Technology giants like Amazon, Salesforce, and Dell have called all employees or specific teams back to the office five days a week which has re-ignited conversations about how and where people can best do their work.  Even companies that don’t have a five-day RTO plan see their leadership wanting employees to spend more time together.  

Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, said the company could lead the industry in artificial general intelligence — when machines match or become smarter than humans — if employees worked harder. “I recommend being in the office at least every weekday,” he wrote in a memo that was viewed by The New York Times. He added that “60 hours a week is the sweet spot of productivity” in the message to employees who work on Gemini, Google’s lineup of A.I. models and apps. 

Business leaders like Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, say that in-office work offers a level of energy, collaboration, and speed that is missing when employees work from home. Executives at Dell echoed this in a memo calling all sales staff back to the office full-time, stating: “Our data shows that sales teams are more productive when onsite.” 

Similarly, although leadership at Microsoft and Google have ruled out five-day RTO mandates any time soon, the ‘productivity’ caveat is hard to ignore. 

Other experts have criticized business leaders for suggesting that in-office work is inherently better for productivity than remote or hybrid work. Barbara Matthews, CPO at Remote, told HR Grapevine following Amazon’s RTO announcement: "An increasing number of large corporations are making the mistake of rowing back on flexible work policies, signaling a belief that employees need to be physically present and monitored by managers in order to be productive." 

As leaders, we see firsthand that the workplace is undergoing one of the most significant transformations in decades. Hybrid work isn’t just a trend — it’s the new operating model and the stakes are really high.  

While some companies are doubling down on office mandates, yet still trying to manage it with legacy and disconnected systems, others are realizing that flexibility — when backed by the right tools and insights — can achieve even better outcomes. The real challenge today isn’t just where people work, but how we create the conditions for them to do their best work, whether in the office or remotely. 

The reality is clear: 

• Mandates alone won’t bring employees back. 

• Spaces alone won’t foster collaboration. 

• Amenities alone won’t guarantee engagement. 

The organizations that will thrive are those that rethink workplace experience fundamentally and holistically — to meet new expectations and business needs. 

Photo by Garrett Overheul on Unsplash

Why Traditional Approaches Are Falling Short 

In a hybrid or onsite world, yesterday’s solutions create today’s gaps: 

• Underutilized to Overcrowded Spaces: Offices that once sat empty now face unexpected surges. Some areas remain vacant while others overflow, creating operational chaos and forcing a rapid rethink of workplace management. 

• Disconnected leadership: Leaders lack real-time visibility into how people work, collaborate, and engage. 

• Employee frustration: Without intuitive, seamless experiences, employees feel friction — leading to disengagement, quiet quitting, or attrition. 

At the root of it? A lack of actionable insights. We can’t manage what we can’t see. 

The good news? Organizations don’t have to choose between top-down mandates and unchecked flexibility. A thoughtfully designed hybrid model can deliver the productivity, innovation, and engagement leaders crave — while giving employees the autonomy they expect. But this only works if it’s powered by smarter systems that create meaningful, data-driven workplace experiences — whether onsite or hybrid.

Smarter Systems, Smarter Workplaces 

Today, workplaces are becoming smarter through IoT-enabled elements: 
Doors, elevators, lights, lockers — all increasingly connected. But simply gathering more data isn’t the solution. The real breakthrough comes from interpreting it. 

Photo by Alex Kotliarskyi on Unsplash

Leaders need systems that don't just connect devices — they need to connect people to meaningful experiences, using intelligent insights to: 

• Optimize space based on real usage patterns 

• Personalize the employee journey in real time 

• Anticipate needs instead of reacting to frustrations 

That’s where AI changes the game. 

Moving Beyond Automation: AI as an Experience Driver 

Early AI features in the workplace focused on automating repetitive tasks: 

• Booking a room 

• Sending a reminder 

• Checking in a visitor 

Useful, but incremental. 

The next frontier is AI that actively enhances workplace experience: 

• Suggesting the best days for in-office collaboration based on team presence 

• Offering tailored workspace or well-being recommendations 

• Reducing decision fatigue for employees navigating hybrid schedules 

Imagine an employee journey that’s proactive, personalized, and frictionless — not because of more tools, but because of one intelligent platform connecting every moment. 

The Power of a Unified Employee Experience Platform 

To meet today’s expectations, we need one system, one experience — bridging physical space, digital tools, and human needs seamlessly.

Photo by GRIN on Unsplash

A modern Workplace Experience platform like CXAI does exactly that: 

• Provides unified access to everything from booking a desk to attending an event 

• Surfaces real-time insights about space usage and employee engagement 

• Supports flexible scheduling and hybrid coordination effortlessly 

• Embeds smart safety, security, and wellbeing nudges into everyday workflows 

For leaders worried about productivity and culture, CXAI offers a way to transform hybrid or onsite work into a competitive advantage — combining the best of in-person energy with the best of flexible work. 

In short: it helps organizations design workplaces employees want to be part of — not places they feel forced into. As one of our customer’s CIO told me recently that CXAI is really quintessential to their enterprise roadmap and their employees’ engagement.  

A Strategic Opportunity for Leaders 

Hybrid work is no longer about survival. It’s about strategic advantage. 

Employees increasingly expect autonomy over when and how they work. 
Leaders increasingly need data to optimize real estate, budgets, and programs. 

Whether you’re navigating return-to-office mandates or shaping a hybrid-first strategy, the opportunity is the same: create a smart, empathetic workplace experience that delivers for both people and business. Those who bridge these needs will lead the next era of growth, retention, and innovation.  

Let’s Build the Future of Work Together 

At CXAI, we believe technology should make work more human — not more complicated. 

If you're rethinking how your workplace can better serve your people and your business, we’d love to show you how our platform can help. CXAI Apps provide your employees a seamless, consistent experience across all devices - from wearables and mobile phones to PCs and Kiosks. With CXAI VU, you gain powerful analytics and insights to help predict outcomes and improve decision-making. All of this is powered by our enterprise-grade CXAI BTS rule engine, designed to boost employee productivity and engagement in a secure environment.  

Let’s schedule a walkthrough. See what a truly modern, unified workplace experience looks like — and how it can drive real impact for your organization. And for the leaders and decision makers at the Fortune 1000, CXAI is what you have been asking for. 

Learn more about CXAI at www.cxai.ai.