By Lenny Beaudoin, Executive Managing Director, Global Workplace, Design & Occupancy, CBRE
After years of debate about remote work, hybrid schedules, and whether offices even have a future, a different conversation is emerging. When I talk with senior leaders today, the topic nearly always lands in the same place: people.
Not square footage. Not lease terms. People — how to bring them together in meaningful ways and why being together actually matters.
In Washington, D.C., that shift is already visible in how people are moving through the city again. According to REVIVE, CBRE’s proprietary index tracking vibrancy across Greater Washington, activity across the region has climbed to its highest level since the pandemic, increasing 68% between 2023 and 2026. Metro ridership continues to rebound, and street-level activity across downtown corridors is at its strongest point of the post-pandemic era. The signal is clear: people are re-engaging with the city — and, in turn, with each other.
Three forces are behind this shift, and together they’re changing not just how we use office buildings, but what we expect them to do for us.
Belonging is more valuable than we thought
Ask a CEO why they want employees back in the office and you’ll hear words like “culture” and “collaboration.” What they’re really talking about is belonging — that feeling of being part of something bigger than yourself.
This feeling turns out to matter enormously. Research shows that employees who have a close friend at work are seven times more likely to be fully engaged in their jobs. Teams with that sense of connection significantly outperform those without it. According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report, disengagement, by contrast, is estimated to cost the global economy nearly $9 trillion a year in lost productivity.
The best leaders I’ve worked with aren’t pushing people back into offices because they distrust them. They genuinely believe that relationships, mentorship, and a shared sense of purpose are built together, through face-to-face experiences — and that their organizations are weaker without them.
AI is changing what offices are actually for
Here’s something that might seem counterintuitive: artificial intelligence may be making the physical office more important, not less.
As AI takes over routine tasks — processing data, drafting documents, scheduling — what remains for humans is the work that’s harder to automate: creative thinking, judgment calls, mentoring someone through a difficult problem, building trust. These things don’t happen in isolation. They happen in conversation, in hallways, and over lunch.
There’s early evidence too that well-designed AI tools may actively nudge people toward more and better human interaction — helping us be more present with each other, not less.
The office isn’t competing with technology. In many ways, technology is clarifying why the office exists.
The buildings themselves are catching up
The data tells a striking story. Global office utilization jumped from 38% in 2024 to 53% in 2025 — a dramatic increase in a single year. At peak times, many offices are now hitting 80% capacity, surpassing what most organizations had planned for. These trends suggest office utilization has largely returned to pre-pandemic norms.
But it’s not just that more people are showing up. It’s how space is intentionally being used. Across the industry, we’re seeing individual workstations give way to spaces thoughtfully designed for collaboration, social connection, and shared experience.
The amenities that once seemed like perks — good food, flexible seating, places to gather informally — are now recognized as essential ingredients of a healthy workplace culture.
The best new office buildings understand something important: their competitive advantage over the home isn’t the desk. It’s the people, the unexpected conversations, and the sense of community that only physical proximity can reliably create.
What this means for the buildings we design and inhabit
The office of the future isn’t a return to what existed before the pandemic. It’s something more intentional — built around the recognition that human connection has real, measurable value.
As technology absorbs more of the transactional work, the things that only happen when people share a room — trust, creativity, mentorship, belonging — will become even more central to organizational life. The buildings that make space for those moments aren’t just well-designed. They’re performing an essential social function.
That’s a reminder worth taking seriously — especially for anyone who cares about the people buildings are ultimately meant to serve.
Special thanks to Lenny Beaudoin, Executive Managing Director, Global Workplace, Design & Occupancy, CBRE, for guest writing this blog post. Additional thanks to Kyle Schoppmann, President, CBRE Mid-Atlantic; Anna Marissa Fetz, Vice President, Field Marketing, CBRE; Lindsey Flowers, Integrated Marketing Senior Manager, North Region, Advisory Services, CBRE; Sarah Schmidt, Communications Manager, Corporate Communications, CBRE for their collaboration. CBRE is a Future Cities Programming Partner.