Ex-Google Chief Eric Schmidt Predicts Pandemic Will Create Demand for More Office Space, Not Less

Posted on May 22, 2020
Top Five Predictions from Schmidt on the Post-COVID World
By Mikkel Schultz, Senior Editor

With COVID-19 crippling the world economy, there is widespread belief that demand for office space will decrease significantly. But in an interview with Face the Nation, former Google CEO and founder of Schmidt Futures, predicted that the demand will in fact increase because people will want social distancing when they return to work. In the interview, Schmidt also suggested that the trend toward people moving to and working in supercities will change and talked about the importance of making the internet accessible to everyone, especially those who live in rural areas.   

Schmidt, who led Google from 2001 to 2011, will head up a New York commission focused on using new technologies and what the state has learned during the COVID-19 pandemic to improve telehealth systems and broadband access across the state. 

Here are five takeaways from Eric Schmidt's interview: 

1: MORE DEMAND FOR OFFICE SPACE
"My guess is we will have more demand for office space; not less because people will want social distancing," Schmidt said, adding that as businesses and other organization bring their workers back as the pandemic subsides, they will have to find ways to allow their employees to work at a safe distance so that they can feel safe while at work. 

2: MANY JOBS WILL REMAIN BUT WORK IN DIFFERENT WAYS
Despite record unemployment numbers, Schmidt says that a lot of jobs will continue to exist post-COVID, but that they will operate in different ways. “We will have to reimagine how the workplace works. We are going to have to figure out how to get people into buildings that they’re fearful of. Businesses need their employees, so we have to figure out how to get people to and from work in a safe manner,” Schmidt says. “We have to think about hub-and-spoke systems where local people don't travel so far because they don't want to be on public transportation for so long.” 

3: SUPERCITY TREND WILL CHANGE
Another result of the pandemic will be that people work from different locations instead of congregating in high-density supercities. Schmidt notes that companies will have to develop flexible systems that enable those employees who can and want to come to work to do so, but also allow the ones who fear that if they do go to work, they might die (because they are immunocompromised, for example) to work remotely.

“Imagine that there are three or four people: one will go to the office, one will stay home, some will go to some local or near-their-town working environment. It will change the pattern. We've had this situation where people move to supercities in these incredibly concentrated ways. That will change in the next few years. You don't need to be in the supercity in order to participate in the excitement of these supercities."

4: BROADBAND ACCESS MUST BE AVAILABLE ACCESS TO EVERYONE, INCLUDING THOSE IN RURAL AREAS
The COVID-19 crisis has made widespread access to the internet a necessity. For that reason, making broadband available in rural areas must be a priority, Schmidt emphasizes. 

“One-to-two months [of corona)] have brought 10 years of change. Internet is no longer optional to business. It’s fundamental. … You can’t participate in this new economy without access to the internet. It’s how you’re going to learn, it’s how you’re going to deliver services, it’s how you’re going to market. And it’s, by the way, the way you’re going to sell.”

Schmidt points to telehealth as an example. “People have been wanting it for years. Now, the crisis has made it happen so that we only have to go and in see the doc in person if we have to.”

All in all, the new economy underscores the importance of addressing the disparity in access to internet. Schmidt recommends that federal funding is allocated to this. He suggests that the net stimulus bill include federal funding for improved internet access in rural areas. 

5: OBSOLETE SOFTWARE INFRASTRUCTURE IN PUBLIC DEPARTMENTS MUST BE UPDATED. 
The crisis, Schmidt notes, has revealed that many computer systems in the public sector are outdated. “What you are learning is that the government, at the federal and state level, have just terrible infrastructure in the software departments.” He predicts that the pandemic will accelerate the process to get those systems up to date. This, he says, is necessary because so many of the public services will be online now and post-COVID. This includes much of the health and education sectors. The systems must also be able to help de-densify public transportation by monitoring traffic and advising people of the best time to jump on the subway because it’s less crowded. “These kinds of things are easy for these computer systems to do, if they are in place,” Schmidt concludes.