The
dematerialized
ofce
October 2020
A vision of the internet of senses
in the 2030 future workplace
ericsson.com/
industrylab
2 Ericsson | The dematerialized ofce
Contents
03 Working in a dematerialized office
04 Key findings
06 The internet of senses goes to work
07 Virtual interaction with clients
and colleagues
08 The pandemic has become a
digital tipping point
09 The sustainable
dematerialized office
10 Highest ranked internet of senses
technologies for business use
12 Internet of senses to drive sales
13 Sharing the stress of
decision-making
14 Security and privacy are key barriers
15 The company that senses you
Methodology
This report aims to extend our insight of
the internet of senses, a vision originating
with Ericsson Research, where not only
sight and sound but also other sensorial
experiences, such as touch, taste, smell
and sensations of hot or cold, are part of
digital communications.
In December 2019, Ericsson Consumer
& IndustryLab published the 10 Hot
Consumer Trends 2030: The Internet of
Senses. We now follow up with a study
focusing on enterprise use, also looking
at what business professionals expect to
happen by the year 2030.
The quantitative results in the report
are based on a July 2020 online survey
of 7,842 white collar workers in Australia,
Brazil, China, Mexico, India, Japan,
KSA, Russia, South Africa, South Korea,
Qatar, Sweden, Turkey, UAE, the UK and
the US. The sample consists of at least
500respondents (250 managers and
250 non-managers) per country (except
Qatar with 263 respondents), aged
18–69. They are either regular users of
augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR)
or virtual assistants, or plan to use these
technologies in the future.
Correspondingly, they represent
only around 133 million of the roughly
300 million white collar workers living
in the countries surveyed. However, we
believe their early adopter profile makes
them important when exploring the
changing nature of office work 10 years
into the future.
For comparison, a matched subsample
from the 10 Hot Consumer Trends 2030:
The Internet of Senses study, consisting of
2,999 white collar employees surveyed in
October 2019, has also been used.
About Consumer & IndustryLab
Ericsson Consumer & IndustryLab delivers
world-class research and insights for
innovation and sustainable business
development. We explore the future of
consumers, industries and sustainable
society in regard to connectivity, by using
scientific methods to provide unique
insights on markets, industries and
consumer trends.
Our knowledge is gained in global
consumer and industry research programs,
including collaborations with renowned
industry organizations and world-leading
universities. Our research programs cover
interviews with over 100,000 individuals
each year, in more than 40 countries,
statistically representing the views of
1.1billion people.
All reports can be found at:
www.ericsson.com/industrylab
This report explores the future workplace,
where senses such as touch, taste and smell are
part of digital communications.
3Ericsson | The dematerialized ofce
Working in a dematerialized ofce
Imagine a virtual workplace that automatically changes depending on what you
need to do. It might give you a big display when you are retouching a video,
or a haptic keyboard and thesaurus for writing a report.
This report explores the future workplace,
where senses such as touch, taste and smell are
part of digital communications.
Imagine that by 2030 it has become
commonplace to have a lifestyle involving
working and socializing totally in
virtual realms without ever physically
leaving home.
As recently as last year, this seemed
like a far-fetched futuristic fantasy. But
truth is stranger than fiction. In early 2020,
the Covid-19 pandemic struck in full force
and the idea of working and socializing
from home was no longer a theoretical
proposition. To the contrary, for many of
the world’s office workers, it was suddenly
the new reality.
This ‘new normal’ involves long
workdays in front of a laptop in video
meetings with colleagues and business
relations. The internet has become a
working lifeline, and it has functioned
surprisingly well; by and large, professional
activity has continued and the job has been
done. For many, the internet saved the day,
and as a result, online activity has grown
quite significantly on a global scale.
Yet, many realize that one thing is sorely
missing – the technology to make up for
the presence and immersion of the physical
world. Spending your whole day in front of
a flat screen with flat sound doesn’t even
come close to the real experience of a
face-to-face business meeting. For a
digital meeting to be as interactive as the
real thing, communications technology
would need to take a big leap forward.
And it would involve much more than
better video meetings. It would have to
enable the experience of collaborating in
the same room with colleagues – which is
a reason why interest in AR/VR technology
has grown rapidly over the last six months.
But even that would only be going half the
way. During isolation people everywhere are
rediscovering the importance of the smells
and the flavors and the sheer physicality of
the locations they normally frequent and do
business in. In fact, the pandemic has created
a tipping point for what white collar workers
expect of the future digital office.
Realistic immersion means going beyond
video and sound, beyond AR and VR; it
also means digitally communicating touch,
taste, smell and the feeling of heat or cold.
At Ericsson Research, our vision is that a
decade from now, advanced technology
and 5G networks could enable such a full
internet of senses.
Office work will not go back to the way it
was before the pandemic. Instead, employees
will spend more time working digitally and,
for this reason, drive the need for future
technologies on a scale and at a pace that
was unimaginable only a year ago. Rather
than just letting us pull up a virtual computer
screen in thin air, the experience could become
all-inclusive, covering coffee breaks, social
experiences and a digital commute.
With increasing digitalization of both
work and team building, and correspondingly
more time spent working from home, the
overall carbon footprint could potentially be
reduced as well.
Go ahead, enter the dematerialized office!
“The pandemic has created
a tipping point for what white
collar workers expect of the future
digital ofce.”
There has been a dramatic rise in interest in AR/VR technology in the last six months, but how far could this go by 2030?
4 Ericsson | The dematerialized ofce
Key ndings
>50%
77%
6 in 10
01
The dematerialized office may
be a reality by 2030. Not only do
half of respondents want a digital
workstation allowing full-sense
presence at work from anywhere,
but close to 6 in 10 also want
full-sense virtual warehouses both
for buying from suppliers and for
selling to customers.
02
The pandemic has become a digital
tipping point. Nearly 6 in 10 foresee
a permanent increase in online
meetings with customers, suppliers
and colleagues – and need tools that
better support remote interaction.
03
Dematerialization of the office will
be driven by efficiency gains and
sales, but the environment is also
expected to benefit. As many as
77 percent indicate that an internet
of senses for business use would
make companies more sustainable.
5Ericsson | The dematerialized ofce
04
The internet of senses will most
likely be used for marketing and sales,
with 59 percent saying that spatial
video and 50 percent saying digital
temperature will be used
to more immersively engage
customers by 2030.
05
Internet of senses technology will
also be used inside companies.
73 percent of senior managers
believe that food in the company
canteen can be digitally enhanced to
taste like anything by 2030, opening
up for optimization of both cost and
perceived quality.
06
Security and privacy are key barriers,
and privacy in particular is set to be
a critical challenge going forward.
While 66 percent think that by 2030,
technology will enable them to sense
when a colleague is upset, that also
means their employer will know
when they themselves are upset.
50%
73%
66%
