Drivers of Change – April 27, 2026
AI and automation are the leading catalysts for change in corporate real estate’s approach to its portfolios; actually implementing the change is a work in progress
Artificial intelligence is now the main driver of change in how corporate real estate users design, manage and optimize their portfolios. That’s the topline conclusion Colliers drew from a series of surveys at the 2025-2026 CoreNet Global Summits.
The global services firm conducted live polling across EMEA, North America and APAC at three regional gatherings between September 2025 and March 2026. The surveys captured insights from more than 1,000 corporate real estate leaders spanning portfolio management, workplace strategy and technology.
Across these three regions, AI and automation combined emerged as the most significant driver of change, selected by 51% of respondents globally, Colliers reported. On a regional basis, North American respondents were slightly more likely than their APAC counterparts to cite this as the leading driver (53.9% compared to 52.6%), while EMEA respondents managed a plurality at 46.1%.
“Digital transformation is moving from experimentation to implementation as organizations increasingly integrate data intelligence, automation and smart building technologies into portfolio planning, operations and workplace management,” Colliers reported.
The second most cited driver globally was shifting demographics and workforce trends, said Colliers. This reflects evolving employee expectations, talent strategies and hybrid work models.
The third driver varied by region. Respondents in EMEA and APAC cited geopolitical shifts, while those in North America identified energy and power infrastructure (6% of respondents) as an emerging influence on location strategy and real estate planning.
Responses were more uniform regionally on the question of where innovation will have the greatest impact. Across the three regions, an average of 15% of respondents cited portfolio strategy, 23% said data and predictive analysis, and 27% cited workplace strategy and experience.
“These priorities are increasingly interconnected,” reported Colliers. “As organizations adapt to evolving workforce expectations and hybrid work models, data and predictive analytics are helping CRE teams better understand how space is used, enabling more informed portfolio decisions and more responsive workplace strategies.
“At the same time, workplaces are being reimagined as drivers of collaboration, culture and performance. Together, portfolio strategy, workplace experience and data intelligence are evolving into a more integrated, strategic approach to corporate real estate.”
And how are occupiers doing with implementation of the innovations suggested by these priorities? Organizations across all regions show a moderate level of readiness to innovate, with 51% of respondents in EMEA, 48% in North America and 49% in APAC reporting that they feel “somewhat ready” to innovate, Colliers said. “However, while many organizations recognize the importance of innovation, translating ambition into consistent execution remains a work in progress.”
In fact, while only a small percentage of respondents acknowledged having no strategy in place for innovation, those who were already implementing changes constituted a minority in each region. Here, APAC respondents were slightly ahead of their North American counterparts (36.3% compared to 34.0%), while slightly less than 30% of EMEA respondents are putting changes into practice.
Across the regions, the obstacles were similar. Financial and budgetary constraints emerged as the most significant barrier to innovation in North America, EMEA and APAC, followed closely by limited time and capacity to focus on innovative solutions, and organizational resistance to change.
Just under half of respondents globally (47%) report having only a partially defined framework for implementing innovation, with only 21% saying they have a well-defined process. The implication is that although the intent to innovate is strong, the next step for many corporate teams will be “building repeatable structures that allow innovation to move beyond individual initiatives and scale across the organization.”
Will the results be significantly different if Colliers reports the results of a comparable survey a year from now? Probably not, if the obstacles to implementing change still loom as large as they do now. However, we may see a few corporate teams leading the charge, setting examples that can be implemented more broadly as best practices are disseminated through CoreNet Global.