KI Introduces the Kiaura Collection™ Built With Cognetic Technology™ and Defines Human Performance Seating at Design Days

GREEN BAY, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 4, 2026--

For decades, the seating industry has approached discomfort as something to manage. Chairs became more complex, adding levers, controls, and adjustments intended to help people tolerate long hours of sitting. Yet even as ergonomics evolved, one assumption largely remained unchanged: that sitting itself should still be relatively static.

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Designed and invented by Aaron DeJule, the Kiaura Collection™ built with Cognetic Technology™, challenges that assumption entirely.

Debuting at the KI Inspiration Center during Design Days in Chicago, the Kiaura Collection built with Cognetic Technology represents contract furniture manufacturer KI’s most significant seating innovation to date and introduces what the company defines as a new category: Human Performance Seating.

Cognetic Technology, invented by Aaron DeJule, is a gravity-responsive, multi-axis motion system that continuously responds to subtle shifts in the body, creating a seated experience that feels fluid, intuitive, and restorative. The technology makes its first full commercial application within the Kiaura Collection, a coordinated family of task, conference, and lounge seating alongside complementary tables and ottomans.

Rather than focusing solely on posture and support, the Kiaura Collection is designed around how people naturally move and work throughout the day.

“The moment people experience a Kiaura Collection chair, the reaction is immediate and visceral,” said Tony Besasie, chief sales and marketing officer at KI. “What they recognize right away is that the chair moves naturally with them instead of asking them to adapt to it. That shift changes the entire experience of sitting during work.”

The foundation for Cognetic Technology stems from DeJule’s personal experience after a serious car accident made sitting for extended periods of time painful and difficult. Frustrated by the limitations of traditional seating, he began exploring how chairs could work more naturally with the body instead of restricting movement.

Through years of prototyping and observation, DeJule sought to better understand how movement impacts the way people feel and function throughout the day. The result was a seating experience centered on continuous balance, natural motion, and a new state of flow. After seeing overwhelmingly positive response to the technology, KI expanded its research to further explore its benefits and the connection between movement, comfort, focus, and overall well-being. Drawing from insights across neuroscience, ergonomics, physical therapy, sports performance, and human factors design, the research reinforced a shared understanding: people benefit from continuous, varied movement throughout the day rather than remaining sedentary for extended periods of time. Humans were never meant to stop moving; our brains and bodies benefit from movement.

Cognetic Technology applies those principles directly into the seated experience, creating continuous motion that works naturally with the body throughout the workday rather than requiring users to constantly adjust or manage the chair.

“When I invented Cognetic Technology, I sought to create a chair that ‘disappears,’” said DeJule. “That vision is realized in the Kiaura Collection, which effortlessly micro-adjusts to your movements in real time. By working in harmony with gravity and the body’s natural mechanics, it provides continuous support without ever having to think about it.”

It’s the kind of innovation people understand through experience first, said Besasie.

“The reaction is instinctive. People sit down and immediately recognize that it feels fundamentally different from traditional seating.”

The Kiaura Collection built with Cognetic Technology translates that movement-based innovation into a complete workplace seating platform designed to support focused work, conference spaces and lounge environments through a cohesive visual and user experience.

Its refined architectural aesthetic, broad material palette, advanced knit textiles, and extensive specification flexibility allow designers to create environments that feel unified while supporting a wide range of work modes and user experiences.

More than a product launch, the Kiaura Collection signals a broader shift in how seating can support human performance over time.

With this introduction, KI is formally defining Human Performance Seating as a category that expands beyond traditional ergonomics to consider the relationship between movement, cognitive engagement, physical comfort, and physiological well-being.

Early controlled studies associated with Cognetic Technology demonstrated measurable outcomes across multiple areas of seated performance and wellness. In a four-hour seated study, participants experienced reductions in anxiety, improvements in visual and auditory cognitive processing, and reduced lower back and pelvic discomfort during extended seated work sessions.

The movement enabled through Cognetic Technology is also designed to help counteract common effects associated with prolonged sitting, including stiffness, discomfort, and physical fatigue.

“This is more than a new seating collection,” Besasie said. “It’s a platform that introduces a different expectation for what seating can do for the body over the course of a workday. People feel that difference almost immediately.”

The Kiaura Collection built with Cognetic Technology will officially debut at the KI Inspiration Center during Design Days, June 8–10, where visitors will be able to experience the collection firsthand.

For KI, this represents more than the introduction of a new product family. It marks the beginning of a broader shift toward designing workplace experiences centered on movement, well-being, and human performance.

For more information about KI and its presence during Design Days, visit ki.com/designdays.

INVENTOR & DESIGN ATTRIBUTION
Cognetic Technology™ is a patented seating innovation invented by Aaron DeJule, founder of DeJule LLC. The Kiaura Collection™, designed by Aaron DeJule, is the first seating collection built with Cognetic Technology and is exclusively manufactured by KI.

