The digital workplace is changing. As technology advances, digital workplaces are unlocking new ways to improve flexibility, collaboration, and productivity, and businesses are embracing new tools and strategies to streamline operations and enhance the employee experience across remote and hybrid work environments.
For 2026, we've identified several digital workplace trends that will continue to grow, so let's examine the trends and challenges ahead.
The Shift from Fragmented Tools to Unified Digital Workplaces
While digital workplaces once consisted of fragmented tools and disparate technologies, that's no longer the case. Continuing to use traditional, disconnected tools can hinder efficiency and reduce collaboration as the world embraces unified digital workplaces.
As technology has advanced, we've seen developments in artificial intelligence (AI), collaboration tools, and remote access software that have helped streamline workflows and enhance productivity. At the same time, data-driven decision-making has enabled organizations to gain new insights into trends and operations, improving the employee experience and performance across digital environments.
With this shift towards a unified workplace, organizations can improve productivity and streamline their daily workflows.
8 Digital Workplace Innovations That Will Transform Business in 2026
So, what will the digital workplace look like in 2026? We've looked at the data and identified these key trends, which will continue to reshape the way we work and drive better digital experiences in the year ahead:
1. Everyday AI Becomes the Backbone of Daily Workflows
AI technology has continued to grow, and in 2026, it will become central to streamlining and managing daily work. AI-powered tools can automate repetitive tasks, detect threats, and organize schedules and workflows, improving efficiency and freeing up employees to focus on more vital work.
As AI technology has grown over the past few years, businesses have looked for ways to integrate it into everything, with mixed results. However, this experimentation has led organizations to discover where AI is most efficient and can deliver the most significant benefits, so we can expect companies to capitalize on those areas in 2026.
2. Hybrid Teams Demand Smarter, More Manageable Digital Workflows
Hybrid work has become one of the most common ways to work, empowering employees to work from the office, at home, or while on the go. While it's a flexible workstyle that employees enjoy, good digital workflow management is essential.
As such, the demand for manageable digital workflows will grow in the coming year. This requires the ability to easily access the digital tools employees need from anywhere, automation to carry out basic tasks, secure accessibility, support for multi-device and BYOD environments, workforce management, and so on. Businesses aiming to support hybrid teams will need to invest and ensure they provide their teams with the tools they need to work efficiently from anywhere.
3. Automation Evolves Into a Core Productivity Engine Across Enterprises
Automation is a powerful tool for improving efficiency. With the right automation features, businesses can reduce time spent on repetitive manual tasks, improve workplace efficiency, and free up time for employees to spend on more pressing matters.
With automation tools, businesses can streamline processes, reduce human error, and speed up operations across departments. Employees can create customized automated processes to assist with their daily work, and automation tools can handle predictable, repetitive tasks to improve daily work and productivity.
For instance, Splashtop AEM's patch automation feature can detect available patches and deploy them across endpoints based on defined policies, saving time that IT teams would otherwise spend patching devices manually. Tools like this will continue to grow in use and effectiveness in the year to come.
4. AI Elevates Endpoint Visibility and Operational Intelligence
AI-driven analytics across endpoint and IT environments can provide organizations with real-time visibility into system health, security posture, and operational risk.
For instance, AI's ability to quickly analyze large amounts of data has made it a powerful tool for detecting patterns and abnormalities, providing businesses with key insights and identifying emerging trends. Many organizations are also using AI-assisted tools to make operational and security data more accessible, enabling faster insights without requiring deep manual analysis.
Similarly, solutions like Splashtop AEM use CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) data and real-time analytics to help IT teams identify vulnerabilities quickly and prioritize remediation actions. This technology will become even more essential in the years ahead, thanks to the competitive edge it can provide.
5. Superagency: Employees Amplify Their Capabilities With AI Assistants
Another use for AI is to act as an intelligent assistant for employees. AI-powered virtual assistants can streamline tasks such as troubleshooting, support, and service tickets, helping employees when they need assistance as a complement to IT support. Agentic AI is also designed to anticipate employees' needs, enabling proactive support and further improving efficiency and daily work.
Of course, how much employees want and will use AI will vary by role, responsibilities, and individual preferences. Some appreciate having their emails summarized, while others don't want AI anywhere near their work. Both approaches are valid for each individual. Yet for those who embrace artificial intelligence, the technology will only continue to advance in the coming year.
6. Adaptive Skills Become Essential for the Future of Work
Technology and work environments are constantly changing, and those that can adapt will be best suited to succeed. Adaptive skills are essential for an ever-changing workplace, especially as employees need to develop dynamic skill sets.
