05 Mar WSJ – What Office Life Might Look Like in the Year 2030
Glimpses of the future include working commutes, smarter elevators, robot assistants, flexible floor plans and maybe even productive meetings
By Angus Loten
March 5, 2020 10:04 pm ET
Technology is set to transform the office from a physical workspace into a digital one.
Office buildings, cubicles, meeting rooms—even water-cooler gossip—are being reshaped by virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, machine learning and other emerging software capabilities.
Over the next decade, these tools will turn offices into digitally dominated environments, where people slip on VR goggles and work at virtual desks instead of real ones, delegate complex tasks to software assistants and chat with colleagues around the globe in holographic spaces.
Cisco Systems Inc. Executive Vice President Amy Chang says work is becoming less about where you go and more about what software enables you to do, from wherever you are.
“Collaboration that once exclusively took place across the conference-room table will increasingly take place across time zones, across geographies and across language boundaries,” Ms. Chang says.
View Full ArticleMost meetings will take place between different groups of workers in modular huddle rooms and in multiple locations—including many at their own kitchen table. They will be enabled by smart collaboration software and crystal-clear videoconferencing, allowing co-workers to seamlessly share ideas and brainstorm with colleagues across time zones and language barriers. AI and machine-learning applications will take notes and generate transcripts, scan people’s speech to find action items and automatically update records in workers’ calendars or spreadsheets.
Additional Amy Chang Articles
WSJ by Beth Kowitt, July 18, 2019
Amy leads a discussion with WSJ’s Elena Cherny to discuss how corporate boards can put equality and work culture on the agenda.
WSJ by Angus Loten, April 15, 2019
At Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech in Aspen, Colo., on Wednesday, a panel of experienced board directors tackled the question of how to change the composition of corporate boards and why doing so is critical.
WSJ by Chip Cutter, October 19, 2019
More women leaders say they are creating text-based advisory groups to help them navigate business challenges and get no-fluff advice.