Forward-thinking companies are looking to shift from “defense to offense” with their real estate portfolios, according to a new report. The winners in 2026, according to the study, will be those who have turned physical workspaces into “powerful drivers of employee engagement, innovation and business growth.”
The report, 2026 Corporate Real Estate Trends to Watch, from JLL Real Estate Services, outlines several priorities that global employers should act on in 2026 and beyond to gain or maintain a competitive edge. Those trends, according to Neil Murray, global CEO, real estate management services at JLL, are set to transform real estate portfolios from a mere organizational cost into competitive advantage drivers—enhancing the employee experience while fueling business growth.
“The pace of change in corporate real estate has never been greater, and transformation must be continuous, not a one-off initiative,” Murray says. “In 2026, the most successful organizations will not only optimize real estate costs but also leverage high-quality data to integrate people and technology.”
Changing outlooks for hiring and work location will be key in this conversation. JLL found that 43% of global corporate leaders surveyed expect headcounts to rise and 33% expect real estate footprints to increase over the next several years.
As three- or four-day in-office requirements continue to become standard for hybrid organizations post-pandemic, employers need to create more “commute-worthy” workplaces, where employees want to be, he says.
They also must consider the emergence of artificial intelligence as they design those spaces. AI-friendly offices will mean employers must recalibrate leasing strategies, property management techniques and space layouts to adapt to a more flexible, partially automated workforce, according to the report.
JLL found that AI exploration has skyrocketed among corporate real estate teams: from under 5% planning pilots in 2023 to 92% in 2025; however, the survey also found that most are still in an “experimental” phase.
Cheryl Carron, chief operating officer of Work Dynamics Americas and president of the healthcare division at JLL, says it’s clear that interest in AI across corporate real estate and workplace teams has massively grown. While the ambition is there—with nearly every large organization exploring AI—the readiness and ability to turn that ambition into reality still lag.
“Too many companies are still treating AI as a series of pilots rather than building it into the very infrastructure of the workplace,” she says.
Experimentation to enablement with AI
Along those lines, she adds, the constraint JLL sees most often isn’t imagination; it’s foundational.
Carron explains that legacy systems, fragmented data and unclear ownership slow progress, even as proven workplace and corporate real estate technologies—like predictive maintenance, energy optimization and space analytics—quickly move into the mainstream.
“Encouragingly, the most impactful applications aren’t futuristic moonshots,” she says. “In facilities management alone, AI is already cutting controllable costs like energy and maintenance by double digits, while helping teams adapt to labor shortages.”
Carron adds that richer data streams from sensors, access systems and workplace platforms are also creating opportunities to improve the overall employee experience.
“The opportunity now is to shift from experimentation to enablement,” Carron explains.
She adds that for HR and CRE leaders, it starts with getting the fundamentals right:
- building a strong data architecture with interoperability, quality and governance in mind;
- investing in the skills teams need to work confidently alongside AI tools;
- and rethinking how CRE, HR, IT and finance share data and collaborate.
“The most meaningful results occur when accountability is shared across functions,” she says.
