The commercial real estate industry is experiencing a shift from labor shortage concerns to actively pursuing technology-driven cost savings, with building owners and occupiers now exploring Physical AI and robotic solutions for measurable results. Growth Partner Danny Klein details JLL Spark’s viewpoint and pursuit of robotics orchestration in this latest blog post.
AI is overwhelming today’s data centers, but a comprehensive stack of infrastructure, energy, and software solutions is emerging to meet this challenge. JLL’s 2026 Global Data Center Outlook report projects nearly 100 GW of new capacity will be built between 2026 and 2030, with AI workloads accounting for roughly half of all usage by decade’s end. We anticipate that demand will still outpace this supply.
The investment thesis is clear: enterprises need technology that answers critical questions such as whether to renew leases, how to right-size spaces, and how to balance cost optimization with user experience. Through a solid partnership between JLL Spark, VergeSense, and JLL’s partnership and account teams, we have been able to successfully deliver these outcomes to many clients.
Welcome 2026! It’s only fitting that we open the new year with our predictions on trending topics in CRE and venture circles. We polled the JLL Spark team for their outlook on AI’s transformation of CRE, industry tech adoption and implementation, and exit expectations. What were the overall sentiments and who carried the outlying opinions?
Traditional robots have been around in commercial real estate for years, doing tasks like construction work, cleaning, and building inspections. While functional, the results are not changing the game. Leveraging JLL’s latest Global Technology Survey, authors Yuehan Wang and Christine Langston of JLL’s Global Research team finds that the combination of better technology, willing clients, and proven use cases is creating the perfect storm for robotics to really break through in the commercial real estate world.
The facilities management industry has little choice but to deploy technology to solve the immense challenges it faces. For tech innovators, this is a mandate: empower the industry’s shift from the plant room to the boardroom. Those who seize this opportunity will help create resilient, efficient, and engaging workplaces of tomorrow. The future of FM is waiting to be built.
In our latest team feature, get to know Daniel Correa, JLL Spark Growth Principal based in New York City. He is the powerhouse behind accelerating our portfolio companies within JLL’s transaction businesses – Leasing Advisory, Capital Markets, and LaSalle Investment Management.
With operations in over 80 countries and a workforce of more than 110,000 employees, we face the immense challenge of managing vast amounts of property data from multiple sources, markets, and formats. To address this complexity data challenge, we invested in and deployed PRODA — a solution that has been essential in building a unified, scalable, and effective enterprise data platform for one of our industry’s most fragmented data sets: rent rolls.
Our recent investment in Acelab reiterates JLL’s commitment to tech-enabling our core business functions and represents a strategic leap forward in enhancing one of our critical processes: material discovery and procurement. Acelab’s Material Hub, an all-in-one materials management platform, enhances efficiency for architects and designers in JLL’s PDS group, providing superior quality control and economic advantage, in addition to supporting sustainability objectives.
JLL Spark and Goodwin Law hosted, with sponsorship from Andersen, an audience of almost 90 people, expertly curated to speak and network about some of the most pressing issues in our business at Unstable Foundations: An analysis of CRE’s relationship with tech.
