How AI agents are changing office layouts

AI agents are no longer a promise: according to Microsoft's labor trends index, the number of active agents in companies increased fifteen-fold in one year (2026), and 8 out of 10 leaders expect to have them integrated into their operation. When some of the individual work is done by an agent, the question is no longer how many desks can fit on the floor. It's another: why do people come to the office.

The answer is being seen in the square meters. Individual space went from 56% of the office in 2021 to 35% in 2025, according to the CBRE global study, while meeting space more than doubled in the same period. The office is reorganized around what AI cannot do: converse, decide, learn and belong.

In Chile that movement intersects with something of its own. The working day dropped to 42 hours in April 2026 and is still on its way to 40 in 2028, while office vacancy in Santiago hit its lowest level in five years. Fewer hours and more people returning to the office means only one thing: each face-to-face hour has to be worth more.

What changes when work is shared with AI agents?

The individual screen work, writing, organizing data, preparing a first draft, is just what agents are absorbing. Microsoft measured in 2026 that 58% of those who use AI produce work that they would not have been able to do a year before, and that the most valued skills became judiciously reviewing what AI delivers and thinking critically about it.

That changes the meaning of the desktop. If the agent does the draft from anywhere, what justifies coming to the office is what happens between people: reviewing together, deciding, coordinating, teaching. The space has to be set up for those activities, not for rows of stalls that are used half the time.

How much individual space is disappearing?

The CBRE numbers speak volumes: assigned positions fell from 83% of companies in 2021 to 55% in 2025, and hot-desking schemes tripled, from 12% to 36%. At the same time, meeting and service spaces grew 120% since 2021, and actual office occupancy rose from 38% to 53% in one year.

In practice, this translates into fewer desks per person and more variety of spaces. And it brings a requirement that is often forgotten: if no one has a permanent position, each person needs somewhere to store their belongings. The locker stops being an accessory and becomes the piece that makes the entire scheme viable.

What new spaces are appearing?

Steelcase, one of the world leaders in workspace research, identified in 2026 three types of space that AI is pushing: places with acoustic privacy to work with AI by voice and make video calls without disturbing, team rooms where AI participates on a screen as another member, and recovery spaces to rest from the pace that all this imposes.

The data speaks to what people have already been asking for: in Gensler's global survey, noise and lack of privacy are the main complaints of those who work in open offices. Acoustic booths, small rooms and pause areas are not fashion: they are the direct response to that claim.

What does this mean in Chile, with the 42-hour day?

Law 21,561 reduced the working day to 44 hours in April 2024 and to 42 in April 2026, and will reach 40 in 2028. At the same time, local surveys show consolidated hybrid work and presence on the rise, and the Santiago office market closed the first half of 2026 with class A vacancy at 8.1%, its fourth consecutive drop.

The combination is demanding: shorter days, fuller offices. Compressing the same work into fewer hours requires spaces that perform, meetings that start on time in a room of the correct size, places to concentrate without headphones, and breaks that truly make you recover. Space stops being a fixed cost and becomes a productivity tool.

How does this translate into furniture?

First, fewer fixed positions and better equipped: shared stations with quick adjustments, so that each person can adjust the position in seconds, and lockers so that the desk is free at the end of the day.

Second, meetings of the actual size: Most meetings are two to four people, and a meeting booth or small room solves them better than the large room that is always busy. Third, acoustic privacy: individual booths for calls and video calls, which are installed without intervening in the building. And fourth, real pause: sofas and informal areas that mark a change of pace, away from concentration positions.

Where to start if your office was planned for 2019?

It is not necessary to change everything at once. The first thing is to measure how the space is used today: which rooms are fought, which seats are empty, where people really gather. With that photo, the renovation can be done in stages, starting with what hurts the most, which is almost always the lack of small rooms and places to talk quietly.

At Dunati we manufacture office furniture and help plan the workspace: stations, rooms, acoustic booths and break areas, with delivery and installation in Santiago and regions. If you are rethinking your office for this new stage, our team is available to talk about your project.