ABOUT KI
KI manufactures innovative furniture for education, healthcare, government, and corporate markets. The employee-owned company is headquartered in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with sales and manufacturing facilities worldwide. KI tailors products and service solutions to the specific needs of each customer through its unique design and manufacturing philosophy. For more information, visit ki.com.

ABOUT AARON DEJULE
Aaron DeJule is an industrial designer and founder of DeJule LLC, with a career spanning more than two decades focused on advancing the experience of seating. A graduate of the Institute of Design in Chicago, he has partnered with leading manufacturers to develop award-winning furniture and lighting solutions recognized with honors including IDSA Gold and NeoCon Gold and Silver. DeJule is the inventor of Cognetic Technology and designer of the Kiaura Collection, a new approach to seating that rethinks the relationship between movement, comfort, and performance.

The Kiaura Collection built with Cognetic Technology represents KI’s most significant seating innovation to date and introduces what the company defines as a new category: Human Performance Seating.

TIVAT, Montenegro (AP) — Leaders from across the European Union and the Balkans are gathering in Montenegro on Friday to discuss expanding the bloc to include countries in the region, seen as a key area in countering security and economic threats posed by Russia and China.

The EU-Western Balkans summit, being held in the Adriatic Sea coastal town of Tivat, brings together European leaders including President Emmanuel Macron of France, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, as well as the heads of other EU candidate countries in the Balkans and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

High on the agenda will be Montenegro's EU accession: The bloc has already formed a working group to draft an accession treaty for the country, a signal that membership is within reach.

Adding members to the bloc to expand for more single market economic benefits and stronger security capabilities has gained increased urgency in recent years as the continent has faced a series of challenges, such as lopsided trade with China, migration pressures, the war in Ukraine and increasing hybrid threats from Russia.

The EU has signaled its commitment to expanding into the Western Balkans, where it has urged candidate countries such as Montenegro to carry out reforms like cutting corruption and shoring up democratic institutions — steps viewed as benefiting both the candidate nations and the EU as a whole.

Further, as wars rage in Ukraine, Iran and the Middle East, and Europe’s security has come under question with the United States viewed as less committed to its NATO allies, EU countries have pushed to boost their military capabilities to ward off future threats.

During a tour of countries in the Western Balkans this week, European Council President Antonio Costa, who is hosting the summit, has emphasized how serious the bloc is about enlarging.

Speaking in Serbia on Thursday after meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Costa said the EU would look for new ways to speed up the membership process for the Western Balkan candidate countries.

In times of “global geopolitical uncertainty and economic instability,” Costa said, enlarging the EU is “not just an opportunity. It is a geostrategic necessity for Europe.”

Montenegro, a small, mountainous country that was once a part of Yugoslavia and which this week marked the 20th anniversary of its independence from a union with neighboring Serbia, is considered a front-runner ahead of the region’s other candidate countries of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and North Macedonia.

After joining NATO in 2017, the country of 623,000 people is now set on fulfilling an ambitious agenda of becoming the 28th member of the EU in 2028. The motto “28 by 28” has even been inscribed on one of the planes of Montenegro’s national airline.

Candidate countries must bring their laws into line in 35 policy areas or “chapters,” ranging from justice standards to farm and fishing rules. All 27 EU members must agree before each chapter can be opened, and then again for it to be closed.

Ukraine and Moldova are also among about 10 countries aspiring to join the bloc. Iceland will hold a referendum in August on whether to apply.

Faruk Bašić, a researcher at the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics, said the summit will likely result in a rapid movement for Montenegro to join the bloc in 2028. It will also likely see new safeguards to ensure member nations don’t break EU norms.

The summit will be the first to bring together EU leaders since the stunning defeat in April of Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s former Russia-friendly prime minister who, during his 16-year rule, flouted the EU’s standards on democracy and the rule of law and forged close ties with other autocrats.

With the painful experience of Orbán’s democratic backsliding and historic use of the veto in the European Council, the EU is devising new ways to use financial penalties or restricted access to the single market to pressure incoming nations to carry out reforms and adapt to the bloc's standards, Bašić said.

“The EU is trying to find a way how to admit a country that isn’t fully ready to be admitted without losing the ability to hold it accountable after the fact,” he said, pointing to Ukraine’s accession bid as well as nations in the Western Balkans like Serbia and Kosovo.

McNeil reported from Brussels.

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, speaks during a press conference after talks with Montenegro's President Jakov Milatovic, right, in Cetinje, Montenegro, Thursday, June 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Risto Bozovic)

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, reviews the honor guard with Montenegro's President Jakov Milatovic during a welcome ceremony in Cetinje, Montenegro, Thursday, June 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Risto Bozovic)