🌊 The Remote Work Domino Effect + AI Doctors Save Lives + Your City is Becoming a Donut

AI POLICY & AGING INTELLIGENCE™ | NEWSLETTER #152

October 12, 2025 | 8-minute read | Curated by HanhDBrown

The Domino Effect: How Today’s Changes Create Tomorrow’s Surprises

Remember when everyone started working from home? You probably noticed fewer cars during rush hour. But did you notice the “For Lease” signs downtown, the suburban house prices jumping, or your favorite lunch spot closing?

That’s an impact chain – one change triggering another, then another, like dominoes falling in directions nobody expected.

Right now, 15 major dominoes are falling across society. Each started with a single push. Each is reshaping your life, your community, and your grandchildren’s future.

🎯 THE BIG THREE DOMINOES FALLING NOW

The Great Urban Exodus

McKinsey’s research on empty office spaces reveals the shocking chain reaction from remote work.

The dominoes fall in order: Remote work becomes permanent, dropping office occupancy 30-50%. Downtown businesses lose their lunch crowds. Commercial property values crash, taking city tax revenue down with them. Public services get cut. Urban cores hollow out.

Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom tracked this reshaping of cities. Major cities lost 8% of downtown residents – they’re calling it the “Donut Effect” because city centers are becoming empty holes.

Your Next Doctor Visit Will Be Different

That tablet your doctor stares at during appointments? It’s becoming an AI assistant. OpenAI’s clinical copilot study shows AI reducing diagnostic errors by 16% and treatment errors by 13%.

Here’s what’s coming to your doctor’s office: The computer will catch drug interactions your doctor might miss. It’ll spot patterns in your test results that humans overlook. Your doctor will spend less time typing and more time talking with you.

But here’s what worries many patients: Will doctors lose their intuition? That gut feeling when something’s “just not right”? The ability to read your face and know you’re scared? The technology helps with accuracy, but the human touch – the hand on your shoulder, the extra minute of listening – might fade.

The $4 Trillion Automation Wave

McKinsey’s Australia automation study maps how AI transforms entire economies.

Watch this sequence: 46% of current work gets automated. Productivity explodes, adding $4 trillion to the economy. But millions suddenly need new skills. The education system scrambles to catch up. Income gaps widen before they narrow. Society restructures around completely different work.

🔄 THE DOMINOES IN YOUR DAILY LIFE

Your Empty Downtown → Your Rising Suburb Prices

Stanford research on pandemic office changes shows the permanent shift. Remote work didn’t just empty offices – it triggered a migration.

You’re living the suburban boom: House prices surge as urban families arrive. Schools overflow with new students. Traffic patterns reverse – now it’s suburb-to-suburb congestion. Local businesses thrive on lunch money that used to flow downtown. Property taxes rise on higher assessments.

Your Grandkids’ Loneliness → Tomorrow’s Workforce Crisis

Stanford’s study on Gen Z connections reveals young adults can’t connect face-to-face.

The troubling chain unfolds: Digital childhoods replaced playground time. Social skills never developed. Young adults now avoid in-person interaction, creating a loneliness epidemic. Mental health crumbles. Workplace collaboration fails. The economy suffers from a disconnected workforce that can’t work together.

Your Energy Bill → Global Supply Chains

The energy transition reality shows why your electricity costs are rising.

The hidden cascade: Clean energy mandates pass, forcing utilities to rebuild entire grids. Rare materials for batteries and solar panels become scarce. China controls most supplies, creating bottlenecks. Costs skyrocket. Consumers pay more every month. Political backlash builds against climate policies.

Digital Payments → The End of Cash

Stanford research on fintech in Mexico and the future of money shows cash disappearing.

What’s coming: Digital payments spread everywhere. Small businesses are forced online or closed. Cash becomes rare, then suspicious. People without smartphones get excluded. Government tracks every purchase. Privacy vanishes. A completely new financial system emerges.

📚 THE EDUCATION-TO-ECONOMY DOMINO

Technology in Schools → Unequal Futures

McKinsey’s education technology data reveals a troubling pattern.

