At the Australian Property Institute I discussed the future of commercial property. Currently everything pulls staff away from the office. In the long-term the office towers will be fuller than ever. Our cities continue to grow and even if a smaller share of workers goes to the office, occupancy goes up. Our national economy continues its transition towards knowledge work – these types of jobs lend themselves to the office. The biggest driver for people to return to the office however is AI. Sounds counter-intuitive but a tech-heavy world of work is a more interpersonal, a more humane world of work. AI speeds up many tasks. It will be faster to create charts and maps, record keeping will be sped up, and many workflows will run more smoothly. Because of the ongoing skills shortage these developments will not lead to mass unemployment.
Rather the time that we saved through AI will be filled with tasks that AI can’t snatch from us. These tasks are interpersonal in nature. The more AI infiltrates our jobs, the more time we will spend communicating, workshopping, and collaborating with other humans.
These tasks will be done, you guessed it, in offices. We will be going to offices more frequently simply because the type of work tasks dictate we go to an office.
The office of the future will be even more collaborative and open in its layout. It will likely also be a more raucous and ultimately more fun place to visit.
#commercialproperty #property #realestate #demographics
