The future of real estate is truly evolving at the speed of light. The need for technology related talent with artificial intelligence (AI) skills is increasing exponentially. New analysis from CBRE, one of the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firms, makes clear a powerful shift. The pool has grown as the demand for tech workers with AI expertise increased by more than 50% from mid-2024 to mid-2025, up to 517,000 people in the U.S. and Canada. Yet, this growth is not only changing labor markets, but having a powerful impact on the real estate development industry.
As Colin Yasukochi, executive director of CBRE’s Tech Insights Center, described the depth of this phenomenon. Over the last year, the New York metropolitan area was home to 20,000 net new residents with AI skills. This boom-power surge points to the swift development of talent in those big cities. According to Yasukochi, “With this AI revolution, it’s been a fundamental game changer for the city of San Francisco, because that’s really ground zero for the AI revolution and where most of these major high-profile firms like OpenAI are located.”
Yet CBRE’s analysis highlights a clear, positive trend taking place in overall office leasing activity. During the last two and a half years, AI companies have been on a tech-leasing spree. They’ve leased one of every four sqft of office space in all San Francisco! This reversal signals a dangerous tipping point in real estate resilience. With the booming tech sector continuing to drive demand for office space, the need has never been greater.
AI’s influence extends beyond traditional tech hubs. Silicon Valley has played and still plays a key role in that innovation. Concurrent with this trend, cities such as New York City, Seattle, Toronto — and yes, Washington, D.C. — have developed into critical players in the international AI talent pipeline. All three of these cities are home to tremendous AI talent! The San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, and Seattle combined only account for 35% of the nation’s overall.
Perhaps most provocatively, other regions are proving that these competitive and rapid growth rates are possible outside of the Bay area, too. Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Toronto, and Washington, D.C., all logged YOY increases of 75%+ in this talent base. This increase is part of a broader trend. AI is quickly rushing into public and private sectors that have retreated from fundamentals of technology development and deployment.
The effect of this mega talent influx is being felt by the local real estate markets in particular. Manhattan’s monthly apartment rents skyrocketed by over 14 percent from 2021 to 2024. At the same time, Washington, D.C., made headlines with a record increase in rents—more than 12% jump. Seattle’s top apartment rent growth rate exceeded 7% over that same period. These increases are due in no small part to increased demand for housing spurred on by the rapidly growing workforce.
Yasukochi elaborated on the cultural shift within these companies: “AI is predominantly in-office work, and they’re sort of back to the earlier days of tech innovation, where they’re in the office five, six days a week and for long hours.” The back-to-work movement post pandemic is altering the demand for office space. It’s taking a toll on rental markets as displaced workers compete for housing closer to their new jobs.
Beyond just the rise in residential, office, and creator spaces being developed, the overall energy in the commercial real estate sector points to this transition. Further, in the first half of 2025, technology firms represented 17% of all U.S. office leasing volume. This new statistic drives home just how important these AI-driven industries are becoming to the larger real estate market.
Today’s environment indicates that AI is more than just a passing fad – it could be the beginning of yet another potential tech renaissance. Yasukochi remarked, “This idea that AI is obviously the future of technology, that it’s just kind of getting started – it’s still relatively early days.” As cities across the country welcome in this new workforce, the potential impacts on real estate markets will only increase.