Building the future-ready workplace

Workplace technology starts before opening day

Deloitte’s three-part series on hybrid workplace design explored how physical spaces can become a competitive advantage and help organizations earn the commute. Achieving that outcome also depends on making workplace and smart building technology decisions early, while infrastructure, systems and data pathways can still be planned together.

By the time employees and visitors enter a new or upgraded space, many consequential corporate real estate technology decisions are already locked in: network rooms, conduit, power distribution, sensor locations, access-control points and data pathways. Together, these elements form the foundation for workplace and smart building technology—the connected systems that help buildings respond to how people interact with their physical workspaces.

While software can evolve, physical infrastructure is much harder, more disruptive and more costly to change once construction is complete. Retrofitting cabling, expanding power capacity, relocating sensors or reworking access-control systems can introduce disruption and expense. Technology should therefore be planned during design and construction—not added after the building is complete.

That sequencing is especially timely: Deloitte’s 2027 Commercial Real Estate Outlook found that nearly 80% of CRE leaders expect to upgrade or reposition existing assets over the next 12-18 months.¹ For those projects, workplace and smart building technology are no longer back-of-house considerations—they are central to a building’s cost, flexibility and utility, and to whether the investment pays off over the long term. They can also help create workplaces that earn the commute: those designed with infrastructure and technology together, built with capacity for future needs, and supported by space, occupancy and systems data that feed a trusted view. CRE, IT, design, HR, finance and brand leaders all have a role in that outcome.

The urgency is growing—but readiness remains uneven. The outlook also found that more than 90% of executives plan to increase spending on data and technology in the next year, up from 76% the prior year. Yet only 8% have integrated AI solutions, while 92% remain in the research or piloting phase. These investments make the physical and digital foundations planned today increasingly consequential.¹

Identify the “one-way doors”

Not every workplace technology decision has the same cost to reverse. Software platforms, user interfaces and workflows can change as needs evolve. The “one-way doors” are the physical choices that can become costly (and sometimes impractical) to revisit after construction. These choices may shape cost and flexibility across a 20-30-year planning horizon and can include:

• Structured cabling, network pathways and spare conduit capacity
• Power density, Power over Ethernet (PoE) budgets, dedicated circuits and backup power
• Telecom and data-room sizing, location, cooling and access
• Wireless coverage, in-building cellular and potential beacon infrastructure
• Rough-ins for sensors, digital signage, kiosks and AV
• Building management system (BMS) integration points
• Access control, turnstiles, elevators and mobile credential infrastructure
• Parking, EV charging capacity and garage-access systems

For a closer look, consider a conference room. In a smart office, a seamless meeting may include room scheduling, digital signage, standardized AV, occupancy sensing and one-touch meeting startup. The experience is delivered through software, but it relies on power, connectivity, mounting locations, network capacity and integration points planned much earlier.

The same applies throughout a visitor journey from the garage to the lobby, tenant floor to meeting room. A smooth journey requires coordination across landlord and tenant access systems, credentials, elevators, visitor management and identity data.
 

Design backward from the experience

The strongest workplace and smart building technology solutions begin with the people who will use them. Map the employee and visitor journey first, then work backward through three connected layers.

• Experiential: Employee- and visitor-facing interfaces such as workplace apps, smart lockers, visitor kiosks, room reservations, digital signage, collaboration tools and other amenities
• Enabling: Platforms and systems—including workplace platforms, building management systems, sensors and dashboards—that provide the capabilities behind those experiences
• Foundational: The physical and operational elements at the core of real estate, including core infrastructure, power and electrical capacity, foundational data and security
  

Designing backward means starting with the desired experience, identifying the enabling capabilities required to support it, and then making foundational decisions that allows those capabilities to work reliably. Each layer depends on the one below it: a room reservation, visitor kiosk or workplace app requires enabling systems to access consistent data and foundational infrastructure to support connectivity, power and security.

Trusted data is the connective tissue. Consistent space, asset management, identity, reservation, occupancy and building-performance data can help systems coordinate reliably. No single system owns the entire experience.  Digital workplace solutions like ServiceNow Workplace Service Delivery can help organizations connect workplace service requests, employee services, facilities operations and workflows across the journey—but the foundation must be designed into the building.

Get the foundation right before the AI

Before schematics are finalized, project teams should align on technology standards for connectivity, power, wireless coverage, sensors, AV, physical security, building management system (BMS) integration, network segmentation and accurate building information modeling (BIM) and space data. 

Where applicable, teams should also define the building automation system (BAS) interfaces needed to share operational data across building and workplace systems. Landlord and tenant responsibilities should be established early, particularly where credentials, visitor flows, shared amenities and building systems cross organizational boundaries. A useful sequence to follow includes: 

• Now: Establish the infrastructure, data, governance and operating foundations
• Next: Deliver connected workplace experiences and coordinated services
• Future: Apply AI and predictive capabilities to optimize operations and anticipate needs

That progression works best when the three stages are planned as one program rather than three separate initiatives. A digital workplace platform, such as ServiceNow Workplace Service Delivery, can help connect foundational data, coordinated workflows and the employee-facing experience, and it gives AI and predictive capabilities a common data layer to build on. Whatever platform an organization chooses, the architecture should be decided early enough that the building's infrastructure is designed to feed it. That is what lets an organization move through Now, Next, and Future as one continuous effort instead of three separate projects. 

Deloitte’s 2027 Commercial Real Estate Outlook underscores why these foundations matter: while 72% of respondents say they have completed preliminary data mapping and source verification for their AI systems, fewer than half have implemented more advanced processes and security controls, reinforcing the importance of establishing reliable data, clear governance and coordinated operating responsibilities before scaling connected workplace capabilities.¹

The organizations best positioned to respond will be those that treat CRE, IT, design, HR, finance, and brand as co-owners of the technology strategy—not as teams working sequentially.

Purpose gives a workplace direction. Infrastructure gives it the ability to deliver.

¹Deloitte, 2027 Commercial Real Estate Outlook, 2026.