According to research by Savills, the rapid spread of artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly affecting the real estate sector — from a surge in data centre investment to rising demand in the logistics and warehouse markets. Richard Cardot, Savills group Chief Information Officer, notes that AI is changing how real estate services are developed: tools that once took months to build can now be produced in days in-house.
Data centres and warehouse demand: near-term figures
The report highlights that data centre investment is feeding through to logistics: in Europe the industry expects roughly 790,000 square metres of additional logistics and warehousing demand over the next three years due to facilities supporting data centre infrastructure. The current investment wave is concentrated mainly in the United States, but European activity is site-dependent.
Three possible futures based on AI maturity and adoption
Savills outlines three scenarios determined by how advanced AI becomes and how widely it is adopted:
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Slow spread, limited development (status quo): AI adoption is fragmented and slow, delivering only minimal productivity gains. The economy’s structure would remain broadly unchanged and real estate demand would shift only modestly. Office leasing activity could become uneven, with stronger demand only from sectors directly benefiting from AI.
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Wider adoption, moderate technological breakthroughs (AI as an efficiency tool): AI spreads broadly as a complementary technology, reducing operating costs and automating administrative tasks such as lease abstraction and document checks. Architecture and fit-out see data-driven, bespoke solutions; collaborative, flexible office space that supports hybrid work may gain importance.
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High maturity and widespread adoption (AI-driven transformation): if AI reaches a high level of capability and is widely integrated into society and business, it will fundamentally change work, mobility and consumption. This can trigger a rapid rise in demand for data centres, making energy supply and network resilience key locational factors. Office markets could polarise: high-spec, energy-efficient and technologically advanced buildings may outperform lower-quality stock.
The future workplace and home
Savills argues that future workplaces must support both human-to-human and human-to-AI interaction, generating new spatial, technological and operational requirements. In logistics and manufacturing, autonomous inventory management, AI routing and automated warehousing can become dominant. Residential properties will likely incorporate smart-home technologies more deeply, enabling AI systems to optimise heating, cooling, security and maintenance based on occupant behaviour.
Locations, infrastructure and the Deep Tech Index
A full transformation would reshape competition between locations: cities and regions with access to skilled talent, leading universities and research institutes, developed venture capital markets, strong intellectual property protection and sufficient energy capacity will be advantaged. Savills’ Deep Tech Index ranks the top 15 cities positioned to benefit from AI, quantum computing, nanotechnology and biotech: San Francisco Bay Area, New York, the UK ‘Golden Triangle’ (London, Oxford, Cambridge), Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing, Los Angeles, Boston, Austin, Singapore, Paris, Shanghai, Seattle, Sydney and Toronto. These tech hubs have grown on average 0.9 percentage points faster per year during the past decade than their national economies.
Labour market impacts to 2030: the numbers
Using World Economic Forum data, Savills projects that by 2030 AI and automation could directly transform or eliminate about 92 million jobs worldwide. At the same time, 170 million new jobs could be created by technological progress and market realignment, resulting in a net increase of 78 million jobs. Only about 2.5% of existing roles may disappear entirely, but approximately 22% of positions are likely to undergo significant structural change.
European and regional considerations
Rupert Duckworth, joint director of Savills’ EMEA data centre advisory, stresses that the data centre sector remains concentrated in North America; in Europe, location-specific factors and energy availability are critical. This helps explain stronger growth currently seen in Spain, Portugal and some Northern European countries.
Conclusion
Savills concludes that AI is more than an additional technological layer for real estate: it could progressively reshape demand patterns, asset operations, development logic and the value of locations. The central question is not whether AI will have an impact, but how rapid, deep and comprehensive that impact will be — a trajectory that depends on technological progress, adoption rates and regulatory responses in the coming years.
Related event
The analysis notes the Property Investment Forum 2026 as a major domestic industry business and networking event.
