-connected of all of us. It was like they were born knowing how to work a mobile phone and are so switched on when it comes to digital technology. It will be the responsibility of organizations to provide the workplace that encourages them to thrive and succeed.

A workplace revolution is here – are you ready for workplace transformation?

Learn more about how Ricoh can help you empower your digital workplace by designing meeting spaces for flexibility, convenience, comfort and productive work.  For more than 80 years, Ricoh has helped companies of every size to not just imagine change but realize it as well.

1 https://investor.fitbit.com/press/press-releases/press-release-details/2018/Fitbit-Community-Grows-to-More-Than-25-Million-Active-Users-in-2017/default.aspx 

2  https://www.canalys.com/newsroom/18-million-apple-watches-ship-2017-54-2016