'You'll have to do a little bit of work to remove the obstacles around coming back'
Canadian employees who regularly use artificial intelligence tools spend nearly twice as much time working outside the office as peers who have not adopted the technology, revealing a growing split in what parts of their workforce expect from office space, according to a recent report.
Gensler's Global Workplace Survey 2026 – based on more than 16,400 office workers surveyed across 16 countries between July and September 2025 – classifies 30 percent of respondents as "AI power users" who regularly use AI both at work and personally.
Kevin Katigbak, a principal and strategy director in Gensler's Toronto office, says this group has different workplace expectations than slower adopters.
"There's almost a persona type of AI user that has different expectations in the office. They tend to be more flexible, more mobile," he tells Canadian HR Reporter.
Katigbak says attracting these employees requires more than a traditional layout. "I don't know that you'd be able to [attract them] in the same old, same old environment that's all just cubicles and desks.”
Attracting the tech savvy
Data backs this up: 85 per cent of AI power users feel absorbed in their work, versus 67 per cent of non-adopters, a gap relevant to retention metrics.
Katigbak says the design response should go beyond adding technology for its own sake.
"You are looking to create space that is going to be attractive to super users of AI, to people who are kind of tech savvy," he says.
He notes that the office design, the technology that employers are providing workers, and the type of access that workers have are some of the key factors to consider.
“So it's not necessarily a specific design solution, but it is targeting a population you're trying to get to use the space and make sure that it's interesting to them as well."
Ineffective technology contributes to burnout among workers, one expert previously told Canadian HR Reporter.
Many workers ‘hacking’ workspace
Separately, the report found two-thirds of workers globally have made unauthorized fixes to their workspace, with personalization the most common at 34 per cent, followed by adjustments for temperature, privacy and storage.
Katigbak says this behaviour is a useful signal for HR and facilities teams tracking whether space planning meets real needs. "The biggest observation is that the hacking happens at your desk," he says, citing a plant placed on a desk not for décor but "to put a bit of a physical barrier in between them and other distractions."
Meeting-room shortages compound the issue: 36 per cent say they often use hallways for calls due to a lack of space, and 37 per cent say they often repurpose meeting rooms for solo work, the report found.
Employers must do a better job redesigning the workplace to meet the demands of workers. That’s because incremental improvements are falling short of employee expectations for purposeful, flexible, and human-centred environments, according to a previous report from the Gensler Research Institute.
Making the office a destination
Katigbak says the fix for both the AI-adoption gap and the workspace-hacking trend is the same: treat the office as a place workers choose, not one they must attend.
"The office needs to be a destination," he says. "It needs to be a place that you want to go to rather than that you have to go to."
The report found the top reason Canadian employees come into the office is to focus on their work, followed by socializing, sitting with their team, and accessing technology. Among those citing technology, 58 per cent want a faster network and 57 per cent want on-site IT support, relevant to HR and IT leaders budgeting for return-to-office infrastructure.
Katigbak says it's about closing the gap between current and ideal office attendance is not issuing mandates.
"You'll have to do a little bit of work to remove the obstacles around coming back," he says, adding the goal is a workplace people are drawn toward, not pushed into.
Thousands of federal public servants are now working four days a week in buildings that some departments and unions say lack enough desks, parking and quiet space to accommodate them, according to a report.
