Some Stats for Smarter Office Occupier Tech

A CBRE report on the office market has suggested that 2025 might be the beginning of a market turnaround. While that’s good news, it doesn’t mean a smooth run to success.

The modern office market can’t run like the one from even five years ago. Hybrid operations aren’t going away. About 80% of organizations have a return-to-office policy but only 17% enforce it, according to CBRE. About 60% of employers want employees in the office at least three days a week but only 51% of employees meet the demand. And 64% of respondents said that their office utilization patterns have reached a steady state.

However, that is far from saying the use of office will utterly collapse. Far from it. There is still a need for companies to have real estate strategies so workers have a place to go when necessary. A place where operations occur. That includes the technology to support occupier CRE strategies.

Companies are at varying levels when it comes to digital strategies. On average, 65% of respondents to the CBRE survey said they have a digital strategy and roadmap in place. That splits out into 73% for companies with more than 1,000 and more than half of companies with fewer than 100 employees.

Are landlords asking their tenants anything about their digital strategies and roadmaps? If not, how do they know if they’re supporting what those tenants want to do? Overall, 35% of companies are focused on foundational technologies, 21% have digitized processes with some live data, 19% capture data at portfolio, building, and customer levels, 15% don’t have basics in place; 6% are investing in cutting-edge technologies; and only 5% have a universal analytics platform that highlights patterns from live and historical data.

Most — 65% overall — of occupiers aren’t planning to change the real estate tech they’ve been using, with 27% planning to increase and 8% looking to decrease the amount they send. This means a relative point of stasis.

As for artificial intelligence, about 43% of all and 53% of large occupiers say they’re using it to manage their real estate portfolios. The biggest uses are leasing and contract management (18%); workplace experience (18%); occupancy management (16%); portfolio optimization (15%); building operations (14%); sustainability (13%); and other uses (8%).