This year’s event connected AI, wellbeing, and connection in today’s commercial buildings.

NeoCon has long been known for setting the tone in hospitality and office design; if a new furniture trend was emerging, NeoCon was often the first place to spot it. For the 2026 event, which took place June 8-10 at THE MART in Chicago, the show shifted from a purely physical focus to one centered more on emotion, experience, and human connection. After all, the show’s theme, “Where Design Connects,” foretells an event that’s less about furniture and more about how people experience design.

Illuminating The Effects of Lighting

This year, one of the standout features of NeoCon was a completely new platform dedicated to lighting innovations. Illuminate showcased more than 60 emerging and premier lighting brands, with some featuring interactive vignettes and immersive installations. Biophilic design has been a part of the mainstream design landscape for more than a decade, but it’s only recently that commercial properties have also embraced it. Offices are still evolving post-pandemic, with many organizations shifting back toward in-person work while attempting to preserve the comfort and flexibility people have grown accustomed to at home. Lighting is one of these ways. Circadian lighting systems designed to mimic natural daylight patterns have been linked to improved mood, alertness, and overall well-being.

In the talks at Illuminate, speakers highlighted how circadian lighting is moving from just a buzzword to practical applications. The experiential vignettes showed visitors how lighting can affect mood, which can drastically improve healthcare outcomes. Speakers also emphasized glare reduction and strategies for balancing light rather than simply illuminating every inch of an environment. Lighting interacts differently with different colors, textures, finishes, and materials. Vignettes at the show compared how everything from wall grazing and wall washing to material perception and finishes can impact how occupants experience a space.

All these seemingly small details can come together to promote healing and recovery in healthcare scenarios, lower stress in office environments, and promote performance and comfort in a range of commercial spaces.

AI Augmenting, Not Replacing Human Work

As Illuminate showed, wellness in commercial spaces isn’t about the flashy technology. Instead, it’s subtle and meant to support. This is where AI falls into place as well. Rather than fueling fears about job displacement, NeoCon programming explored how AI can support the way people work.

CEUs at the show explored how AI can take over repetitive tasks, allowing employees to focus more on creative thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving. That means that collaborative and even imaginative spaces will be more prevalent in office spaces meant to focus on relationship-building and inspired thinking. Workplaces can use AI to accelerate workflows and ideation, but technology is not replacing human insight.

This was evident in other NeoCon programming as well, which repeatedly paired the support of AI with wellness, lighting, and human connection. People are craving more in-person experiences than ever. This shows up in hospitality and workspaces that support collaboration and wellness, smarter, more responsive environments, and an overall push for community.

The Science of Wellness

Trends often start in the hospitality and wellness areas before moving into residential design. Today, a vein of wellness runs through most professional sectors, moving beyond the basic “plants in every room” concept and incorporating nature-inspired materials, biophilic lighting, and ergonomic furniture. NeoCon speakers discussed how there is still a fight for beauty in professional and wellness spaces; it can be hard to justify artwork or other seemingly superfluous additions to a technical hospital setting, for example. But wellness showed up as a defining theme at NeoCon this year, with even the Best of NeoCon award going to a chair by KI that’s defining a new furniture category: Human Performance Seating.

Just like how the Kiaura Collection is designed to respond to subtle body shifts, commercial design is shifting toward more holistic, welcoming, and emotionally intelligent spaces. Warmth, flexibility, and comfort are going to be more commonplace with features like lounge-like settings, soft materials, layered lighting, and a mix of both social spaces and quiet zones.

To some, this might feel unnecessary, but thanks to neuroaesthetics, data is now providing measurable evidence that shows these details matter. Neuroaesthetics is an emerging field that explores the link between biological and aesthetic experiences. As designers begin to understand how specific brain networks light up when they engage with beauty, it will be easier to design for certain wellness goals, such as alertness, relaxation, or collaboration. Now science and data can back up design with measurable effects on people, making wellness an even stronger element of design in both commercial and residential fields.

Human-Centered Going Forward

Even as technology and AI grow, NeoCon 2026 made one thing clear: the future of commercial design will be increasingly human-centered. From workplaces designed to foster creativity and connection to healthcare environments shaped around recovery and comfort, this year’s conversations pointed toward spaces that actively support how people feel, connect, and thrive. In an increasingly digital world, the environments that succeed may not look more technological at all, but instead, more thoughtfully human.

If you attended NeoCon 2026, what trends stood out to you?

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