The New Potential Office Killer: AI

In the last few years, the bad news has been like one bad game of dodge ball after another for office asset owners, investors, and operators, leaving them diving, evading, and looking for some steady ground to think and plan.

Woosh! Pandemic closures. Zing! Extended work from home. Whomp! Hybrid office.

Now add Clomp! Artificial intelligence. AI is coming for jobs, especially those that have traditionally taken place in office buildings.

As was widely reported in March, Goldman Sachs economists predicted in a report that 18% of global work, some 300 million jobs, could be eliminated by AI-powered automation.

IBM is already preparing for likely cuts in the near future. CEO Arvind Krishna in an interview with Bloomberg said the company is pausing on hiring for roles that AI might replace in the next few years. Almost a third of back-office jobs, including areas like HR, could be replaced within five years. Customer-facing ones are safe, at least for now. How long even that might last is in question.

Financial services is one industry that could use AI to gain efficiencies and cut costs, according to JLL. “Many organizations have already incorporated AI tech into their daily business operations and are employing tools like AI-powered virtual assistants for customers,” the firm wrote.

As an example, Morgan Stanley has been incorporating AI-driven investment advice into communications with clients since at least 2018, as CNBC noted at the time. It may be that humans are first looking at the advice and deciding what it appropriate, other companies found that customers can prefer automated systems that are factual and not perceived as laying to trying to close a sale.

“To keep up with the rapid pace of AI advancements, financial institutions are prioritizing hiring objectives to gain expertise in cloud computing, AI, machine learning and programming,” JLL said. “Software developers are now one of the most in-demand roles in the industry, and since 2018, the largest banks have increased hiring for software developers and data scientists by 90%.”

That runs along the traditional view that while technology can destroy jobs, it can also create new ones. The question though is the pace at which the new jobs come about. For example, even in 2015, there was machine learning and other AI software to create effective email marketing messages and automate delivery of low-level anesthesia, allowing a single anesthesiologist to oversee multiple colonoscopies at the same time. That could mean less need for space in medical offices.