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Name of Speaker
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Gregor Schubert
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Schedule
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16 Oct 2026, 10am – 11.30am (60 min talk + 30 min Q&A) |
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Venue
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BIZ1 0202
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Link to register (via Zoom) |
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Title
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Organizational Technology Ladders: Remote Work and Generative AI Adoption
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Abstract
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This study proposes that firms move along an ”organizational technology ladder”: adopting one technology transforms hiring and work processes and builds skills and organizational capital that change the cost of adopting subsequent technologies. I study how firms’ adoption of remote work technology during the COVID-19 period shaped later uptake of generative AI. Using U.S. job-posting data and an instrumental-variables strategy based on predicted differences in labor-market pressure to offer remote work, I estimate that a 10 percentage point increase in remote hiring in 2021–-2022 increases the share of job postings mentioning generative AI in 2023–-2024 by 0.4 percentage points across firms and 0.7 percentage points across occupations within firms. I provide evidence on mechanisms consistent with a technology-ladder channel: remote work adoption shifts hiring toward technical and managerial capabilities that predict faster conversion of generative AI exposure into adoption. Firms with return-to-office mandates–interpreted as revealing low remote productivity–exhibit a substantially larger response of generative AI adoption to remote work, consistent with an organizational frictions channel. I formalize the technology-ladder mechanism using a task-based model of sequential technology investments where remote work changes the costs and benefits of generative AI automation.
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About the Speaker
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Gregor Schubert is an applied microeconomist with a background in real estate, labor economics and finance. His research focuses on new technologies, including Generative AI and robotics, and their impact on firms, labor markets and the economy. He also develops new AI-based tools and methodologies for research in finance and economics, and studies housing markets and real estate technology. At UCLA, he has developed and taught several courses for managers on how to successfully deploy artificial intelligence and machine learning projects, and how to manage organizational change in response to technology shocks. Before academia, he worked as a strategy consultant at The Boston Consulting Group on projects implementing data analytics, surveys, and technology transformations in industrial and financial services companies. |
