How AI can help update your workplace and boost your bottom line

Is your workplace holding your business back? In today's competitive environment, outdated buildings aren't just an inconvenience—they could actively drain your resources, hamper productivity and potentially drive away top talent. When it comes to offices and workspaces, the gap between the haves and have-nots is widening, creating a growing opportunity for organizations that seize the opportunity and adapt to today’s needs.

Inefficient workspaces cost companies valuable time and money, whether it’s employees wandering the office looking for available meeting spaces, equipment breakdowns causing unexpected downtime or leadership making expensive space decisions based on gut feelings rather than actual data.

Perhaps the costliest problem organizations face is the fragmentation of their real estate approach. When leasing, operations, design and workplace strategy occur in isolation:

• Opportunities for cost efficiency are missed
• Systems don’t work together as effectively as they could
• Data remains trapped in departmental silos
• Decision-making lacks a comprehensive perspective

This siloed approach prevents organizations from addressing complex business challenges that span traditional service boundaries and could benefit from a more holistic strategy.

Forward-thinking organizations are addressing these workplace challenges by embracing AI and advanced technology that transforms commercial real estate from a necessary cost center into a strategic asset.

By tapping intelligent environments that help operations run smoother and respond to human needs, companies can:

• Reduce operational costs through predictive maintenance and energy optimization
• Improve space use based on actual usage patterns
• Enhance employee productivity by eliminating workplace friction
• Strengthen talent attraction and retention through superior workplace experiences
• Make more informed real estate decisions that align with business objectives

The following is a breakdown of how different elements of the real estate process are being enhanced using AI and other technology.

Traditional approaches to leasing office space can leave you vulnerable to costly mistakes. Without data-driven insights, companies often:

• Overpay for prime locations when more cost-effective options would better serve their needs
• Miss opportunities in emerging markets that could provide access to talent at lower costs
• Lock themselves into inflexible leases that don't accommodate changing business requirements
• Select buildings without the necessary digital infrastructure, requiring expensive retrofits

Avoiding these missteps can result in real bottom line savings. One major technology company discovered they were paying approximately 15% above market rate across their portfolio due to limited market visibility during negotiations – a multi-million-dollar inefficiency that could have been sidestepped with AI-enhanced leasing services.

If your building’s facilities management teams rely primarily on responding to problems after they occur, you're facing unnecessary expenses and disruptions:

• Emergency repairs cost significantly more than preventive maintenance
• Equipment breakdowns lead to productivity losses when systems are unavailable
• Inefficient energy usage creates unnecessarily high utility bills
• Labor resources are wasted responding to preventable issues

JLL's Hank platform addresses these problems head-on by proactively managing energy consumption, maintaining the ideal indoor climate and identifying maintenance needs before they escalate into problems. This intelligent system uses real-time data and energy models to make continuous micro-adjustments, improving energy use and overall efficiency.

Organizations using predictive maintenance have reported maintenance cost reductions of 10-40% and downtime decreases of 50% or more, demonstrating the substantial financial impact of shifting from reactive to proactive operations.

Climate-related disruptions pose an increasing threat to business continuity and real estate investments. Without proper analysis:

• Insurance costs could increase dramatically as climate risks become more apparent
• Building systems might not be equipped to handle changing environmental conditions
• Your organization could face regulatory penalties for failing to meet disclosure requirements

JLL's collaboration with Jupiter Intelligence helps organizations stay ahead of these vulnerabilities. JLL works with Jupiter Intelligence to help companies spot and fix climate risks, using AI to forecast how climate issues could affect property values and carbon reduction plans. JLL’s portfolio management experts use this technology to help businesses identify specific threats to their operations early, allowing them to take action before these problems affect the business.

Poorly designed workplaces create tangible business problems that affect your company’s performance:

• Collaboration spaces that don't match actual work patterns lead to decreased team productivity
• Inefficient layouts waste space you're paying for but not effectively using
• Generic environments fail to support specialized work activities
• Hard-to-decipher navigation wastes employee time and creates frustration

By collecting and analyzing vast amounts of data, AI provides companies with insights into how people are using an office, from traffic flows to employee preferences. Technologies like sensors, beacons and other smart building systems arm leaders with empirical evidence that allows for smarter, data-driven decisions around workplace experience, aligning physical spaces with employee needs.

This approach directly addresses the expensive problem of space inefficiency. When a major financial services firm applied these analytics, they discovered nearly 30% of their formal meeting spaces were consistently empty while collaboration areas remained overcrowded. The resulting redesign improved both employee satisfaction and space utilization metrics.

In a tight market for top talent, workplace experience has become a critical factor in recruitment and retention. According to our research, organizations with outdated environments face:

• Higher recruitment costs as positions remain open longer
• Increased turnover as employees seek better working environments
• Difficulty attracting specialized talent with high workplace expectations
• Productivity losses as employees struggle with lackluster and ineffective environments

This challenge is particularly acute in specialized fields. For example, locating facilities in top life science clusters provides access to researchers, data scientists and engineers. But without modern building technologies, such as IoT sensors and mobile apps that allow employees to easily navigate the office, book meeting rooms and access resources, organizations may struggle to demonstrate their commitment to employee experience – and risk losing the talent they worked hard to recruit.

The financial impact is substantial. Recruitment costs can range from 50-200% of annual salary for specialized positions, making talent retention through improved workplace experience a direct contributor to profitability.

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JLL’s commercial real estate services combine a global platform with trusted local experts across every sector and asset class. Our multi-disciplinary approach includes leasing, design, portfolio optimization, project management, facilities management and other workplace solutions that help you unlock business value through real estate.