Ryan Anderson’s presentation to the Michigan chapter of CoreNet last week was ostensibly about the changing workplace. For anyone in the office furniture industry, though, it was really a 45-minute lesson in why our industry needs to spend less time talking about furniture and more time understanding what is happening inside the organizations that buy it.

Anderson, vice president of global research and planning at MillerKnoll, called his presentation “The Relational Workplace.” He described it as a research-informed point of view rather than a traditional research presentation, with the goal of provoking dialogue about where work and the workplace are headed.

It was exactly the kind of conversation the office furniture industry needs.

Anderson has spent 32 years in the industry, first at Steelcase and then at Herman Miller, and his perspective is informed by a remarkable network of researchers, technology companies, corporate real estate executives and workplace strategists. MillerKnoll’s Global Research and Planning team conducts workplace and design strategy, site visits and post-occupancy studies while working with outside organizations to understand how work is changing.

His central argument was that technology has spent the past two decades making the office less necessary and that AI may be starting to reverse that.

While that might sound contradictory, Anderson made a compelling case. Digital transformation moved many activities that once required physical space onto individual devices. Collaboration software, messaging and video conferencing allowed people to work from almost anywhere. Anderson recalled visiting Microsoft during the early development of Teams and realizing that “collaboration” increasingly meant individuals sitting alone with their devices.

But AI is changing the nature of work again.

As organizations adopt agentic AI, Anderson said, teams are having to rethink workflows, responsibilities and decision-making. That can require more human interaction, not less. Teams need to map how work happens, determine what AI can take over and figure out how people will work together differently. The result can be an unexpected return to whiteboards, workshops and face-to-face collaboration.

That has enormous implications for furniture dealers, manufacturers, designers and everyone else who works in the commercial interiors business. The office cannot simply be a collection of workstations, conference rooms and collaboration spaces. It has to support the interactions organizations actually value.

That was perhaps the most important idea Anderson presented. MillerKnoll’s research found that people want camaraderie, collaboration, in-person meetings, face time with management and, yes, places for concentrated work. The problem is that many workplaces are still designed around activities rather than interactions.

Anderson’s question to corporate real estate executives is simple: What types of interactions do you want to better support in this space?

It is a much more important question than “How many seats do you need?” because it gets at the reason a workplace exists in the first place. Anderson shared examples of executives talking about mentorship, team development, breaking down hierarchy, connecting different worker types and creating a sense of belonging. One CEO told him that seeing people hug in the elevator made him happy. Another executive wanted young employees to be able to walk over to a colleague’s desk, get coaching and return to their work. The design solution followed the desired interaction.

This is where CoreNet becomes particularly relevant to the office furniture industry. And though I’ve attended some other national and international CoreNet events, this is the first connection I’ve made to the local group, thanks to Mike Swales, business development specialist at NBS Commercial Interiors, a Steelcase dealer based in metro Detroit.

The Michigan chapter of CoreNet brings together corporate real estate professionals. They are the people who sit at the center of these decisions. Furniture companies have traditionally thought of dealers, designers and facility managers as their primary relationships. Those relationships remain critical, but Anderson’s presentation demonstrated why corporate real estate leaders deserve much more attention.

The people responsible for real estate are grappling with utilization, talent, technology, AI, employee experience, organizational culture and the fundamental question of why anyone should come into an office. Those questions ultimately shape the environments our industry designs, specifies, manufactures and sells.

Anderson also offered a useful warning. The answer to the changing workplace cannot simply be forcing people back into the office. Research he cited suggests that loneliness depends less on where people work than on what happens when they are there. A five-day return-to-office mandate does not automatically create connection, collaboration or belonging.

We have spent years talking about the “why” of the office. Anderson offered a more precise version of that question: What happens there that cannot happen as effectively somewhere else? That is a question worth asking every customer.

It is also a good reason for people in the office furniture industry to get more involved with CoreNet. The organization puts our industry in the room with the corporate real estate executives who are wrestling with these issues every day. It also brings together people who work adjacent to corporate real estate, such as AV providers and engineering firms. I enjoyed meeting those attendees and hearing how they fit into the complex web of corporate real estate.

And if Anderson’s presentation was any indication, there is plenty for all of us to learn from each other.

The furniture industry has expertise in space, behavior, ergonomics, technology and design. Corporate real estate leaders understand the business objectives those environments have to support. The opportunity is to connect those two worlds earlier and more meaningfully.

Anderson ended with an appeal to the CoreNet audience: If the industry wants to elevate the value of corporate real estate, it needs to talk about what actually happens in those spaces and the interactions people value.