DWG’s 2026 predictions count down to the launch of the sentient workplace

Episode 160: DWG’s 2026 predictions count down to the launch of the sentient workplace

“AI agents become strategic coworkers for a fresh take on hybrid. I have to say I’m over the discussions of hybrid workplace return to office versus organizations that are staying remote. I’m really putting my bets down on this is the next take for hybrid and that it’s no longer really a logistical challenge; it’s a strategic opportunity. Organizations need to balance flexibility, productivity and culture to form a new class of digital teammates – and that’s working with AI agents. And these intelligent systems and workflows are not just about task management. They become thought partners that help challenge us and help us reshape how work happens across distributed environments.”  Nancy Goebel, CEO, DWG

Welcome to Digital Workplace Impact. In this episode, I’m excited to unveil DWG’s 2026 predictions for the digital workplace. To start, I reflect on last year’s forecast before diving into what’s next for our industry. You’ll also hear my take on how AI and automation are becoming part of everyday workflows, how digital experiences are getting more personal, and lastly how platforms and tools are converging to reshape the way we work. These predictions are grounded in what I’ve heard throughout 2025 from our members, award winners and our wider industry circles. Whether you’re a digital workplace leader, strategist, practitioner or someone who is shaping the digital employee experience for 2026 and beyond, this episode is just for you.

This is Nancy Goebel, DWG’s Chief Executive and your host. Digital Workplace Impact is brought to you by Digital Workplace Group.

Join me now to get ready for a look ahead, to get inspired, and to be part of the future of work. (P.S. Do take a moment also to decide which film best represents the 2026 super-prediction by considering DWG’s drive-in double feature). As always, happy listening!)

Well, this is one of my favourite times of the year. Not only is it a chance for us to do some forward planning for our 2026 events, our research, and of course, understanding the plans that are in play for our member organizations, but it’s also an opportunity for us to do a little bit of future gazing.

I think before you can look forward, you always need to take a step back first. And so just thinking about the history of the predictions, we have been sharing thoughts about the future of digital workplaces year on year since 2014. Of course, there have been some highs and lows along the way; not too surprisingly that was punctuated by COVID back in 2020 as a low, when everything was changing around us at a moment’s notice. But then you see that, over time, our predictions have bounced back. And, in fact, last year we had a score of 8.5 out of 10. And this year we hit the same stride and I think that was really exciting. I felt as though sharing the story behind 2025 was important at a deeper level. So in bringing the year to a close from the prediction standpoint, I took to my Diary of a She-E-O to offer a more detailed accounting of the predictions and thought that it would be important to answer the question: Did the predictions come true? It’s probably one of the most often asked questions that I get in the course of the back end of the year. But I wanted to do something a little different this time. And I took a composite view that blended a mix of practitioner voices, AI perspectives and feedback from our member community. And so, in some fashion, all of the predictions are either well underway or have been realized. And that’s what produced the score of 8.5 out of 10. And there are a couple of headlines to go with that.

One is that, in the diary, I emphasized that transparency matters. It’s a key and important leadership imperative. And I say that not just for DWG but for all leaders who are navigating rapid change. And by openly sharing what works, what didn’t – and why, that’s an engine to help us fuel progress and build trust in landscape where honesty really needs to be the new currency.

But I do think that 2025 has been a pivotal year. It’s been grounded in what organizations truly needed as generation – or generative AI – moved out of the hype cycle into real-world proliferation. We saw that in the live benchmarking for sure. And for the advanced organizations, it’s really been a decisive shift, moving from proof-of-concept experiments to really trying to drive AI at scale and embedding it into ways of working. And, of course, we had exciting stories from our awards programme, where the likes of Kellanova and Vodafone talked about how they, as leading examples, have really embedded it into the fabric of daily work.

We also know that personalization and intelligent collaboration took centre stage for a lot of organizations. And we saw the rise of storytelling as a leadership superpower. And it was really fantastic to be able to punctuate that as a living framework for digital workplace leaders as part of our 2025 research programme. Of course, that’s the research that our colleague Mirsad [Capric] authored and we shared via chat a little bit earlier.

But ultimately, the Diary highlights how these shifts are now really the connective tissue for thriving digital workplaces. So, AI-driven personalization, intelligent collaboration, and storytelling that sticks.

The other big factor – and again that came through very clearly as part of the live benchmarking – is that change is coming at us faster and faster, internally, externally, diagonally, vertically. And so the real pressure point for organizations is to move from old-school change management, which was designed for Big Bang initiatives of old, to change agility, which is about supporting and enabling continuous change. And again, Kellanova and Vodafone were living examples of organizations that we can all learn from as part of that paradigm shift.

