Artificial intelligence, energy constraints and demographic change could completely transform global business hubs in the coming years, according to Colliers’ report “Building Resilience: 5 Megatrends Redefining Corporate Real Estate”. At the same time, the analysis shows that many organisations are still not prepared for the scale and pace of these changes.
The study indicates that the areas likely to have the greatest impact on the future of business — such as the development of AI and rising energy demand — are also those where companies show the lowest level of readiness. The gap between the potential impact of these megatrends and companies’ ability to respond to them is becoming one of the key strategic challenges for businesses around the world.
AI Is Transforming Business, but Companies Are Struggling to Keep Up
Although artificial intelligence is now regarded as one of the main drivers of economic transformation and competitive advantage, many organisations are still at a very early stage of implementation. Colliers data shows that fewer than one-third of companies currently have a coherent AI strategy, while the remaining organisations are only planning to introduce one. Moreover, even where projects have already been launched, their effectiveness remains limited — only around one-quarter of initiatives deliver the expected return on investment, while in the case of generative AI, the share of unsuccessful implementations reaches as much as 95%.
At the same time, access to adequate digital infrastructure and highly skilled specialists is becoming increasingly important, already influencing companies’ decisions on where to locate investments. This means that in the coming years competition between cities and regions will increasingly focus on their ability to support the development of AI technologies.
Energy: The New Bottleneck for Growth
The rapid development of technology, particularly artificial intelligence and data centres, is driving a sharp increase in energy demand. According to the report, by 2030 the United States and China could account for nearly 80% of the total growth in global data centre energy consumption.
In practice, this means that access to stable and competitively priced energy sources is becoming one of the most important factors determining the location of new investments. Companies increasingly need not only to analyse energy availability, but also to actively invest in improving the energy efficiency of their buildings and developing alternative power sources in order to reduce operational risk and costs.
“Just a few years ago, energy was mainly an operating cost for real estate. Today, it is becoming one of the key factors determining whether an investment can develop. Especially in the case of data centres or modern logistics parks, access to stable, predictably priced energy is beginning to matter as much as location or access to transport infrastructure. More and more companies are now designing real estate around energy — taking into account local renewable energy sources, energy storage or long-term PPA contracts,” comments Dariusz Chrzanowski, Director of Energy Contracting Strategy at Colliers.
Climate Is Changing the Rules for Business Locations
Growing climate risks are becoming an increasingly important factor influencing companies’ location strategies. As Colliers’ report points out, the rising frequency of extreme weather events and long-term climate change are significantly affecting the risk profile of many key real estate markets. As a result, some existing business hubs may require costly adaptation measures in the coming decades or may lose their investment appeal.
In addition, increasingly restrictive environmental regulations and rising expectations from investors and tenants mean that climate issues are becoming an integral part of business and real estate strategies. This requires companies to take into account both the resilience of assets to physical risks and their compliance with sustainability requirements.
Europe Is Ageing. Companies Must Look Further for Talent
At the same time, companies are facing growing demographic pressure, especially in Europe and North America. Ageing societies and a shrinking working-age population mean that access to talent is becoming increasingly limited. According to estimates cited in the report, by the end of the decade as many as 150 million jobs worldwide could be filled by older workers.
In this situation, companies will be forced to change their existing human capital management strategies. This means not only greater investment in upskilling employees, but also a more global approach to recruitment and adapting the workplace to the needs of different generations. Flexibility is also becoming increasingly important — both in terms of work models and office locations.
“Despite changes in the labour market, attracting and retaining key talent remains a major challenge for employers. The ability to create a working environment in which employees can effectively realise their potential is an important aspect of a company’s strategy. In recent years, we have observed that more and more employers are moving away from a single universal work model, delegating responsibility for decisions on remote and office work to team leaders. In practice, this means that different models often operate within the same organisation. When making decisions about the office, it is worth taking into account the diversity of space so that it adequately supports the needs of employees with different work styles and different patterns of office attendance,” explains Dorota Osiecka, Partner and Director of Colliers Define.
A New Map of Economic Growth
Technological and demographic changes are going hand in hand with shifts in the global economic order. The growing importance of emerging markets, particularly in Asia, means that existing centres of growth are gradually losing their advantage. Forecasts suggest that the region could account for around 60% of global economic growth in the coming decades.
For companies, this means the need to diversify their geographic presence and search for new growth markets. At the same time, geopolitical tensions and changing supply chains are making location decisions more complex, requiring companies to consider not only costs, but also risk and operational resilience.
How Companies Can Prepare
In the face of these challenges, building organisational flexibility and resilience is becoming essential. The Colliers report indicates that companies should already be moving away from rigid real estate management models towards more adaptive solutions that allow them to respond more quickly to market changes. Distributed strategies, such as the “hub and spoke” model, are also gaining importance, enabling companies to combine main operational centres with smaller locations closer to employees and markets.
“Flexibility has become one of the key elements of real estate strategies. In a dynamic environment, companies need solutions that allow them to quickly adjust the scale and way in which space is used — both in response to team growth and changing work models. For this reason, organisations are increasingly including flexible offices in their strategies, treating them as an important element of building resilience and the ability to respond quickly to change,” says Robert Romanowski, expert from the Office Agency Department at Colliers.
At the same time, companies should more closely integrate real estate decisions with supply chain planning and invest in solutions that increase energy efficiency and resilience to climate risks. It is the ability to combine these elements — technology, location, people and infrastructure — that will determine competitive advantage in the coming years.
According to the authors of the report, the scale and pace of the coming changes mean that postponing decisions is no longer an option. Organisations that take adaptive measures today may not only reduce risks, but also use the transformation as an impulse for further growth.
