Five years ago a company signing a 10-year lease was making a bet on growth. Today, it’s making a bet on something far harder to predict: not just how big the business will be, but what it will even look like. As artificial intelligence (AI) accelerates the way we work, the assumption that growth and success is directly tied to headcount is being shaken, challenging the foundation that long commercial leases are built on. As a result, companies are reconsidering what future forecasting looks like and how they can build a workspace that not only prepares them for the future but adapts with it.
AI is arguably the biggest change to the shape of work since the introduction of computers themselves. With any change of this scale comes uncertainty, and even fear of how it will impact our systems and workplaces. But just as the integration of computers reshaped workforces rather than replaced them, AI is likely to transform how businesses operate in ways we cannot yet fully predict. According to JLL’s 2026 Future of Work Survey, 60 per cent of C-suite leaders across 21 countries expect AI adoption to redesign roles and grow headcount rather than shrink it. Whether AI automation changes entire departments, creates new ones or gives rise to entirely new ways of working, one thing is clear: while uncertainty in the workplace isn’t new, this type of uncertainty is – and it demands a different response. That’s the real meaning of “AI proof” for a growing business – a workspace that adapts as the business does, without a 10-year bet standing in the way.
Traditional office space was built on a relatively simple equation: growth meant higher headcounts which meant more desk space. In the last five years that idea has been turned on its head. For some companies, AI adoption could mean fewer people achieving the same output but for many others, it could mean new departments, specialist functions and even project teams. At the same time, the rise of hybrid working has further separated headcount from desk count, with many companies reducing their core office footprints and introducing desk-booking systems. Simply put, where you expect to be in five years’ time is no longer something that can be easily quantified by the number of desks in your office space. Many companies are beginning to recognise that the long lease they signed on old assumptions is not just an inconvenience but an actual financial risk.
Kim Hogan, associate director of Workthere, Savills’s flexible office specialist, highlights the changing priorities of businesses when choosing office space: “Through our work with occupiers across Dublin, we are seeing businesses place a greater emphasis on flexibility in their workplace strategies. Occupiers are taking a wider variety of office sizes, on shorter terms, indicating that businesses are seeking options that can accommodate changing workforce needs rather than locking themselves into a longer-term lease.”
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For many companies, flexible workspaces have emerged as a key solution to this challenge. “Flexibility is evolving from a short-term solution into a long-term risk management tool,” Hogan says, “enabling businesses to remain agile in an increasingly unpredictable environment.”
‘A flexible workspace model aligned well with our broader global infrastructure strategy of reducing the operational burden of managing facilities and enabling us to focus our resources on delivering value to our clients’
— Keith Connaghton, managing partner, Vialto Partners
For businesses navigating this uncertainty, long-term planning doesn’t need to be abandoned altogether. Instead, companies are beginning to rethink where flexibility fits into their decision making. Flexible workspaces – once associated primarily with start ups and small scale businesses – have risen in popularity for companies of all sizes, including large corporate enterprises. According to Savills, using Workthere’s fifth Flexmark operator survey, corporates now account for 47 per cent of global flex office occupancy, compared with just 13 per cent in 2020. The growing adoption of flex by larger businesses reflects a broader shift in how companies think about their workplaces: as something that should support change, rather than restrict it.
For some businesses, that flexibility is extending beyond individual offices and into the headquarters itself. Companies are increasingly looking for workspace models that can move as quickly as the business does – a shift that is driving organisations like Vialto Partners towards flexible headquarters over traditional long-term leases. The global mobility and immigration consulting firm, who chose leading flexible workspace provider Iconic Offices to base their headquarters in 2024, recognised the benefit that a flexible workspace model could bring to a company navigating changing workplace needs.
“When we chose Iconic Offices, Vialto was a young and evolving organisation and flexibility and scalability were key considerations,” says Keith Connaghton, the company’s managing partner. “We wanted an office solution that could support an evolving footprint and respond quickly to changing business needs.”
For Vialto Partners, that evolving footprint meant more than square footage, it meant trusting Iconic Offices with the reception, technology infrastructure and facilities maintenance that would otherwise have pulled focus from the business itself.
“A flexible workspace model also aligned well with our broader global infrastructure strategy of reducing the operational burden of managing facilities,” he says, “and enabling us to focus our resources on delivering value to our clients.”
Ultimately, the rise of flex among larger businesses reflects a shift away from treating the workplace as a fixed asset. Vialto Partners’s own experience captures it well: instead of a fixed goalpost of desks and headcount, growing businesses are looking for an evolving footprint and an operational load someone else carries – so the business can focus on scaling itself, not managing its own facilities.
That’s the real value of flexible workspace, and it goes beyond managing risk. It lifts the operational burden Vialto Partners described earlier, gives businesses financial predictability instead of surprise capex, and provides a workplace that reflects well on the business from day one.
For international companies establishing or scaling their Irish operations, it also offers a genuine foothold in Dublin without committing to bricks and mortar before the business case is proven. Growing businesses, whether home-grown or newly landed in Ireland, need space that can evolve with where they’re headed next – without the operational drag or balance-sheet risk that comes with getting it wrong.
The businesses best positioned for this next phase of work won’t be the ones who know exactly what comes next. They will be the ones ready for whatever does.
Curious what that looks like for your team? As Dublin’s largest Irish-owned flexible workspace provider, with 15 locations across the city centre, Iconic Offices has a space built for wherever your business is headed next. Explore our workspace solutions at iconicoffices.com, or talk to our team on 01 905 3508