And so, in practice, 2025 was the story of organizations embracing the reality of AI and that it’s here to stay. The most successful teams move beyond experimentation into driving solutions at scale. In the course of doing that, upskilling talent and fostering a culture of continuous learning and adaptation really became critically important.

So, to the predictions for 2026.

The first thought is: Micro strategies become the flywheel for continuous change.

So, the secret to thriving in a world of relentless disruption is not accomplished through grand gestures, but it’s in discovering the power of the small. Put another way, micro strategies are emerging as what I’m calling the ‘flywheel’ that will allow organizations to move with perpetual motion and allow for continuous change and resiliency to happen.

Think of that almost as a spiral where the rest periods get shorter. So people need to be equipped to regenerate and then work through the change, regenerate, work through the change, and so on. And rather than waiting for the sweeping transformations of old, leading organizations are really starting to embrace a cadence of small, well-executed moves: micro-content, micro-tasking, micro-learning, micro-deliverables, micro-coaching, the list goes on.

And each micro action spins that flywheel faster, building that momentum for agility and even innovation.

This approach is going to be something that empowers even the largest organizations to adapt to speed more like startups, and to turn uncertainty into opportunity, one bite-size chunk at a time. And so, organizations like Unilever, Microsoft, Deloitte are already embracing this idea that micro strategies need to be mainstream, they need to become the invisible engine behind lasting transformation. These micro activities allow organizations to be more nimble, more responsive, and ready for what’s needed next, because the pivot point sits there in the background.

Last thought here is that, in an era of AI and digital acceleration, it’s the micro that makes the macro possible, so micro strategies are not just a trend. They are the catalyst for the future of work.

Number two is: Liquid experiences emerge as the next frontier for digital workplaces.

You could see this through the live benchmark as well as wider conversations that we’re having with members as digital workplaces evolve from the static and monolithic platforms of old. The next frontier for digital employee experiences will be liquid experiences, meaning they will be more dynamic, more fluid, in fact even a constellation of integrated channels that come together over time and really start to get ahead of the context switching, the friction that Tim [Bublitz] from Sargento talked about earlier.

And, of course, credit has to go where credit is due: one of our DWG luminaries, Kerry O’Donnell, first spotted this trend during one of our judging panel discussions for the awards. And I know Rory [Gardner]’s head is nodding as we speak. And so this new foray is really representative of a set of dynamic context-aware and human-centred interactions that will flow more seamlessly across devices, more seamlessly across channels, more seamlessly across environments. And I’m thinking of you, Jenn Hathaway in talking about the fact that you’ve made your first foray into the extranet arena! And so, it’s not just about intranets, it’s not just about extranets, but the wider experiences of the digital workplace ecosystem.

The idea is that we need to meet employees wherever they are, physically, digitally, emotionally. Liquid experiences are really designed to empower organizations to truly personalize its scale, to break down silos, to deal with those friction points, and to really harness AI in a thoughtful and prioritized manner. And so, those who are among the early adopters will look for opportunities to unlock new levels of agility, new levels of engagement, new levels of innovation – and this will be fertile learning ground for all of us as an industry.

Next up, number three: Lean digital workplace management becomes the new gold standard.

2026 will see this approach to digital workplace management really attain a badge of honour and act as an enterprise enabler. And the rise of lean practices will harken back to what we saw with Six Sigma of old, reimagined into lean practices that transcend the boundaries of HR, IT, communications, knowledge management, business transformation, in order to allow for a move from infrastructure-heavy operations to more adaptive insight-driven systems that are guided by people and AI coming together to form what I’m thinking about as the new definition of hybrid.

And lean digital workplaces will really go beyond the idea that teams have to be small and rather to the idea that we need to operate more intelligently within embedded workflows, and that leveraging generative AI will allow us to do things like automating governance and content tagging and analytics – the things that we talked about as a community, as the challenges, the pain points. And so, it will pose a new managerial challenge that’s less about hurting tool proliferation and more about taking a systems-design approach for velocity and more precision in approach.

And we will be taking a page from organizations like American Express, UnitedHealth Group, Adobe. UnitedHealth Group is an example of one that talked about new approaches to using AI for content governance, or Adobe was signposted in our awards programme for a lean approach to managing their digital workplace. And American Express has embraced the idea that they need to be able to deliver ROI on initiatives from within their space within a one-year timeframe. So they’re actually calling their programme ‘the one-year digital workplace’.

