Cushman & Wakefield
1,833,722 followers
April 24, 2026
The AI company-in-office paradox has been widely debated in the commercial real estate community, since the companies building the technology most often cited as a threat to office demand have been signing leases like it’s 2019.
But is an AI company’s real estate decision-making a reliable indicator for the broader office market? And is AI technology itself a driver, or is it just accelerating a bifurcation trend that was already underway?
California’s Bay Area, HQ to 825 generative AI companies, absorbed 82% of global gen-AI venture capital in 2025, and these firms are not on the fence when it comes to the remote work debate. They’re building decidedly in-office cultures, with employees on-site four to five days a week. Thus, the very companies whose products are accused of laying the tracks towards compressed office demand might be among the most committed occupiers.
Our AI Impact Barometer, a live tracker of the effect AI has on the macroeconomy and built environment, shows the broader office picture holding steady, but the story inside that steadiness is uneven: best-of-the-best buildings in tech-exposed markets are in high demand while Class B and C vacancies show a more mixed signal. That high quality space led the way when U.S. office demand turned positive in the second half of 2025, after 12 straight quarters of more space being vacated than leased.
🌉 From Golden Gate to Tower Bridge
And where the influence of those AI companies spreads, office leasing follows. Bay Area AI firms are popping up in London and across Europe like New York Yankees caps were in the 90s (so mainstream you’d think they had always been there).
Last week, Anthropic confirmed it’s taking London office space for up to 800 people. OpenAI has locked in a 544-seat permanent London hub, its largest research base outside the U.S. Both already have offices in Paris and Munich. The flagship labs are doubling down, chasing talent, policy proximity, and enterprise clients from BMW to L’Oréal. Find out how London’s office market is faring amid the AI influx.
💡Less waiting room, more war room
The heaviest AI users of all are not vibe coding in a dark basement, says a recent workplace study by Gensler—they’re actually the most present in the office, and they say they want to spend “even more time” there.
Thirty percent of the workforce classified as AI “power users” spend less time working alone than slower adopters and more time on mentorship and network-building, contributing to a feeling of stronger relationships.
What drives that is how AI is being used during the workday. Rather than a solo research tool workers consult and then carry into a meeting, AI is increasingly embedded in collaboration itself—running in real time, keeping conversations flowing, enabling discussions that go deeper without breaking stride. Richard Pickering argues in his AI Sector Foresight series that the office is shifting from work container to decision hub: smaller rooms, smarter acoustics, infrastructure built for capture and replay.
☔ Your neighborhood forecast As spring showers come to the northern hemisphere, many of us have the Weather app on shortcut…even though we know we’ll inevitably get caught in the rain. Making data actionable is the real challenge—and what Rebecca Rockey is tackling as head of the Quantitative Insights Group. “The goal is to develop differentiated, data-driven insights that help clients make decision with greater confidence,” Rockey told CoStar—starting with the most complex, sophisticated clients first. Find out more about the group’s capabilities.
⚠️ Returns Even In Turmoil Despite a bruising Q1 (conflict in the Middle East, the biggest energy crisis in history, stock market reactions), the U.S. property REITs have still outperformed the Dow and the S&P 500 this year. “The pipeline coming into 2026 was really strong, and the conflict hit a pause button,” says Miles Treaster. But with the ceasefire in place, the fundamentals that were building before February haven’t gone anywhere. Get the full story in the Commercial Observer.
🕯️ Luna, unhinged An AI agent named Luna is running the first AI-managed retail boutique on San Francisco’s Union Street—sourcing inventory, hiring staff, and setting prices. The promise for retail is real, but retailers have some work to do before rolling out robots: Luna has lost $13,000 since opening April 10, can’t stop ordering candles, and once decided that what its customer base needed most was 1,000 toilet seat covers. Our AI Sector Foresight series predicts how AI will change the very purpose of physical stores in the Luna era.