Developing adaptive skills requires both training and a work environment that encourages and fosters growth. Those who are eager to learn, develop new skills, and find new ways to utilize constantly evolving technology will be best suited for success.
7. Technological Stress Rises as Digital Complexity Increases
Does it ever feel like it's impossible to keep up with the latest technological developments, or that you're falling behind the curve? If so, you're familiar with technostress, the anxiety brought on by the difficulty of keeping up with the demands of and changes to technology.
While technological advancements can bring significant benefits to businesses, they can also create stress for employees, who often feel pressured to adopt new technology or are concerned about the changes it brings. AI, for instance, is a major source of technostress for many, especially as businesses seek ways to use it that can potentially make certain roles redundant or irrelevant.
Businesses need to be aware of technostress and prepared to help employees grow as technology changes. This includes addressing the mental load and fatigue caused by new technologies, and ensuring employees have the skills and responsibilities to avoid becoming obsolete in the face of them.
8. Employee Experience (EX) Emerges as a Strategic Differentiator
For all the good that technological developments can do, they amount to very little if the employee experience (EX) is poor. A good employee experience can make the difference for a company's productivity, efficiency, and retention, whereas a bad EX can drive good employees away.
The technology organizations use should be intuitive, efficient, and user-friendly, so employees can focus on their work and benefit from it rather than be slowed down by trying to figure it all out. Good technology can lead to a positive employee experience, thus improving engagement and satisfaction, but faulty software can cause more frustration and drag down the entire company.
Challenges in Adopting New Digital Workplace Trends
It's clear that the workplace is changing with the advent of new technology, but adapting to these changes can be a challenge. Organizations face many obstacles with each new digital workplace trend, including:
Incompatible technology: New technology often struggles to work with legacy systems, as older software or hardware may be incompatible. Keeping systems up to date and modernized is essential to ensure compatibility with new tools and systems, as well as providing employees with the tools they need to succeed.
Skills gaps: Not all new digital workplace tools are intuitive to use. Without proper onboarding and training, employees will struggle to learn the new technology, which can slow productivity, overload IT teams with support tickets, and prevent them from realizing the full benefits of the tool.
Resistance to change: Sometimes, employees are fine with how things are and don't want to add any new tools to their tech stack or change their processes. In these cases, communication and training are important so employees can understand the benefits of the new tools and understand how to use them. This will make the process smoother, reduce friction for employees, and ensure everyone's on the same page.
How to Effectively Adjust to Evolving Digital Workplace Trends
So, how can businesses adapt to these new digital workplace trends in 2026? While significant changes are undoubtedly ahead for the technology we use to work, companies can prepare for them and take advantage of emerging trends with a bit of planning.
First, continuous learning and training are essential for success. Keeping your employees and IT teams informed and up to date on the new tools you're using will help them tackle the changes and embrace the new technology. This also means that clear communication and collaboration with employees and stakeholders are vital.
Additionally, businesses should focus on practical implementation. Simply adopting a new technology for its own sake, rather than addressing a real need, is counterproductive and only adds unnecessary complexity. Focus on solutions that improve efficiency, productivity, flexibility, and collaboration, and set a clear goal for each change.
Businesses should also be flexible and agile to keep up with changes. Be prepared to adopt new tools and adjust to them, but make sure these trends and tools can integrate smoothly into your workflows. Organizations should be ready to adapt to change while maintaining clear lines of communication with their employees, so everyone is prepared for what the future holds.
Why Enterprises Choose Splashtop Remote Access Solutions for Digital Workplaces
If you want to prepare for the digital workplace in 2026, there are solutions you can use to help seamlessly transition to a digital workplace.
Splashtop provides secure, flexible, and high-performance remote access, which is essential for an efficient digital workplace. With Splashtop, employees can access their work computers (including their programs, projects, and specialized tools) from anywhere and on any device, making it a powerful tool for hybrid work and BYOD environments.
Additionally, Splashtop's flexibility, scalability, and integrations make it a good fit for any business's needs, size, or tech stack. Splashtop is designed to be intuitive and easy to use, so employees can connect to and access their remote devices without difficulty.
Splashtop is built with security in mind and uses cybersecurity features such as multi-factor authentication, screen auto-lock, and end-to-end encryption to help protect data. Splashtop meets key security and compliance standards, including ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 2, and CCPA requirements.
Ready to bring your company's digital workplace into the future? Get started with Splashtop today with a free trial!
