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  • Despite predictions that digital devices and working from home would spell the end of the humble office, they remain central to our working lives.

  • Yet the technology in offices is radically changing our day.

  • Already in Amsterdam, workers in buildings run by the developer Edge Technologies operate their workplace through an APP.

  • They use their phones to find a parking space and free desk and will soon be able to enter the building using their device.

  • Once in the building, the APP customizes the temperature and light in your working space.

  • It even tracks your energy use and remembers how you like your coffee.

  • Gone are the days of avoiding colleagues to the AP enables people to locate each other in the building.

  • Experts now say the pace of change will accelerate as the next generation of digital natives enters the workplace.

  • By 2050 there will be a host of new technologies.

  • Intelligent glass windows will adapt to the weather and turn into screens.

  • With this technology, virtual meetings will become much easier as we move from the awkward Skype call to software that includes features such as real time translation.

  • Already, office furniture is changing, cubicles are out break out areas are in the shared office group.

  • No tell.

  • Construct spaces with walls that can be easily moved.

  • Chairs will be a thing of the past to as employees demand a healthier lifestyle, experts suggest there will just be a few benches on a lot of standing and moving around.

  • There are downsides total this change.

  • Privacy is becoming more elusive, with much of the technology relying on tracking systems and storing huge amounts of personal information.

  • We will soon be asked to opt into facial recognition so that people can walk into a building without even stopping to tap their path.

  • But not everyone will spend their day in a digitally optimized environment.

  • Growing numbers of people work in the freelance gig economy without such employer perks.

  • By 2050 the Office of the Future might be unrecognizable, but only for those with the good fortune to work there.

Despite predictions that digital devices and working from home would spell the end of the humble office, they remain central to our working lives.

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