Produced by | Entrepreneurship Frontline

Art Editor | Xing Jing

Reviewed by | Song Wen

Since June, discussions around management styles in major tech firms have heated up once again. Following articles like 'Inside DingTalk,' the series 'Inside X' and others focusing on work conditions in large tech companies have sparked debates on organizational culture, bringing a critical question to the fore: In the AI era, how should companies truly unleash human creativity?

Behind these events, businesses are beginning to rethink the concept of 'going to work.' As AI reshapes organizations, the focus shifts from merely optimizing processes and efficiency to prioritizing employee well-being.

For example, renovating office spaces to enhance comfort, equipping employees with AI-enabled office devices, or providing more ergonomic office chairs.

These seemingly minor decisions reflect a broader trend: The competition for AI talent now extends beyond salaries and stock options to the everyday comfort of the work environment. Physical equipment in the office is transforming from a mere 'support role' in administration to a 'creativity infrastructure' that impacts productivity.

After 2025, China's AI industry enters a new phase. Capital market enthusiasm remains high, and talent competition intensifies.

However, an often-overlooked question arises: After attracting talent, how can companies ensure better work conditions and higher employee satisfaction?

Beyond competitive salaries, a positive work atmosphere, and better career growth opportunities, what other factors matter to employees? How can companies optimize these aspects?

Zhaopin's '2025 Work-Life Satisfaction Survey Report' provides some insights: 39% of professionals suffer from neck and back pain, 31.5% work over 10 hours daily, 38.3% experience blurred or dry eyes, and 'prolonged sitting with lack of exercise' is cited as the top health risk by 71.2%.

It's evident that employees' 'effective working hours' and 'screen time' almost entirely overlap. Model training, parameter tuning, and debugging—once immersed, employees remain seated for two to three hours. This is no longer just an 'occupational hazard.'

When health conflicts with career advancement, most people begin to question: What kind of work environment do they truly desire? Especially when physical 'warnings' accumulate to a certain point, these issues are likely to translate into turnover intentions, declining efficiency, and hidden costs to organizational stability.

These concerns are unrelated to employee loyalty or employer branding but rather represent rational choices made by AI talent under systemic pressure.

Some companies have already recognized this trend. An HR leader at an internet firm told 'Entrepreneurship Frontline' that they once calculated the cost of an AI talent's departure—including recruitment, handover, and adjustment periods—at approximately 30% to 50% of their annual salary. During exit interviews, mentions of 'work environment' are on the rise.

In the past, discussions centered on salaries, projects, and career growth. Now, more AI professionals also express concerns about 'lower back strain' or 'neck issues' from prolonged sitting, making office comfort a critical factor. This HR leader believes: 'Companies must focus not only on employee output but also on their physical health. Investing in a more comfortable work environment is worthwhile if it boosts employee happiness.'

Clearly, the competition for AI talent has shifted from 'attracting' to 'retaining,' making the office environment more crucial than imagined.

In fact, companies have continuously upgraded office environments. Since 2000, several clear shifts have occurred.

Early efforts transitioned from cubicles to open-plan spaces, prioritizing spatial efficiency. After the rise of mobile internet, workstations became 'non-fixed,' with laptops replacing desktops, freeing employees from fixed desks. By 2020, hybrid work transformed from an emergency measure into a norm. Recent years have seen finer adjustments: Lighting, air quality, noise, and ergonomics—factors once overlooked—are now standardized.

In the AI era, these upgrades have taken on new directions and types. One category focuses on improving physical well-being, such as height-adjustable desks and dynamic ergonomic chairs. Another enhances collaboration, like conference tablets and AI-powered meeting cameras. A third lightens information processing, such as AI voice recorders and smart notebooks. Yet another redefines work interfaces, like AR glasses and spatial display devices.

Leading companies in the first upgrade category include Loctek and Qingxian Intelligence.

Loctek promotes sit-stand transitions with adjustable desks and ergonomic workstations. Qingxian Intelligence further addresses 'body posture during seated work,' using dynamic support, electric adjustments, and posture tracking to alleviate prolonged sitting, back strain, and fatigue in knowledge-intensive roles.

These products signify more than just 'comfort'; they signal that companies now recognize employee physical condition as part of their work performance. Loctek represents 'desk dynamism' for sit-stand transitions, while Qingxian Intelligence embodies 'chair dynamism' for adaptive seated support.

Together, they reflect a broader change: Office hardware is evolving from static furniture into a work system reconfigured around human physical states.

