How AI Is Impacting the Work-From-Home Labor Market
Will AI help or hurt the work-from-home (WFH) labor market? Powerful, versatile AI models like ChatGPT and DALL-E are changing how many employers view remote work. AI can benefit WFH employees, but some employers may consider it a reason to move people back to the office. What positive and negative impacts are AI having on working from home?
Positive Impact of AI on the WFH Labor Market
The conversation around AI and the labor market often focuses on the possibility that AI could replace workers one day. However, this overlooks the many ways AI is helping workers rather than eliminating their jobs. The same is true for the WFH labor market.
Reducing Inefficiencies
Many of the inefficiencies of remote work stem from the inability for employees to walk over to a co-worker’s desk. AI is helping WFH employees reduce their reliance on rapid-turnaround communication. For example, HR departments can use natural language AI models to answer employee questions.
Models like ChatGPT can be great tools for helping WFH employees keep up with the same standards expected of on-site employees. They can use AI to automate tasks that might otherwise require help from others, such as data analysis, content creation, brainstorming, editing, scheduling and more.
Improving Trust and Transparency
AI monitoring programs are becoming increasingly common for tracking the performance of WFH employees. For example, the remote work monitoring app Hubstaff uses AI to analyze individual employees’ performance and rate their productivity. The AI uses data like keyboard and mouse activity to estimate how much time employees spend actively working on their computers.
Programs like this support the WFH labor market by increasing transparency and trust among employers. This is important to note since a lack of confidence and visibility are often key remote work concerns for managers, HR, and business owners. Generative AI models like ChatGPT help WFH employees improve their efficiency, while AI-based monitoring tools improve employers’ trust in the effectiveness of WFH.
This shows in the data on remote jobs, as well. In Q1 2023, 28% of employees reported working primarily from home, while 50% were mainly in the office. That’s a notable difference from Q4 2022, with a 5% drop in in-office employees and a 3% increase in WFH employees.
Negative Impact of AI on Remote Work
Unfortunately, AI can hurt the WFH labor market. Remote work employees can face particular challenges on the job that leave many employers tempted to require a shift back to the office. For example, WFH employees can struggle with distractions and a lack of separation between work and home. This can cause intermittent or poor productivity.
The conversation around AI and the labor market often focuses on the possibility that AI could replace workers one day.
Reducing New WFH Jobs
Issues like this — combined with AI’s capabilities and risks — may contribute to a decline in remote jobs. On one hand, employers may see AI as the solution to underperforming remote roles. If an employee doesn’t want to shift to on-site work, employers may consider automating their position using AI, effectively removing remote jobs.
While AI is unlikely to replace existing WFH employees directly, it could decrease the number of WFH opportunities available in the future. For example, employers can simply use ChatGPT to communicate autonomously with customers rather than hire a new remote customer service agent.
The early impact of this type of situation can already be seen in the WFH labor market. Remote job listings dropped 6% between Q1 and Q4 2022, falling to only fourteen percent. This data shows many employers may be hesitant to allow remote work or may be unable to. AI could contribute to a continued decline in the availability of WFH as automation eliminates new remote jobs.
Reducing Trust and Reliability
AI may also negatively impact the WFH labor market by reducing employee trust. This is somewhat ironic since AI tools like monitoring apps can do the opposite and improve trust and transparency. However, AI can also perform an employee’s job for them without such tools.
For example, a marketing employee may be tasked with writing promotional emails. Rather than writing the emails themselves, the employee could use ChatGPT to create drafts in minutes. ChatGPT’s content creation capabilities can be so good today that it could be challenging to identify AI-generated content.
Of course, there is a way to use AI to automate WFH tasks fairly and ethically. However, some employers may want employees to refrain from using AI to complete work for them. It can be challenging to catch remote workers breaking such a rule. As a result, some employers may remove the option of remote work out of concerns about using AI in the workplace.
WFH in the Age of AI
Highly-capable AI models like ChatGPT are still relatively new, so their full impact on the WFH labor market is still taking shape. However, even early on, it is clear this technology has pros and cons for remote workers. AI can help improve efficiency and transparency. On the other hand, it may also contribute to a decline in remote job opportunities.
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