REPORTS of the office’s demise are greatly exaggerated, according to Space Matrix’s global chief executive officer Arsh Chaudhry. Though the workplace design consultancy “had a significant drop in revenue” when Covid-19 made working from home the norm, overall revenue has since recovered past pre-pandemic levels.

“When Covid hit, almost everyone was saying, ‘Hey, we will never need offices anymore’,” he recalled. Yet as the pandemic eases, companies are realising the virtues of working together in a physical space, and how working virtually causes innovation to slow down, he added.

Even as Space Matrix banks on a return to physical workplaces, it is building new digital tools. Having acquired business-to-business procurement platform Pursuite this June, Space Matrix is adapting this artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technology for its own design-and-build business.