Making Room for What's Next

Here in the early days of 2026, information economy workers could be forgiven for abandoning their fight over remote work. After all, squabbling about where work is done when your job is not secure seems a bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

This got me thinking about how we sometimes don’t appreciate what we have until it’s gone. During and after the pandemic, information economy workers enjoyed a moment when it seemed they could demand more from their employers. Many seized the opportunity to redefine where (and sometimes when) they work. With a tight labor market, employers, nervous about losing staff, begrudgingly met such demands. But that’s no longer the case. Especially in the tech sector, where companies seem more focused on firing than hiring.

It seems clear that advancements in AI achieved over the past year have created the real possibility of significant changes in how work is done in the information economy. Indeed, recent layoffs seem to confirm that such changes are already underway. It’s time for affected workers to make room for what’s next. To do so requires an adaptive mindset, one that seeks a way to participate in, not run from, the increasing presence of AI in the workplace.