Commercial real estate companies are rushing into AI faster than anyone expected, but they're struggling to deliver results. A new JLL survey of 1,500 senior executives reveals that while 88% of investors and landlords have started AI pilots - up from just 5% two years ago - only 5% have actually achieved all their program goals. The gap highlights a critical challenge facing an industry that's historically been slow to adopt new technology.
The commercial real estate industry just delivered one of the biggest AI adoption surprises of 2025. JLL's latest survey shows 88% of investors, owners and landlords have started piloting artificial intelligence - a massive jump from just 5% two years ago. But here's the catch: only 5% say they've actually achieved all their program goals.
The numbers reveal an industry in transition. More than 90% of occupiers are running corporate real estate AI pilots, with most companies juggling an average of five use cases at once. Yet close to half have only managed to achieve two to three of their original objectives.
"If you think about commercial real estate, traditionally, it is not a quick technology adopter, and it's usually skeptical," Yao Morin, chief technology officer at JLL, told CNBC. "So the high number of adoptions is actually quite surprising to me. What is not surprising on the flip side is that only 5% actually thinks that they have achieved all the goals."
The disconnect isn't about technical failures - it's about moving goalposts. Companies started with simple efficiency plays but quickly realized AI's potential for revenue generation. Now they're using it for investment risk modeling and portfolio decisions, which requires fundamentally rethinking how they operate.
"When you really start moving towards the revenue side, the margin expansion side, then it's going to require a lot more than just using a technology," Morin explained to CNBC. "Companies need to actually rethink their operating model, to rethink how they organize to actually achieve the savings."
The financial commitment is real. More than half of investors surveyed have secured significant budget increases over the past two years specifically for AI initiatives. Their top spending priority? Strategic advisory on technology and AI implementation, followed by cybersecurity upgrades and data infrastructure improvements.
What's particularly striking is how sophisticated these early adopters have become. Morin said she expected companies to start with low-risk, simple tasks - the typical "low-hanging fruit" approach. Instead, they're diving straight into complex business problems.
