The hybrid settlement
After the pandemic forced mass remote working, most organisations have settled on hybrid arrangements: typically 2-3 days in the office, the rest remote. Most employees value the flexibility highly and report higher job satisfaction in hybrid arrangements. They also report concerns about career progression — being less visible than office-based colleagues — and challenges with collaboration on complex projects.
What the productivity research shows
Individual productivity for routine, independent knowledge work is typically equal or higher when remote. Complex collaboration — brainstorming, problem-solving that requires rapid iteration between team members, onboarding new employees — is harder remotely.
What AI means for employment
AI is automating specific tasks within jobs rather than entire roles: legal document review, first-draft writing, code generation, data analysis, customer service routing. Workers whose roles consist largely of these tasks face structural change. History suggests that technology typically creates more jobs than it destroys, though the distribution of new and lost jobs may not match geographically or in terms of skills.