ABSTRACT
The proportion of employees who work remotely surged from under 5% to over 60% between January and March 2020, but the number of days working from home versus in the office converged in 2023 to roughly 28% in the United States. Other countries in the European Union have similar rates, with the average employee working at least one day remotely. After reviewing these patterns, this chapter explores the implications for employee productivity and evaluates the role of communication in the coordination of complex tasks in the workplace. This chapter shows how the degree of coordination within an occupation is correlated with hourly wages, employment, and productivity, and how generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools have the potential to reduce the barriers to coordinating complex work. Such applications of generative AI could help fuel new development of new industries and higher value work by employees. The chapter concludes by arguing that organisations and governments can use recent advances in AI to promote labour-augmenting applications that reduce the barriers to complex tasks and learning, thereby raising and stabilising average wages and employment.
