A Look Back at the 2026 International Workplace Summit: How AI Agents Are Reinventing Workplace Management

On September 24, 2026, SaaSOffice co-hosted a workshop with MerciYanis at theInternational Workplace Summit (IWS) at the Campus Cyber in Paris La Défense. The workshop’s theme was “From Occupant to DET: How Are AI Agents Reinventing the Workplace Experience and Management?” Four topics dominated the discussions with participants: the speed of AI, MCPs, data governance, and multilingual capabilities.

Key Takeaways

• Event: International Workplace Summit 2026 (IWS), first edition, organized by Agora Managers Group and ANews Workwell.
• Date and location: Thursday, September 24, 2026, Campus Cyber, Paris La Défense.
• Workshop: “From Occupant to DET: How AI Agents Are Reinventing the Workplace Experience and Management,” co-hosted by SaaSOffice and MerciYanis.
• Speakers: Eric Fabbri (COO, SaaSOffice), Tristan Fatou (Sales Manager, SaaSOffice), and Guillaume Blanc (co-founder and CEO, MerciYanis).
• The four key topics: keeping pace with AI without losing sight of the goal; using MCPs to connect tools; maintaining control over your AI model and data; and enabling everyone to communicate in their own language.

The International Workplace Summit, a new event focused on the workplace

The International Workplace Summit is a forum for international exchange focused on the workplace and facility management.

For this inaugural event, Agora Managers Groupe and ANews Workwell brought together executives, experts, researchers, and public policymakers at the Cyber Campus to discuss one question: How can the workplace be used as a catalyst for business transformation?

The day's program was organized around four main themes:

• circular construction and workplaces;
• AI, automation, and smart buildings;
• Employee Experience 2.0;
• Universal design and a regenerative workplace.

Keynote speeches on the future of work and the role of AI in the division of labor alternated with more practical sessions focused on smart buildings, energy data, and the workplace.

Against this backdrop—combining forward-looking analysis with feedback from the field—SaaSOffice and MerciYanis presented a highly practical session: how AI agents are already making a difference today for both tenants and property managers.

From the Occupant to the DET: What We Presented

Two Views of the Same Building

The workshop began with a simple observation: in an office building, two experiences coexist.

The occupant wants to enter the building, find a workstation or a room, report a problem, or greet a visitor—all without having to switch between multiple apps.

The DET (Director of the Work Environment) must coordinate these processes, oversee service providers, and justify the use of square meters to senior management.

Today, these two worlds often fail to communicate effectively. Tools are scattered, data is siloed, and dashboards are delivered too late to inform decision-making.

The AI agent as an orchestration layer

We have shown how an AI agent can become the single point of entry for these use cases. That is the role of NOVA, SaaSOffice’s intelligent voice assistant. It centralizes everything into a single conversational interface:

• access control to the building and its spaces;
• reserving spaces: workstations, meeting rooms, parking spaces;
• incident management, from reporting to follow-up;
• welcoming visitors;
• everyday services offered to employees.

Thank you. Yanis rounded out this presentation by discussing the management of facility management operations. Thanks to the new AI connectors, a request made by an occupant is converted into structured data. The manager can then track, prioritize, and analyze it.

Everything is consolidated into real-time reporting and management dashboards.

The central theme of the session: AI agents do not replace the DET; they change the way it operates.

Four topics at the heart of the discussions with participants

1. The Pace of AI: Building a Sustainable Roadmap

Models, tools, and practices evolve almost every quarter. Participants wondered how to develop a workplace roadmap under these circumstances.

Our approach is based on a principle of selection: we focus only on innovations that truly change the daily lives of building occupants. A new technology is only worthwhile if it makes it tangibly easier to access the building, reserve a room, or report an incident.

This filter helps you stay up to date without creating too many projects or losing users along the way.

2. MCPs: Are Costly Integration Projects Coming to an End?

The MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open protocol that enables AI assistants to connect to third-party tools and data sources in a standardized way.

For work environments, the stakes are high. Access control, CMMS, building management systems, reservation tools, and office suites: the workplace relies on numerous systems that do not communicate well with one another.

The question posed was straightforward: Will this protocol finally make it possible to connect tools, open up to ecosystems, and reduce the cost of integration projects? That's the bet SaaSOffice is making.

Standardized connections mean fewer custom developments, faster deployments, and a more open ecosystem for real estate departments.

3. Data Governance: Staying in Control of Your AI

This was the question that came up most often: “Can your assistant run on our own AI provider?”

The answer is yes. NOVA does not rely on any single model. The company retains control over its AI model, its contract with the provider, and its data. For large enterprises—and particularly for CIOs and CISOs—this is often a prerequisite for any deployment.

The topic resonated particularly strongly at Campus Cyber, an iconic hub for cybersecurity in France.

4. Multilingualism: The Topic That Took Everyone by Surprise

One last topic—and one that generated far more reaction than expected: anyone can communicate with NOVA in their own language, without having to change any settings.

In corporate headquarters that host international teams, service providers, and foreign visitors, this capability removes a very real barrier. The experience becomes the same for everyone, regardless of the language spoken.

This is a clear example of how AI brings together the entire office experience.

Why This Is Important for Real Estate Departments and DETs

For workplace leaders, AI is no longer a distant innovation—it’s an architectural decision that must be made now. Discussions at the IWS highlight four criteria to consider when selecting a workplace experience solution.

• Centralizing functions. Does the tool cover access, reservations, incidents, and visitors all within a single interface, or do you need to stack multiple modules? For the first step in the process, check out our guide , “Access Control: How to Manage Daily Office Entry.”
• Interoperability. Can the AI agent easily connect to existing tools, particularly through open standards such as MCP?
• Model Sovereignty. Can a company choose its AI provider and retain control of its data?
• Accessibility. Is the experience the same for all occupants, regardless of their language?

That is precisely what SaaSOffice promises with NOVA. This French workplace experience platform is designed for offices and corporate headquarters as well as facility management and multiservice providers.

Thank you to the organizers and participants

We would like to thank Agora Managers Group and ANews Workwell for organizing this first edition of the International Workplace Summit.

Thank you also to MerciYanis for co-facilitating this workshop, and to all the participants who came to share their thoughts with us.

These meetings reinforce our belief: the workplace of the future is built collectively by stakeholders who share a common vision.

Would you like to learn how NOVA can simplify the management of your workplace?