The second upgrade category is represented by MAXHUB, Huawei IdeaHub, and DingTalk's meeting hardware.

MAXHUB transforms conference tablets from simple display devices into collaborative hubs integrating writing, screen sharing, remote meetings, and content management. Huawei IdeaHub integrates smart writing, high-definition video conferencing, and office collaboration into a single spatial entry point.

These hardware solutions redefine the role of meeting rooms: Once just venues for discussions, they now serve as infrastructure for team co-creation and decision-making.

The third upgrade category includes iFLYTEK, Evernote's hardware ecosystem, XREAL, Rokid, and others.

iFLYTEK's AI voice recorders and smart notebooks delegate low-value tasks like meeting transcription, summarization, translation, and minute-taking to AI. AR glasses companies like XREAL and Rokid explore shifting displays and information interfaces from fixed screens to spatial and mobile formats.

They represent another trend: Office hardware not only boosts efficiency but also reduces cognitive load, freeing employees to focus on judgment and creativity.

(Image / AI-generated)

Regardless of direction, their iterative goal remains consistent: Not just to modernize offices but to align physical, collaborative, and information-processing methods with AI-era work demands.

Of course, hardware changes extend beyond these areas. A broader shift is underway: Companies now prioritize holistic office environment upgrades and renovations. While past efforts focused on screens, meetings, and collaboration to enhance efficiency, more firms now place employee well-being at the forefront.

This shift is evident in the evolution of office chairs, which employees use most frequently. With prolonged sitting recognized as a health hazard, ensuring employee comfort has become a key consideration for businesses.

Traditional high-end ergonomic chairs emphasized 'static support,' using adjustable lumbar support, headrests, and armrests to fix users in a 'correct' seated posture. However, human sitting postures are dynamic—leaning forward, reclining, or shifting sideways—with body weight distribution and support needs constantly changing. Yet chair support remains static.

In real office settings, not everyone adjusts their chair properly, nor does everyone know how to customize it. Often, a functionally complex chair ends up used as an ordinary one.

This has given rise to a new product category: Chairs that 'follow' the body rather than 'restrict' it. Brands like Qingxian Intelligence address not just single-point adjustments but dynamic seated postures, ensuring support keeps pace with body movements. In other words, chairs no longer just 'passively support' but actively respond to evolving sitting needs in real work scenarios.

Of course, this redefinition extends beyond chairs to the entire office environment, with related sectors continuously expanding.

In 2025, Huawei released HarmonyOS Enterprise Edition Beta for PCs, built on HarmonyOS 6, integrating AI, security, and efficiency for enterprise use. Its AI capabilities drive a qualitative leap in office productivity.

That August, SenseTime and China Great Wall jointly launched a fully domestic intelligent office all-in-one machine, achieving full-stack autonomy and deep integration from underlying hardware computing platforms and operating systems to upper-layer AI model applications.

These moves signal that office hardware and software are transitioning from 'tools' to 'environments.'

As AI tools like DeepSeek, Kimi, and Copilot become standard in enterprises, and software efficiency levels out, the true challenge for office environments is not to make everything 'smart' but to reduce unnecessary strain during prolonged work. This applies to AI software tools, chairs, lighting, air quality, screens, meeting terminals, and other hardware.

In late 2025, the CEO of a startup decided to renovate their office environment, upgrading everything from employee computers, meeting devices, and collaboration software to air purification and dynamic ergonomic chairs.

When asked why, he said: For a high-intensity R&D company, office environment investments are one-time, but the gains in employee efficiency and organizational agility are worthwhile. His goal was to minimize unnecessary strain, allowing employees to focus on critical judgment and creativity.

This reflects a broader trend among companies. For instance, SF Express fully adopted DingTalk this year, enabling efficient nationwide collaboration and elevating service standards. Tech giants like DJI, Media Storm, and Dedao have updated 'infrastructure' like Qingxian Dynamic Chairs.

Today, true office environment upgrades have entered a more nuanced phase, with every aspect of office space being redefined.

As DeepSeek and Kimi become desktop staples, and chairs, lighting, air conditioning, curtains, and energy systems silently interconnect, AI transitions from a 'tool' to an 'environment'—a necessary path for all technologies to mature.

For companies, the real question is not 'Should we upgrade the office environment?' but 'Can it make our most valuable people more willing to stay and create steadily?' Those who grasp this first will secure their place in the next round of competition.

*Note: The featured image was generated by AI.