A mild displacement of jobs across the Asia-Pacific region as companies expand their use of AI would trim five percentage points off growth in office space demand in the next few years, according to property consultancy CBRE.
In a report released on Thursday it said 3.9 per cent of office jobs were vulnerable to artificial intelligence-driven displacement in developed markets in the region, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand.
However, only 1.7 per cent were similarly vulnerable in developing markets, including mainland China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
CBRE’s head of Asia-Pacific research, Ada Choi, said in an interview that occupied office space was still projected to grow under a moderate-displacement scenario, “but at a slower pace of 13 per cent” by 2030 – 5 percentage points less than under the consultancy’s base case, which assumed firms in the region would incorporate AI-related productivity gains without job displacement.
