AI Growth Looks Like a Boon for U.S. Office Market

The growth of artificial intelligence is poised to change the mix of U.S. jobs, not necessarily eliminate a significant amount of them, CBRE reported Wednesday. Just 5% of U.S. office-using jobs are considered highly vulnerable to disruption by AI.

Another 18% of jobs are highly adaptable to AI and thus likely to endure. The remaining 77% are in the middle ground of being exposed to change but not significant disruption.

The jobs most likely to be displaced by AI, including payroll and timekeeping clerks and tax collectors and revenue agents, are largely focused on individual work, often done remotely. Conversely, the jobs that AI supports, such as financial and investment analysts, computer network architects and AI engineers, tend to focus on collaborative work often done in the office, reported CBRE. 

“History has shown that technological advancements often lead to more jobs rather than fewer,” said John Morris, CBRE’s group president of advisory leasing. “After the advent of both the Internet and the smartphone, office-using jobs made large gains in share of overall U.S. jobs. Our analysis indicates that the upside of AI for the office market is greater than the downside.”