Bureau, the modular workspace company operating across North America, Europe and Australia, has called for AI to take a leading role in how offices are planned and redesigned, arguing that current layouts are poorly suited to the demands of deep, concentrated work.
The company, which designs soundproof office pods and modular booth systems, says open-plan offices have long prioritised cost-cutting and collaboration at the expense of focus. It contends that AI-powered planning and real-time occupancy data can instead be used to continuously optimise spaces around how people actually work.
Bureau's vision centres on what it calls the Elastic Workplace, an environment that uses AI and operational data to adapt as business needs shift, rather than remaining locked into a fixed layout. The company says this approach allows organisations to create dedicated deep-work zones and intentional collaboration spaces that can be reconfigured without construction.
The argument sits within a broader industry debate. Research from ActivTrak covering more than 443 million work hours found that focus efficiency, the share of time spent in uninterrupted concentration, fell to a three-year low, while the average focus session shrank to just over 13 minutes. Collaboration activity rose sharply over the same period.
For working professionals, the implications are practical. Noise and distraction in open offices impose a measurable cognitive cost, and as AI tools increase the pace and complexity of knowledge work, the quality of the physical environment becomes more consequential. Bureau's position is that employers can no longer treat office design as a static or secondary concern.
Bureau became the first soundproof booth company to receive the Works with WELL trademark licence from the International WELL Building Institute in March 2026, a certification covering air quality, chemical safety and acoustic standards.
