Ep. 407: "Stay Curious" – Using Smart & Adaptive Technologies to Build People-Centric Workplace Experiences with Daniel Grilli of VECOS

And I know you and I have that in common.

We are trying to bring those better workplace experiences and a better hospitality approach.

So I'd love to hear some of your thoughts.

top priorities here in the middle of 2026 as you talk to clients and as certainly you're talking about the products that you bring to the table, but in a broader sense, what are some of the challenges that organizations are facing and that the people you work with are asking you to help them solve?

Yeah, that's a good question.

I mean, certainly what I'm most focused on being in the experience industry is that I feel that for years we've designed workplaces based on assumptions.

And today, the exciting part is that today we can design them around evidence now and evidence-based data and people data.

So in what I do and certainly what you do as well, and we're one of many that do different invisible layers of technology, which I often feel are is the most impactful to get people on their way.

But I'm focused on helping organizations make decisions based on evidence rather than assumptions.

So I think if I look past my 20 years in the industry that there's been this maybe fallacy around spaces and the built environment needing to just facilitate, you know, everything and everyone.

Or maybe it's areas of a part of the building that might be great for teamwork or maybe others that might be great for focused work.

But You know, workplace decisions were based on a lot more than that.

And I think we had thought that decisions were based on what we thought employees wanted or how we expected people to use space.

But in truth, now, in a hybrid world where...

We should be, you know, more dictated around the insights and the workplace data that, you know, allow us to understand how people are actually, you know, purposefully interacting with the environment.

So my goal is simply to help organisations bridge that gap between workplace strategy and the reality and using data adaptive technology like we have is just to keep both the workforce and the organization in flow.

And I think to the second part of your question was more around what FMs and maybe CRE are facing is that Yeah, the workplace is becoming an operating system right now.

It's not just a building.

So we're seeing workplace apps, we're seeing occupancy platforms, BMS, access control systems, adaptive storage, sensors, analytics, all of these things are beginning to work together.

So what I've seen over my observations have been that the organizations that are struggling to, you know, maybe test, learn and adapt are the ones that have legacy problems with their technology, that silo themselves.

And the ones that, look, Happy to cut the cord on some of those legacy systems so that it creates an operating system or ecosystem.

They're the ones that are really experiencing extreme gains in workplace efficiency.

And historically, many technologies have operated independently.

And the future for me lies in that interoperability.

And I think we've certainly come a long way, but I see that there's a lot of businesses wanting to be more adaptive, but they're hamstrung at the moment by systems being siloed and not talking to each other.

And I know you and I have that in common.

We are trying to bring those better workplace experiences and a better hospitality approach.

So I'd love to hear some of your thoughts.

top priorities here in the middle of 2026 as you talk to clients and as certainly you're talking about the products that you bring to the table, but in a broader sense, what are some of the challenges that organizations are facing and that the people you work with are asking you to help them solve?

Yeah, that's a good question.

I mean, certainly what I'm most focused on being in the experience industry is that I feel that for years we've designed workplaces based on assumptions.

And today, the exciting part is that today we can design them around evidence now and evidence-based data and people data.

So in what I do and certainly what you do as well, and we're one of many that do different invisible layers of technology, which I often feel are is the most impactful to get people on their way.

But I'm focused on helping organizations make decisions based on evidence rather than assumptions.

So I think if I look past my 20 years in the industry that there's been this maybe fallacy around spaces and the built environment needing to just facilitate, you know, everything and everyone.

Or maybe it's areas of a part of the building that might be great for teamwork or maybe others that might be great for focused work.

But You know, workplace decisions were based on a lot more than that.

And I think we had thought that decisions were based on what we thought employees wanted or how we expected people to use space.

But in truth, now, in a hybrid world where...

We should be, you know, more dictated around the insights and the workplace data that, you know, allow us to understand how people are actually, you know, purposefully interacting with the environment.

So my goal is simply to help organisations bridge that gap between workplace strategy and the reality and using data adaptive technology like we have is just to keep both the workforce and the organization in flow.

And I think to the second part of your question was more around what FMs and maybe CRE are facing is that Yeah, the workplace is becoming an operating system right now.

It's not just a building.

So we're seeing workplace apps, we're seeing occupancy platforms, BMS, access control systems, adaptive storage, sensors, analytics, all of these things are beginning to work together.

So what I've seen over my observations have been that the organizations that are struggling to, you know, maybe test, learn and adapt are the ones that have legacy problems with their technology, that silo themselves.

And the ones that, look, Happy to cut the cord on some of those legacy systems so that it creates an operating system or ecosystem.

They're the ones that are really experiencing extreme gains in workplace efficiency.

And historically, many technologies have operated independently.

And the future for me lies in that interoperability.

And I think we've certainly come a long way, but I see that there's a lot of businesses wanting to be more adaptive, but they're hamstrung at the moment by systems being siloed and not talking to each other.