At a time when organizations are facing a shortage of qualified talent and the need to accelerate their digital transformation, companies decide to commit to the use of technologies such as AI to redefine competitiveness and the workplace, aspects that directly influence work culture and talent retention.
The Ricoh Spain company has focused the tenth edition of its Be Hybrid event. Be Smart in the main trends that will mark the evolution of the digital workplace in 2026 and in the coming years, to take advantage of the new wave of innovation driven by artificial intelligence and hybrid collaboration models.
“We are facing a unique opportunity to redesign the work experience. Companies that know how to integrate AI, automation and intelligent collaborative spaces will be the ones that lead the next stage of digital growth,” said José Luis Gión, director of the Digital Workplace area at Ricoh Spain.
According to the manager, the end of Windows 10 support, together with the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence, marks a critical moment for the technological modernization of the workplace.
Greater security and regulatory compliance
Companies must address the renewal of their technological equipment, incorporating equipment with optimized processing capacity for AI, reinforcing security and regulatory compliance, and avoiding unforeseen costs derived from technological obsolescence. “They will need an internal evaluation of the technological equipment at the level of PCs and laptops to check if they have the correct equipment for their current scenario and if they are acquiring the appropriate equipment, valid in three years, when AI is fully widespread,” said Gión.
Another of the clearest trends in a hybrid work model is the evolution towards more collaborative spaces, which are attractive to employees, in a way that is beneficial for the business, but also attracts and retains talent.
Complex, multipurpose and flexible rooms are today more immersive and, with the emergence of AI, automation and collaboration tools, such as Microsoft Copilot for Teams, have made it possible to offer better experiences to users and, according to the Ricoh expert, there is a clear trend that these spaces will continue to improve. However, the small and standard rooms, which were equipped between 2020 and 2022, now have technology that is largely obsolete. On a positive note, “the evolution of technology has led us to have much more mature, more affordable and very powerful solutions today, which make hybrid work much simpler, more agile and safer,” he stressed.
On the other hand, digital solutions are the lever for intelligent information management and the use of data as a strategic asset. Companies will need to integrate solutions that improve the digital experience, guarantee access to knowledge in real time and transform dispersed information into structured and actionable intelligence for decision making.
Managed services and proactive support
The digital employee experience (DEX) will be one of the main indicators of competitiveness in 2026.
According to Ricoh, AI will also transform the way IT services and remote support are managed, automating unattended tasks and anticipating incidents before they affect the user. The new managed services will thus free up internal teams’ time and improve operational efficiency.
Success stories
OHLA and Carrefour are two large companies that are leading the transformation of jobs in the era of hybrid work and betting on artificial intelligence to innovate. Nuria Fuentes, Global CIO & Digital Transformation Officer of OHLA, and Javier Mallo, CIO of Carrefour, lead these transformations, enabling open spaces that favor innovation, using technology that facilitates inclusive meetings for employees in person and remotely, and integrating AI into workers’ tasks and corporate processes.
For the IT management of OHLA, to be successful in the democratization of AI in the company, “it is essential to have a governance model and a strategy that allows improving productivity and optimizing and automating processes. It is helping us to identify those products or services that can be differentiators.”
Companies that know how to integrate AI, automation and intelligent collaborative spaces will be the ones that lead the next stage of digital growth
For his part, Javier Mallo highlighted that for Carrefour it has also been decisive “to identify 100 profiles, which stand out for the dynamism and digital capabilities of the different departments, to train and empower them, to promote AI among the rest of their colleagues and, thus, share use cases in workshops. Soon AI agents will work with people, hand in hand, and we must reinforce three basic precepts: security, governance and privacy.”
The future of the workplace
The new digital, hybrid and connected environment represents an unprecedented opportunity to boost productivity, attract talent and strengthen business security.
Ricoh proposes a people-centered strategy to create more humane, safe and sustainable work environments, in which technology empowers people and not the other way around.
The tenth edition of Be Hybrid, Be Smart has confirmed its position as the great meeting point to understand where hybrid work, the smart workplace and technological integration in organizations are evolving. A forum that brings together those who lead the transformation in their companies, manufacturers who set the pace with innovative services and solutions, and Ricoh as a global integrator, with almost nine decades transforming the way of working and ten years developing collaborative experiences adapted to each client.
