What makes a building AI ready?

Gone are the days that fast broadband was the only requirement to make a building tech ready.

According to WiredScore’s latest “Resilience gets real” report, AI-ready buildings need resilient digital, physical and cyber foundations. In short, AI‑ready buildings allow digital systems to operate anywhere, all the time.

I sat down with Sanjaya Ranasinghe, VP of R&D at WiredScore, to share his thoughts on what this really means for landlords and occupiers in a world where AI-ready buildings are the new minimum standard.

LN: From your experience, how has the role of AI in the workplace evolved over the past couple of years?

SR: In just two years, generative AI has moved from novelty to critical business infrastructure. Organisations across every sector are deploying AI-driven tools not as experiments, but as core operational systems. Digital agents are entering workforces, with data pipelines running continuously in the background to power these agents. The definition of productivity is being rewritten and with it, the definition of what a building needs to do.

This shift is not a future-proofing conversation. It's a here-and-now performance issue that has profound implications for how occupiers choose, use, and value the spaces they occupy.

LN: Do you think there is a new baseline expectation from occupiers?

SR: For the past decade, conversations about technology in real estate have largely centred on amenity: smart building features, app-enabled access, wellness sensors. These have been valuable, but layered on top of a building's core function rather than a foundational change to that core.

AI changes the frame entirely. Occupiers are no longer asking whether a building has technology only to enhance the employee experience, they are asking whether it can reliably support their operations.

Continuous, reliable, secure digital performance – in other words, technological resilience – is now a non-negotiable condition of occupancy. And it is something that much of the world's existing building stock is ill-equipped to fulfil.

LN: What does the data tell us about how prepared global building stock actually is?

SR: WiredScore's Global Cities Resilience Index, which assesses building performance across more than 200 cities, reveals a market that is structurally underprepared for this shift the world over. The Index measures technological resilience: the ability of a building's physical infrastructure, digital environment, and cybersecurity posture to support the demands of modern, AI-enabled working.

Across global markets, there are several shortcomings highlighted in the analysis.

• Backup power remains one of the lowest-scoring aspects of building performance, despite measurable improvement since 2021.
• Mobile connectivity within buildings is a critical weakness in many major office markets, with some cities performing more than 50 percentage points below the global leader.
• Cybersecurity governance lags significantly: across many markets, building owners lack basic visibility over what technology is installed in their buildings, let alone who is responsible for keeping it secure.

These are not marginal gaps, they represent a structural mismatch between what occupiers increasingly require and what the built environment is currently able to deliver.

LN: How are leasing decisions being shaped by a building's technological performance?

SR: What makes technological resilience a compelling commercial opportunity (not merely a risk to manage) is that it is within landlords' direct control. Unlike location, or the macroeconomic environment, or the pace of technological change itself, the physical, digital, and cyber performance of a building is something an owner can assess, invest in, and improve.

Increasingly, this performance is being factored into occupier leasing decisions as a prerequisite to enable AI ambitions. While 42% of organisations consider their AI strategy highly prepared, the majority feel the technical infrastructure and data management required to support it isn't. The buildings that can demonstrate this readiness have a clear competitive advantage.

LN: Looking ahead, what should landlords be weighing up?

SR: The real estate industry has absorbed significant disruption over the past two decades. In each case, the assets that emerged strongest were those whose owners moved with intent, rather than waiting for the market to force their hand.

AI represents the next, and arguably most consequential, of those disruptions. The buildings that will lead are not necessarily the newest.

Technological resilience is measurable, achievable, and commercially meaningful. The question is simply whether landlords act on it before their occupiers move on without them.