As artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly transforms the world of work, corporate real estate (CRE) leaders face a pivotal choice: adopt AI now or risk being left behind by competitors. But charting a path forward can be difficult when technology evolves so quickly. If you’re not a specialist in AI or tech stacks, it’s hard to sort through options and know where to invest your time and resources, let alone lead the charge.

Thankfully, for CRE teams trying to get ahead in the AI race, there are advisors who can work with you to get past the starting line and speed forward with confidence.

JLL research shows most CRE leaders see the potential of AI — 92% of companies are running AI pilots in 2025, up from 5% just three years ago. However, the majority of those organizations are still in the experimentation phase. To effectively scale AI initiatives, CRE leaders need to overcome hurdles such as talent gaps and the extensive business case development required to get projects approved.

“As workplace change accelerates, CRE leaders face increasing complexity—AI-powered solutions will be pivotal in improving CRE operational outcomes,” says Peter Miscovich, Global Future of Work Leader at JLL. “AI will equip CRE teams to respond faster with intelligent decision-making to further optimize portfolios as well as to enhance CRE performance across the full CRE life cycle”.

Knowing that you need an AI plan and knowing where to kick off are two different things. That’s why JLL and PwC banded together: by combining PwC’s leading AI advisory team with our real estate and workplace specialists, we can help you find the right starting point — and then guide you along every step, from strategy to implementation.

Should you invest in AI tools for energy management, portfolio optimization, employee experience, streamlining workflows or some other challenge? With so many competing priorities, it’s important to evaluate which applications will offer the biggest payoff for your unique needs. Another key consideration should be where your competitors and peers are focusing.

Our advisors can help you benchmark your progress with insight into how other CRE teams are adopting AI, based on our work with clients in a wide range of industries, including the majority of Fortune 250 companies.

“JLL brings a wealth of real estate knowledge and data. PwC complements that with deep expertise as practitioners and technologists working on many exciting AI initiatives at a Big Four firm,” says John Robinson, Senior Manager, PwC. “Our combined expertise, frameworks and data give clients the confidence they need to move forward in a rapidly changing market.”

The CRE leaders at a global technology company faced a challenge that will sound familiar: they were feeling pressure to level up the employee experience and boost efficiency, and saw that peers in Finance, IT and HR were using AI successfully to solve their own challenges. Feeling the heat to move quickly, they collaborated with JLL and PwC to build out a bespoke real estate-focused AI strategy.

We started by getting a pulse on the company’s current AI use and comparing their capabilities to others in the industry. With this foundational information, we could start to imagine new possibilities. We gathered key leaders for a workshop to explore opportunities for CRE, which resulted in a list of more than 100 use cases.

Knowing that it was impossible to pursue all the ideas, we worked with the client to shortlist three opportunities based on cost, ease and impact. For the chosen use cases, we built out detailed business cases to show the expected impact and created clear roadmaps to get from idea to pilot to scaled rollout. We also wanted to make sure the CRE team knew how to use the AI solutions effectively, so we set them up for success with training sessions and user adoption strategies.

Thanks to the collaborative approach, the company’s CRE function is now on a solid path to start using AI to help create real impact across the portfolio.

“We’ve found that combining our teams creates stronger results for our clients: it’s a case of ‘one plus one equals three,’” says Katherine Huh, Principal at PwC. “Our approach creates measurable value that leaders can trace — like reduced risk and faster, more efficient processes. Clients are seeing a real return on investment.”

Disruption is the new normal, and standing still isn’t an option. As the pressure to adopt AI intensifies, late adopters risk missing a transformative business opportunity for their portfolios.

"The organizations and leaders who succeed will be those who create a vision and a plan to scale new technologies," says Lee Daniels, Managing Director for JLL Consulting Services. "Those who sit on the sidelines won't benefit from the tools that could propel their businesses forward. Not acting now will ultimately leave businesses behind.”

Together, JLL and PwC Americas offer a unique set of capabilities to help you develop and activate an AI strategy that creates measurable value.

Contact us to discover how we can accelerate your CRE team’s AI adoption and enable technology more effectively to drive competitive advantage, innovation, sustainability and the human experience.