By 2027, the progressive organizations will have embraced this in concept and moved into practice around lean modelling so that they can operate multidisciplinary teams; they can be more nimble and use AI to run enterprise-scale approaches to the digital workplace with greater efficiency and intelligence.

Number four is: Clarity becomes the new secret sauce – the new spicy sauce for thriving digital workplaces.

And so, when we think about digital workplaces today, feedback flows freely from things like pulse surveys or pop-up surveys and performance dashboards to AI-generated insights and real-time collaboration tools. Yet, with the abundance of all that data, one element is increasingly scarce and that’s clarity.

So, organizations need to navigate the complexities of digital transformation at a time when clarity needs to emerge, not just as a leadership trait, but as the new social currency. It needs to be a foundational asset that determines how well people and the organization are thriving. So, clarity will become that connective tissue for digital workplaces that are successful; it’ll shape how feedback gets interpreted, how technology is adopted, how culture is cultivated.

And when clarity is embedded in every layer of digital experiences, it will empower individuals and teams to move more confidently from noise to meaningful action. And, by extension, that will boost trust and innovation and sustainable growth.

Next: AI agents become strategic coworkers for a fresh take on hybrid.

I have to say I’m over the discussions of hybrid workplace return to office versus organizations that are staying remote. I’m really putting my bets down on this is the next take for hybrid and that it’s no longer really a logistical challenge; it’s a strategic opportunity. Organizations need to balance flexibility, productivity and culture to form a new class of digital teammates – and that’s working with AI agents. And these intelligent systems and workflows are not just about task management. They become thought partners that help challenge us, help us reshape how work happens across distributed environments. They become mechanisms for analysing complex data and offering actionable insights. They help manage workflows more autonomously by virtue of allowing for tasks to be scheduled and executed while we’re recharging or catching up on some sleep, adapting to individual and team preferences to help get the best from people, and facilitating collaboration across time zones, which allows for greater continuity context. And so, ultimately, this shift is going to be about enabling a more fluid, a more intelligent and a more human-centric hybrid work model that is powered by these strategic coworkers.

Next up is the idea that: Democratized coaching will become foundational for

what we need to think about as a future-ready agile workforce.

If we stop and think about a world where disruption is the norm and agility is part of what makes the machine go, organizations can’t just rely on old-school hierarchies, old-school performance reviews, old-school activities as the means for staying competitive. Think about generations ago, you could have been the best buggy whip maker but in the age of the Model T rolling off the factory floor, it didn’t matter quite so much a few years down the line.

And, in that light, traditional coaching models have typically been reserved for executives or what’s called a ‘HiPo’ or high-potential employee. And while that was the approach for a time, it is one that created silos of growth and left the majority of the workforce without the full set of tools they need to navigate change. And so, you can see it already if you’re operating within Copilot, using email or any other productivity tools, there is coaching there waiting in the offing to challenge you, to be your thought partner and to offer feedback on how you’re doing. And increasingly, those coaching activities will be embedded in the fabric of all of the tools and technologies that we’re working with, such that it will enable a paradigm flip that allows for coaching to become part of the mainstream and be accessible to everyone, and work in context with them so the feedback is real-time and not saved for some artificial end-of-year activity.

That shift is not just a philosophical one, it’s absolutely a practical one because research shows that employees who receive meaningful feedback on the regular are significantly more engaged than those who just wait for feedback to drop at the end of the year – so frequent informal coaching moments, micro coaching moments, will help employees better align with organizational priorities, but also build resilience and adaptability as the flow of work changes.

Number seven – on a cold, blustery fall day, it’s lovely to be able to say that: Sustainability will get its moment in the sun.

I have to stop here and name check Campbell’s. As you know, the Campbell’s team won the 2025 DWG award for ‘Data-led Experience Management’. And this wasn’t just a celebration of operational excellence. It was a clear signal of what’s coming. They’re an example of an organization whose approach to digital transformation actually called out, demonstrated, that sustainability and innovation are no longer separate priorities. They were really deeply intertwined and are clearly shaping the future of work there. Campbell’s leveraged DEX (digital employee experience) insights to optimize their PC life-cycles to reduce energy consumption, to cut costs and, by extending things like device lifecycle to help reduce waste, they proved that sustainability can coexist with efficiency. Their proactive remediation programmes and their sentiment-driven engagement campaigns not only improved employee experience, they reduced IT support volumes and the environmental footprint of the organization. So this is an example of sustainability in action, not theory.

