Kimball International has released its 2026 Workplace Trends Report: Furnishing the Future. This forward-looking report explores the forces transforming the workplace and the implications for designers, organizations, and the built environment. Drawing from more than 200 signals across culture, technology, design, economics, and society, it examines how changing work patterns, human needs, and artificial intelligence are redefining workplace expectations.
Centered on five emerging Design Forces that are shaping the future of work, the report reveals that today’s workplace is becoming increasingly adaptive, human-centered, and responsive to changing employee needs.
The research suggests that workplace design is entering a new era where flexibility, belonging, well-being, and human experience become strategic differentiators. While technology will continue to influence how work happens, the report argues that the greatest opportunities lie in designing environments that help people perform, connect, and adapt.
Among the report’s key findings:
- Human Sustainability is moving beyond wellness amenities and becoming a core workplace strategy, with organizations increasingly focused on supporting cognitive, emotional, physical, and social wellbeing.
- Slow Connection highlights the growing value of meaningful in-person interaction as digital communication continues to dominate daily life.
- Systemic Flexibility explores how workplaces are evolving from static environments into responsive systems driven by data, adaptability, and changing patterns of use.
- Work Unbundled examines how work is becoming more fluid across time, place, and role, requiring workplaces to earn each visit by providing greater purpose and value.
- The New Colleague investigates the rise of human-AI collaboration and its impact on workplace design, learning, and decision-making.
“Many conversations about the future of work focus on technology, but the deeper story is about people,” said Kaelynn Reid, Certified Futurist for Kimball International. “As AI transforms how work gets done, the qualities that make us uniquely human including our creativity, judgment, empathy, and ability to connect, become even more valuable. This report explores what that means for the spaces we design and the experiences we create within them.”
About Kimball International
Kimball International is a leading commercial furnishings company with deep expertise in the Workplace, Health, and Hospitality markets. We combine our bold entrepreneurial spirit, a history of craftsmanship, and today’s design-driven thinking alongside a commitment to our culture of caring and lasting connections with our customers, employees, and communities. Since 1950, our brands have seized opportunities to customize solutions into personalized experiences, turning ordinary spaces into meaningful places. Our family of brands includes Kimball, National, Etc.,Interwoven, Kimball Hospitality, D’style, and David Edward. Kimball International, based in Jasper, Indiana, is a business unit of HNI Corporation.
For additional information contact:
Abby Troutman
Communications Manager