A bleak future for office real estate, how Thomson Reuters is capitalizing on AI and a cold labor market

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An ‘Office Space Available’ sign in the Loop neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, USA, Friday, May 12, 2023. Photographer: Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg

Despite CEOs’ best efforts to get employees back into the office, seemingly empty office buildings will likely remain more empty than before the pandemic. And according to a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute, demand could fall further, even with modest forecasts.

I wrote on Wednesday about the report’s findings suggesting demand for office property is down 13% from pre-pandemic levels and could fall as much as 38% in tougher forecasts.In a conversation with McKinsey Associate Partner Ryan Ruby, we learned why he thinks hybrid work is here to stay: Metrics Suggest Workdays for Employees prefer The number of days I work in the field (3.2 days a week) isn’t really far from the number of days I’d expect to have to go to the office after all this madness is “over” (3.7 days). Even if it did.

Additionally, office attendance rates have stabilized in recent months, and many high-paid senior-level bosses will still quit their jobs if they have to be remote, but this is likely to be the case for many in power. It suggests that they want to maintain the status quo. “We are in a new normal,” he told me. “What it takes to win in this environment is fundamentally different than it was three or four years ago.”

For more information on the McKinsey report, see my article here, along with the latest news, commentary and analysis on work directions.

Jena McGregor, Senior Editor, Leadership Strategy and Career | @jenamcgregor

Diversity and inclusion

The number of black female CFOs has increased slightly this week, with Kickstarter naming Lyft, EY and Cox Automotive alum Cindy Wilson as Chief Financial Officer effective July 12. The announcement, with Everett Taylor as CEO, marks a rare CFO-CEO duo. both are black. Learn more about exclusive content here.

The impact of the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling will be felt for years to come. Contributors wrote that this could be dangerous for the DEI’s efforts, and that helping develop post-judgment programs would be a growing business.

human capital

More than 40 members of Amazon’s union in New York City sued the union and its chairman, Chris Smalls, for violating the union’s rules by handpicking officers without allowing members to vote for leadership posts. is claiming forbes Molly Bohannon reports that she has reached out to the union for comment.

artificial intelligence

A new report released Tuesday by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which includes 38 countries, including the United States and Canada, found that more than a quarter of all jobs in the world’s richest nations were filled by artificial intelligence. Turned out to be in an industry that could be replaced. The world is on the brink of an “AI revolution” and many human workers are facing it.

policy and practice

William Skipworth reports that lawsuits by multiple delivery companies have temporarily blocked a law that would raise wages for delivery drivers to nearly $18 an hour, hurting a burgeoning movement for greater protection for drivers. became.

What’s next: Mary Alice Vicic, Chief Human Resources Officer, Thomson Reuters

Mary Alice Vicic, Chief Human Resources Officer, Thomson Reuters

thomson Reuters

forbes We sat down with news and information giant Mary Alice Vicic, Chief Human Resources Officer, to discuss generative AI and how the company is leveraging new technologies. The conversation excerpts below have been edited for length and clarity.

How much impact do you think AI will have on talent?

I would say this is the biggest technological change in my career so far.closest [parallel] Perhaps it’s the transformation of smartphones. We are still in the early stages of how this will change the way work is designed, how companies are organized, and how work gets done. HR has a key role to play in helping people see beyond fear to see opportunity and understand how individuals and organizations embrace and take advantage of this.

But the smartphone revolution didn’t cause this kind of concern about replacing people’s jobs. What are your thoughts on that discussion?

Generative AI is undoubtedly a disruptive technology, but it’s not what many people hype up. It does not replace work. But it would fundamentally change the way many of them do things.

Don’t you think it replaces work?

It does not replace work. Replace task. Work is rethought and reorganized around remaining tasks. …professionals and individual businesses will have to make choices about how to use that excess capacity. At Thomson Reuters, we are focused on using this to elevate our workforce and accelerate the growth of the business we do for our clients. Humans have an absolutely continuing role, and I think it’s an even more important one.

Can you elaborate on how you specifically implement AI?

The first step, which I think is really essential for any enterprise, is to commit to trusted and responsible AI. This is not just an industry issue, but a social demand. … Then proceed to his second step of awareness and education. Back in April, we held our first ever Global Learning Day. There, all 26,000 colleagues were invited to join him for a day dedicated to learning about AI. [machine learning] Especially generative AI. Over 6,000 people joined live, and thousands more joined asynchronously. Of his participating colleagues, 75% said they see an immediate opportunity to apply generative AI to their work. The idea was to focus on leaning rather than leaning back.

Suppose I am a breaking news reporter for Reuters.How do I convince you not to create [an AI tool] Will it replace me?

As I said earlier, generative AI definitely automates tasks, low-level, more mundane tasks. Many professionals—journalists, accountants, lawyers, human resources, communications, and more—are less enjoying the mundane, more mundane kinds of work and repetitive tasks that generative AI is best suited for.

In the area of communications, we are leveraging generative AI to deliver first drafts, which I believe has allowed the team to deliver better content output and ensure a wider range of data points. We cannot accept that as a fact. It takes fact-checking, but it actually leads to increased productivity and output, better team collaboration, increased creativity, and more complex problem-solving.

facts + comments

The labor market is showing signs of a slight slowdown, but to a modest extent. The US economy added 209,000 jobs last month, according to the latest jobs report, well short of economists’ expectations of 240,000.

December 2020: This is the last time that few jobs were added in a month
3.6%: The new unemployment rate fell slightly this month.
“There is nothing in this release that changes our expectation that the Fed has more to do,” Vanguard economists Joseph H. Davis and Andrew Patterson said in an emailed statement. wrote.