AI and Office Space Demand
Back from the TCN worldwide Principals conference in Chicago with a headful of insights into the US office markets and how they are faring.
Amongst many topics, AI and the effect on office space demand was the one that perplexed us the most. Why? Because it is very hard to come up with concrete views so early in a new trend just as it was in 1993 at the start of the dotcom era.
Predictions ranged from doom and gloom (50% of office space users will lose their jobs) to demand will spike just like occurred in San Francisco in the 1990’s in the run up to Y2K and the 2000 dotcom peak.
Its hard to find independent views (away from the real estate industry) but the World Economic Forum recently released the following;
Source World Economic Forum ‘Jobs AI Will Create?’ Ian Shine, September 18, 2023 Find the full article here
From an office demand perspective, some of these roles are office based and others are not. Some are CBD based and others are not. The finance and administrative industries have the greatest concentration of roles which may be affected and are the office market’s largest occupiers.
Based on what we are hearing here and overseas this is no surprise. But like the transformation during the dotcom era of 1993 to 2000, the true affects are only really to be more understood in the coming years.
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