Data shows that remote work is here to stay, at least in a more hybrid landscape. According to recent research from the US Census Bureau’s Business Trends and Outlook Survey, which consists of more than 150,000 firms between August 2024 and January 2025, remote work has struck a sustainable balance for businesses and workers.Â
Moving into 2025, 31% of US businesses had at least one employee work a full day from home during the prior two weeks, while the average employee spent 1.04 days of each working week away from the office. The survey also found that employers are comfortable with this rate of hybrid work, while the bureau’s five-year forecasts suggest that one remote day per week will be commonplace by 2029.Â
The Age of the Digital Nomad
While the terms remote work and WFH have been used in an interchangeable way in recent years, data shows that working away from the office doesn’t necessarily translate to completing tasks at home.Â
In fact, 18% of remote workers have been found to habitually operate away from their homes. While 5% typically use co-working spaces and 2% prefer to collaborate and meet deadlines in coffee shops, a growing number of employees are opting to go further afield when working remotely.Â
According to a recent survey of more than 13,000 US workers, attractive visa options and the opportunity to embrace freedom of movement throughout the European Union have helped to make Portugal the most attractive destination for digital nomads.Â
Other top locations for those going fully remote include Spain, Italy, Canada, and Mexico, all of which offer frictionless visa arrangements for those willing to work overseas.Â
Other nations are waking up to the potential of attracting digital nomads. Launching in September, Moldova has introduced its Moldova Digital Nomad Visa, which is a scheme that would allow remote workers to stay for up to two years, with the option to extend their visit to five years. The entry requirement for the visa is simply to show a monthly income starting at $1,500.Â
This year also saw Kazakhstan issue its first residence permit under its Digital Nomad Residency program in a bid to attract global talent in digital technologies and artificial intelligence, with the first 10-year residency from the initiative granted to Pavel Filatov, a Senior Analytics & BI Engineer.
More nations are seeking to reap the benefits of attracting talented digital nomads while technology supports the ease of working from virtually any location around the world. With agentic AI emerging to support more employees when it comes to their development and access to collaboration tools, it’s becoming easier than ever for remote and hybrid employees to spend time working from beyond their homes.Â
Enhancing Task Management
The reason that agentic AI will be such a strong level of support for digital nomads is because of the technology’s seamless ability to operate in an autonomous manner. As a result, it’s possible for users to complete tasks, overcome administrative hurdles, and collaborate effectively from any location.Â
One area where the technology can be particularly effective is when it comes to task management, and a growing AI tool checklist is helping to support a wide range of tasks to help the lives of remote workers.Â
Some use cases of agentic AI task management tools include Todoist AI, which offers predictive task completion times based on your past performance to help users suggest accurate deadlines for work completion, and Notion AI, which automatically creates project templates to boost productivity. The latter tool can even help to brainstorm ideas and take notes at the same time.Â
Remote Skills Training
One of the biggest challenges that’s yet to be solved by remote work revolves around the ability for digital nomads to get the same access to skills training and development tools as their in-office counterparts.Â
Agentic AI can help in this regard by setting workers up with bespoke learning platforms that adapt in real-time to worker needs, learning preferences, performance, and goals.Â
Using agentic AI, digital nomads can access tutorials, quizzes, and practice modules that could even be accessed while they’re on the go. Content can even be transcribed in real-time to support local language learning and collaboration, while audio summaries can facilitate hands-free learning.Â
Smart Assistants
Agentic AI also paves the way for smart assistants to assist digital nomads in their daily lives. Because many remote workers have to be highly organized to ensure that they remain up-to-date with workloads and tasks across different time zones, in some cases, using artificial intelligence to integrate calendars, to-do lists, notes, and research can facilitate proactive support.Â
This facilitates a more personalized digital experience that can simplify the lives of remote workers, regardless of whether they’re digital nomads or simply WFH employees.Â
Remote Work as The New Normal
Like it or loathe it, remote work appears to be here to stay, and artificial intelligence is making it easier than ever before to support life as a digital nomad.Â
Through providing organizational help, access to learning, and assistance no matter where an employee or freelancer is working in the world, agentic AI can be a significant help in boosting the productivity of digital nomads at scale. Remote work may be the new normal, but it will be AI that allows workers to become more productive than ever before.Â
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