Asia Pacific leads AI adoption but skills shortage bites

Asia Pacific is leading global adoption of artificial intelligence across several real estate functions, according to JLL, but the region also faces the sharpest shortage of AI-related skills.

The findings point to a mismatch between investment ambitions and organisational readiness in corporate real estate. Many companies expect AI to reshape jobs and portfolios, yet relatively few have moved beyond the early stages of adoption.

JLL's 2026 Future of Work Survey gathered responses from more than 2,200 C-suite executives and corporate real estate leaders across 21 countries. In Asia Pacific, 52% of respondents said AI is being adopted in technology management, 51% in portfolio optimisation and 47% in corporate real estate strategy development, putting the region ahead of others in those areas.

At the same time, 42% of respondents in Asia Pacific identified the AI skills gap as their main constraint, the highest level among all regions in the survey. Nearly half, or 49%, said talent scarcity driven by AI reskilling demands is likely to shape their workforce over the next three to five years.

That tension runs through the broader dataset. While 61% of senior business leaders in Asia Pacific expect workforce numbers to grow, the survey suggests AI is more likely to change the nature of work than eliminate jobs outright.

Adoption gap

Many respondents believe AI will alter real estate decisions, but fewer have started changing workplaces to reflect that view. Although 78% said AI would drive significant changes to portfolio strategy, only 31% said they were actively preparing to redesign spaces for human-AI collaboration.

Just 15% of respondents have reached what JLL describes as the optimisation stage of AI adoption. Most are still assessing the technology, with 46% tracking AI trends and 40% analysing possible effects on their corporate real estate function.

The survey suggests this caution is creating a holding pattern. Real estate teams are waiting for workforce decisions before changing physical space, while organisations are still working out how AI will affect roles and performance.

Susheel Koul, Chief Executive Officer, Real Estate Management Services, APAC, at JLL, said the survey shows a widening divide between early movers and companies still hesitating.

"Across Asia Pacific, we're beginning to see a divergence emerge between the organisations moving into AI optimisation and the much larger group still monitoring and analysing from the sidelines. What's notable is that the companies pulling ahead aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets; they're the ones building adaptive capability and treating AI as a growth enabler, not just a cost lever. Left unaddressed, that gap has the potential to compound quickly, which is why closing the skills and capability gap now matters more than ever," Koul said.

Skills pressure

Skills shortages in AI, analytics and emerging technologies have become the leading barrier to value creation in corporate real estate globally. Some 36% of respondents cited that issue, putting it ahead of budget constraints for the first time in the 15 years of the research.

In Asia Pacific, the problem appears more pronounced. Beyond the 42% citing AI skills shortages as the chief constraint, 26% pointed to limited change management expertise, 25% to organisational silos and 23% to difficulty measuring outcomes.

Asia Pacific's prominence in AI use makes that shortage more notable. The region is deploying AI in functions tied directly to strategic property decisions, yet it is also the most exposed to a lack of talent needed to sustain that progress.

Technology risks

The survey also found that productivity has overtaken cost as a central measure for corporate real estate strategy. Some 46% of C-suite respondents said productivity is now a core key performance indicator for their real estate function.

That shift is influencing investment decisions. Advanced technology and AI support was cited by 46% of respondents as a top strategy for improving employee productivity, while 44% highlighted reliable technology infrastructure. By comparison, 31% selected adaptable spaces and 24% pointed to wellbeing amenities.

Yet greater reliance on technology is also raising risk concerns. Cybersecurity and data privacy were cited by 47% of respondents as leading portfolio risks, while 43% pointed to economic volatility and budget pressure, 41% to technology or AI disruption and 40% to uncertainty around AI's effect on space demand.

In Asia Pacific, concern over technology and AI disruption was even higher at 44%, the highest regional level in the survey. That reflects both the central role of technology in the region's real estate strategy and leaders' exposure to the risks that come with it, including tighter data sovereignty rules and geopolitical factors influencing location decisions.

Office implications

The data also challenges assumptions that AI will reduce the need for office space. JLL found that organisations further along in AI adoption are reassessing the workplace not as a smaller footprint, but as an environment that supports more demanding cognitive work.

This question is particularly relevant in Asia Pacific, where 39% of organisations require employees to attend the office five days a week, a larger share than in any other region covered by the survey. That puts added pressure on employers to show that offices contribute directly to productivity.

Kamya Miglani, Head of Research, Real Estate Management Services, APAC, at JLL, said the most advanced users of AI are not stepping back from physical workplaces.

"There is a widespread assumption that AI will reduce the need for physical workplaces, yet our research tells the opposite story. The organisations furthest along in their AI journey are doubling down on their physical environments because they understand that the higher-value, more cognitively demanding work that AI enables requires spaces that help people think, focus, and connect at their best, and that technology and workspace experience should not be competing priorities; together, they form the foundation for sustained cognitive performance," Miglani said.

The survey also found that cost remains a brake on implementation. Respondents cited energy escalation at 44%, AI-driven workforce automation at 39%, and technology infrastructure requirements at 32% among their top concerns as they try to align transformation plans with spending limits.

Organisations are responding in three broad ways: delaying changes where constraints are severe, outsourcing execution while keeping strategic control, or investing in internal upskilling and change management to build longer-term readiness.