Offices.
As a product of the tertiary economy sector, offices encompass and lay claim to a tangible amount of resources: demand raw materials, use logistics, use infrastructure, occupy buildings.
And yet their concrete task is elusive to me. They seem distant, lifeless, corporate, replaceable.
Keita Translate: Conform to this boilerplate but first think of ways to justify your illusion of a choice.
No kid in grade school will write down “I will sit down at a computer all day” when asked what their dream job is. And yet office workers are a catch-all workforce [7, AMS Job description of Bürokaufmann/-frau].
In Austria 2025, the tertiary sector as a whole employed 2.9 million individuals. [1] As such the tertiary sector makes up almost 75% of all employed persons of all three sectors.
While “Office workers” cannot be separately defined, my assumption is that the tertiary sector is almost entirely comprised of them. Precise numbers have yet to be found and can affect my research greatly.
Imagine a world where offices have been made obsolete.
How could a world that fully decommissioned office workers adapt, and what futures do the laid off workers have?
Why?
The introduction of AI is put to blame for mass layoffs in industries already [2].
Although at the same time they are under scrutiny for their ethics, performance, and ineffective use, as around 95% of all AI pilots at companies fail [3].
During the COVID-Lockdowns office buildings already experienced a sharp decline in use, prompting alternate use cases for the then unused buildings.
I want to investigate the knock-on effect a decommissioning of offices would have on the employees, society, architecture etc.
How?
For this I want to conduct research through questionnaires aimed at people working in offices, and literature on relevant subject matters.
What?
A final product I imagine is a short film which communicates my findings.
Miscellaneous resources
[1] WKO Statistics, number of employed persons sorted by sector, January 2026: https://www.wko.at/statistik/jahrbuch/am-beschentw-wb.pdf
[2] NY Times, AI-Washing and blame for layoffs, February 2026: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/business/layoffs-ai-washing.html
[3] Forbes, Why 95% of AI pilots fail, August 2025: https://www.forbes.com/sites/andreahill/2025/08/21/why-95-of-ai-pilots-fail-and-what-business-leaders-should-do-instead
[4] Newswitch, JREast announces new COVID countermeasures: https://newswitch.jp/p/30715
[5] 長野上田オフィスづくり.com, Offering services for modernizing the office look, February 2021: https://naganoueda-office.com/%E7%A7%BB%E8%BB%A2%E3%83%BB%E6%96%B0%E7%AF%89/%E6%98%94%E3%81%AA%E3%81%8C%E3%82%89%E3%81%AE%E4%BA%8B%E5%8B%99%E6%89%80%E3%83%BB%E4%BB%8A%E3%81%A9%E3%81%8D%E3%81%AE%E3%82%AA%E3%83%95%E3%82%A3%E3%82%B9%E3%80%80%EF%BD%9E%E6%B5%81%E8%A1%8C%EF%BD%9E/
[6] Statista, distribution of employed persons sorted by economy sector, screenshot, November 2025: https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/217608/umfrage/erwerbstaetige-nach-wirtschaftssektoren-in-oesterreich
[7] Arbeitsmarktservice, activities of an office worker, 2026 https://www.berufslexikon.at/berufe/25-Buerokaufmann~Buerokauffrau
[8] Twinkl Ltd., My Dream Job Acrostic Poem, screenshot: https://www.twinkl.com.au/resource/my-dream-job-acrostic-poem-roi-sphe-1640602977
[9] Soga K.K., https://www.soga.ne.jp/soga
Tom’sGuide, How to use AI in your office work: https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/ai-could-replace-office-jobs-within-18-months-heres-what-you-should-do-right-now
OpenAI, closing the gap between today’s AI performance and the public demand: https://openai.com/index/a-business-that-scales-with-the-value-of-intelligence
J. P. Morgan, AI-caused layoffs insignificant: https://am.jpmorgan.com/us/en/asset-management/adv/insights/market-insights/market-updates/on-the-minds-of-investors/is-ai-really-driving-an-increase-in-layoffs
Statistik Austria, Buildings statistics of Austria: https://www.statistik.at/statistiken/bevoelkerung-und-soziales/wohnen/gebaeudebestand
https://swoopfunding.com/ie/business-glossary/zoning-laws/
Kagoshima University Hospital, Manual on COVID countermeasures, May 2023: https://www.hosp.kagoshima-u.ac.jp/ict/shingatakoronauirusu/kuh%20covid%20manual.htm