The inequality chain: Schools add technology with wildly different results by region. The digital divide widens into a chasm. Achievement gaps grow larger. Workforce readiness splits into two tiers. Economic opportunity diverges permanently. Society stratifies into tech-haves and have-nots.

Stanford’s research on AI transforming work predicts massive job displacement. The study on automation and wealth shows who wins and loses.

Andrew Ng calls it AI as electricity – it will transform everything, whether we’re ready or not.

💊 THE HEALTHCARE DOMINO

Drug Prices → Family Finances → Economic Growth

Stanford’s study on international drug pricing shows what happens when governments negotiate.

The savings cascade: Governments negotiate, dropping drug prices 50-80%. Families save thousands yearly. That money flows into local economies instead of pharmaceutical companies. Businesses grow. Tax revenue increases. More services get funded.

The Medicaid expansion impact proves it: healthcare access creates economic growth.

Better health dominoes: Coverage expands to millions who finally get chronic conditions treated. People miss less work, productivity rises. Businesses grow from a healthier workforce. Entire communities prosper.

🎯 WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT THESE DOMINOES

Prepare for the urban shift: Empty spaces research suggests suburban property will keep rising while urban cores struggle. Consider your location carefully.

Understand the work revolution: Working from home is permanent. Plan for different commute patterns, shopping habits, community structures.

Get ready for AI healthcare: AI medical systems are coming. They’ll make care more accurate – but possibly less personal. Speak up if you need that human touch.

Help kids connect in real life: Gen Z struggles show the cost of digital childhoods. Grandchildren need face-to-face practice, not just screens.

Watch automation carefully: Australian automation research shows 46% of jobs changing. Help grandchildren pick careers that need human creativity and empathy.

Plan for cashless future: Payment system evolution means cash is disappearing. Learn digital payments now while you have time to practice.

🔮 THE NEXT DOMINOES TO FALL

2025-2027: The Office Real Estate Collapse Empty buildings will trigger a banking crisis as commercial loans fail. Pension funds heavily invested in office buildings will lose billions. Cities will scramble with urban renewal projects to repurpose dead zones.

2027-2030: The AI Job Displacement Wave Millions will need complete retraining as AI takes over routine work. The education system will rebuild from scratch. New social safety nets will emerge – or social unrest will.

2030-2035: The Connection Crisis Peak The mental health system will be overwhelmed by lonely, disconnected young adults. Workplaces will restructure around people who can’t collaborate face-to-face. Society will build new infrastructure for human connection – or accept permanent isolation.

💡 THE BIGGER PATTERN

Every domino cascade follows the same sequence:

First comes The Push – one thing changes (remote work, AI, new policy). Then The Tumble – direct effects appear (empty offices, job losses). Next is The Spread – indirect impacts emerge (suburb growth, skill gaps). Then comes The Surprise – unexpected consequences nobody predicted (political shifts, social breakdown). Finally, The New Normal – the entire system reorganizes into something different.

We’re living through dozens of these cascades simultaneously. The energy transition challenges , the fintech transformation , the healthcare revolution – each creating ripples that overlap and amplify.

Your grandchildren will inhabit a world shaped by dominoes falling today.

Which cascade worries you most – empty downtowns affecting your community, AI changing your healthcare (and maybe losing the human touch), or young people unable to connect? Reply with the domino effect you’re watching.

🧠 A RESOURCE FOR THOSE SERVING 55+ CUSTOMERS

If you work with or serve the 55+ market, these cascading changes reshape your customers’ lives daily. We built AI Brain as a tool to help businesses understand these patterns in their own data.

What it does: Identifies which changes matter most to mature customers. Shows what they’ll need next. Maps where the dominoes are heading in your specific market.

Think of it as pattern recognition for customer needs. Like these research studies reveal society’s dominoes, AI Brain reveals the patterns in your customer data.

We’re accepting a small group who want to serve the 55+ market better through deeper understanding.