Utilisation is rising, but not because of mandates
CBRE has now tracked occupancy across 111.5 million m² of client portfolios. Global average utilisation reached 53% in 2025, up from 38% — the largest annual gain since 2021, with occupancy at 111%.
Enforcement did sharpen: organisations actively enforcing attendance doubled to 37%, and those measuring compliance rose from 45% to 69%. But the stronger signal is social. Employees are far more likely to come in when most of their team is already there. Presence attracts presence in a way policy does not.
Space is being reorganised around relationships
If utilisation says people are coming back, space allocation says what they expect to find. The traditional office was organised around the task; the emerging one around the team.
Regions differ in flavour, not direction. EMEA is loosening up, giving each seat more room. In Asia-Pacific, where attendance is already highest, 57% expect to expand. Underneath it all sits desk sharing: assigned seating fell from 83% of organisations to 55%, while shared-desk models rose from 12% to 36%.
Why this is a business number, not a property one
The case for spending on connection rests on engagement data, not real estate logic. Decades of Gallup research put it bluntly:
- Employees with a best friend at work are seven times more likely to be fully engaged in their jobs.
- Engaged teams are 23% more profitable than disengaged ones.
- Disengagement cost the world economy $10 trillion in 2025 — roughly 9% of global GDP.
CBRE's benchmarking closes the loop: organisations that invested deliberately in collaboration and amenity space hit attendance goals more often and reported higher workplace satisfaction. Better space raises attendance; higher attendance justifies better space.
AI makes the office more valuable, not less
Adoption of AI agents — systems that carry out multi-step tasks on their own — is expected to grow 327% over the next year, nearly twice the rate generative AI spread. Four in five organisations (79%) already report some implementation.
The effect on the working day is counterintuitive. It is not shortening but intensifying: employees in high-AI-exposure roles work 2.75 hours more per week, much of it creating and checking AI output. The gain shows up as output for the organisation, not reclaimed time for the individual.
Which is why the office gains value. As AI absorbs routine work, what is left needs judgment, creativity and relationships — things a shared room supports and a video call approximates. The office will not compete with AI-assisted remote work on individual productivity. It will compete on collective capability.
Meanwhile the share of employees who clearly know what is expected of them fell from 55% in 2019 to 44%. This is a workforce over-coordinated and under-connected — a problem better meeting design and better space can both address.
- Redefine the success metric. Utilisation is necessary but not sufficient — track sentiment, collaboration quality and engagement.
- Design for affiliation. Fund the social and amenity space cut first in most budgets. It is growing fastest among top performers.
- Make attendance data-led. Role-based expectations report stronger attendance than blanket mandates.
- Build the technology backbone. Reservation systems and occupancy analytics manage peak-day density and tell people who will be in.
- Treat the office as an asset, not an overhead. Optimising for efficiency alone leaves value on the table.
Utilisation should keep climbing through 2027. Organisations that already invested in space people want to share will get the benefit; the rest will feel pressure from both sides.
Based on CBRE's 2026 Global Workplace & Occupancy Insights, Part 4, by Susan Wasmund and Lenny Beaudoin. Engagement figures cited from Gallup.