Commercial real estate operators are pivoting beyond traditional boardroom focuses to harness AI-driven insights from their facility and lease management data to boost profitability and operational performance. JLL’s latest research finds that nine out of ten companies plan to deploy AI tools over the next five years to aid human experts in commercial real estate decision‑making.
JLL’s Global Future of Work survey, conducted among more than 2,300 CRE decision‑makers worldwide, highlights a widening gap between enthusiasm and execution. While around 70 percent of executives report having an AI strategy underpinning pilot projects in real estate, only one‑third of managers confirm a coherent roadmap at operational levels. JLL warns that faltering in strategy design now risks pushing organisations into disillusionment as expectations exceed reality.
Financial gains are already within reach. JLL cites a global financial‑services client that achieved $120 million in operating‑cost savings through AI‑led space consolidation and lease optimisation. Another tech‑sector entity is working with JLL to map over 100 high‑impact AI applications across its real estate portfolio.
Emerging from JLL’s analysis are four critical steps to establish durable AI adoption strategies:
1. Clarifying capabilities, dispelling myths that AI will replace staff, and aligning technology to clearly defined CRE use‑cases
2. Prioritising meaningful applications, such as predictive maintenance, real‑time occupancy forecasting and dynamic energy management
3. Building robust business cases, using data to justify interventions with tangible ROI
4. Securing C‑suite backing, as executive endorsement correlates strongly with success in integrating CRE‑tech.
To support these objectives, JLL has introduced its proprietary AI platform, JLL Falcon. The system, which draws upon the company’s internal datasets, applies advanced AI models to enable refined portfolio analytics, space optimisation, carbon‑tracking, and compliance monitoring.
Further underlining the urgency, JLL predicts that by 2030, up to 70 percent of CRE activities will be augmented by AI tools. Market momentum is fuelled by over 700 PropTech start‑ups creating real‑estate‑focused AI solutions, alongside strategic partnerships between global firms and technology providers such as Microsoft, Amazon and Google.
A notable technological milestone: the acquisition of AI‑energy‑management provider HANK, whose output demonstrates up to 40 percent reductions in utility costs through real‑time HVAC adjustments. Others include JLL’s Carbon Pathfinder tool for sustainability modelling, and investments in data‑centre optimisation through SKAE’s May 2024 acquisition.
Industry experts caution that AI adoption in CRE is not simply a tech rollout but a broader challenge of change‑management. As commentator Antony Slumbers notes, many organisations remain early in their digital maturity and lack clarity separating hype from functionality.
