Quantifying Technology in Real Estate

Summer 2026 | Understanding AI’s impact on real estate and business

What does AI mean for the future of real estate?

The Summer 2026 edition of Quantifying Technology in Real Estate explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping businesses and influencing decisions about buildings, infrastructure, skills and investment. Bringing together research, analysis and market opinion, it examines what those changes could mean for real estate.

How will AI shape demand for buildings? What infrastructure will it require? And how quickly will organisations adopt it? We explore the trends, opportunities and challenges that could influence the next phase of change.

About this series

Quantifying Technology in Real Estate explores how emerging technologies are transforming the global real estate landscape. The series examines key trends across sectors, highlighting how technology is driving innovation and influencing real estate strategies for the future.

In this series:

Foreword
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2026 insights
Market opinion
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Foreword

An introductory word from Rory Penn, Head of London Residential Sales and Private Office Chair.

AI is starting to change what businesses value – and, in turn, what they need from real estate. In this edition of Quantifying Technology in Real Estate, we explore how that shift is playing out in buildings, business models and day-to-day work.

Part of the answer is physical. AI may feel intangible or even magical, but it relies on power, connectivity and buildings that can support a far more demanding digital environment. Real estate is becoming essential infrastructure for AI-enabled work. Value will follow the assets that can keep pace.

Yet adoption of AI amongst companies will be uneven. Some are holding back, weighing the cost of AI against the clarity of its return – especially in the Retail sector, where margins are already under pressure. The barrier is rarely the technology itself. It is the groundwork beneath it: weak data, fragmented processes and skills that have yet to catch up.

As access to AI widens, advantage shifts from owning the tool to using it well – asking sharper questions, challenging weak answers and redesigning work around it. This shift is already visible in the labour market. Roles are starting to change faster than they are disappearing.

For real estate, one thing is clear. AI adoption does not lead to simple binary choices about space. Demand may become more selective, but it won't automatically reduce the quantum.

A clear theme runs through this edition: AI is beginning to reshape real estate, but its ultimate impact will depend on readiness – the quality of the infrastructure behind it, the organisational capability built around it and the people using it day to day.