Economics professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business
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Bloom has earned his reputation as a go-to expert on remote work, with regular appearances in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg, and Charter, among other publications. Bloom’s research on remote working arrangements, which began long before the Covid pandemic, includes WFH Research’s monthly Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes; his steady stream of insights has helped countless leaders make sense of current flexible work trends, the effects of remote and hybrid work, and best practices to make these policies effective.
Right now, what is your biggest question or curiosity about the future of work?
What skills should our kids be learning to equip them for the next 30 years? My predictions are anything that AI cannot do—social skills, deep creativity and perhaps human empathy. I’m worried that the massive shift towards computer science is going to lead to thousands of graduates unemployed in 20 years time when AI runs all our coding.
What is one problem leaders should be focused on solving in the year ahead?
Solving the tensions between AI and fully remote work. Any task that can be undertaken fully remotely is at huge risk of being replaced by AI in the next 10 to 20 years, which is a tension for firms and employees.