We’re also seeing that a lot of other organizations are adopting and embracing similar models, leveraging NextThink and other platforms to help really monitor and rationalize these technology footprints. We also know that sustainability is something that is getting Board-level attention because the amount of energy data consumption is skyrocketing as part of the age of AI. So, whereas, you know, ESG has gone through its ebbs and flows, sustainability within that is certainly going to have a much brighter moment in the coming year.

Number eight is: Open innovation is going to break new ground for digital workplaces.

The idea here is that digital workplaces will move beyond closed ecosystems and proprietary thinking. The next frontier is really open innovation. It’s the headspace where organizations co-create solutions across boundaries. They share their knowledge more freely and tap into collective intelligence to accelerate progress. This is no doubt both a cultural shift and a governmental shift – not just the technological one, but the idea that organizations, consultancies, freelancers, academia need to come together to solve specific challenges, specific needs, or even organizations coming together.

Digital workplace leaders need to start to ask the question: Should we embrace open innovation? Yes, but even more importantly, how fast can we operationalize it into our ways of working? And start by mapping your ecosystem for openness; identify the partners who are currently in play for co-creation; start expanding your governance frameworks to enable more fluid collaboration without sacrificing security.

Open innovation is not just going to be the next trend; it’s going to be foundational for future-ready workplaces at a time when global workforces are shrinking in numbers.

So we are in the homestretch. We’re down to the final two!

Next up, we’ve got number nine, which is: A new breed of leaders harness collaboration.

And that’s collaboration that includes human ingenuity and artificial intelligence. The new leadership era is here! It’s a new paradigm that is no longer about humans versus machines; it’s about humans and machines coming together to creatively transform businesses.

The leaders who embrace this form of collaboration are going to be the ones who set the pace for innovation, for resilience, and for growth. The question isn’t just about whether AI will shape the future of work. It’s already doing that. The key question here is going to be: Will you lead the way in harnessing power from human ingenuity linked with artificial intelligence?

Your answer should be ‘Carpe Diem’ – seize the day.

And last but not least is that: AI governance is really a Board-level priority and it’s time for all of us to ladder up.

AI is no longer confined to those experimental pilots that we saw 18, 24 months ago in the main. We’re seeing that AI agents are being embedded into workflows, supporting predictive analytics, automating decision making, shaping employee experiences. That level of ubiquity brings unprecedented benefits. But at the same time, we know that there are corresponding risks and robust governance is going to take on added importance. Organizations need to face ethical pitfalls, such as bias and discrimination, regulatory breaches related to data privacy and security, reputational damage from whether it’s opaque or uncontrolled AI use.

And so, the culmination of all these things is that Board-level conversation is happening around this intersection with compliance and ethics and trust. Digital workplace leaders are uniquely positioned to operationalize governance across platforms and processes that support ways of working and your own employee experience, which means ensuring that AI is deployed responsibly, transparently, and that it aligns with the organization’s values.

The question is no longer ‘Should we govern AI?’, but rather, ‘How fast can we operationalize it?’. And so the place to start here is to audit your AI ecosystem and ensure that you’re defining the governance policies and principles, and creating cross-functional steering groups that are about operating in a risk-smart fashion – and that is supporting the ability to be a strategic enabler of the trust, the innovation and the long-term value that we know we’re all chasing collectively on behalf of the organization.

So, how do we tie that all up with a bow? Our super-prediction is that: 2026 marks the birth of the sentient digital workplace.

For years we’ve focused on making digital workplaces smarter through AI – more recently, additional automation efforts and intelligent collaboration platforms. But the next frontier is really sentience, which means that the workplace understands context, intent and emotion.

And so the digital workplace is launching a new bold phase starting in 2026. And it’s one that’s not defined by tools but intelligence. It’s evolving into that ecosystem that is more intelligent and adaptive and emotionally aware of the environment around us and can help us anticipate needs, personalize those experiences to reduce overload and context switching, and orchestrate work across a suite of channels, roles and context. And so the transformation is being fuelled by the convergence of trends, generative AI maturing, ambient intelligence and emotional AI.

I look forward to sharing an even deeper view of these predictions. I’m currently putting together a series of blogs that will take us into a click-down mode on all of these and ask some pointed questions for all of us to think about as we move knee-deep into 2026.

Digital Workplace Impact is brought to you by the Digital Workplace Group. DWG is a strategic partner covering all aspects of the evolving digital workplace industry, not only through membership, but also benchmarking and boutique consulting services. For more information, visit digitalworkplacegroup.com.