Commercial real estate firms publish a constant stream of market reports, forecasts and research. CRE Research Roundup reads that work for what it tells site selectors, economic developers and corporate real estate leaders about where companies can grow.

In all four reports, technology is adding to the requirements for a competitive location.

For high-value office functions, AI may increase the competitive advantage of markets with deep concentrations of adaptable talent.

Only 5% of the office-using workforce is highly vulnerable to AI displacement, according to CBRE Research. Another 18% is highly adaptive, in jobs where AI is more likely to enhance workers' capabilities than eliminate their positions.

CBRE forecasts office-using employment will grow about 0.9% annually over the next five years, compared with 0.6% for employment overall.

That outlook differs from the widespread white-collar job losses often predicted in discussions of artificial intelligence.

For site selectors, the question is which workers become more valuable and where companies can find them.

As AI absorbs more repetitive and process-driven tasks, office work can shift toward functions involving judgment, collaboration and complex decision-making. Those are also activities that can benefit from proximity to other workers, companies and institutions.

Technology companies are already concentrating geographically. They accounted for 21% of U.S. office leasing in the first half of 2026, matching their highest share on record. Nearly two-thirds of that activity occurred in the San Francisco Bay Area and Manhattan.

CBRE also identifies San Jose and San Francisco as having the office workforces least vulnerable to AI disruption, followed by Washington, Seattle and Boston.

For years, technology strengthened the argument for geographic dispersion. If information could move instantly and employees could work remotely, companies theoretically had greater freedom to locate operations in lower-cost markets, though AI could complicate that calculation.

If the highest-value employees are increasingly those who use AI to become more productive, markets with deep pools of adaptable talent gain an edge.

For economic developers, workforce competitiveness will depend more on what local workers can do than on head count.

5%
Highly vulnerable office-using workforce
18%
Highly adaptive office-using workforce
21%
Technology's share of U.S. office leasing in H1 2026
0.9%
Forecast annual office-using employment growth
Source: CBRE Research.

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CBRE Research
AI's Impact on Office Demand

Access to power is changing where data centers get built. Markets that barely registered a decade ago can compete for large projects when available power outweighs the advantages of traditional locations.

North American data-center vacancy sits at roughly 1%, according to JLL, while approximately 66 gigawatts of capacity is under construction.

Of the capacity under construction, 77% is in what JLL describes as frontier markets, outside the established data-center hubs.

West Texas has become one of the clearest beneficiaries, while markets in Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana and the Carolinas are also attracting development.

Data-center developers still care about fiber, latency, land, taxes, construction costs and proximity to customers. But the AI infrastructure boom has made electrical capacity, and especially the ability to deliver it on a predictable timeline, one of the industry's biggest constraints.

That creates an opening for places that historically weren't considered major data-center markets. A market with abundant power, land and a credible path to construction can now compete against established hubs where infrastructure is constrained.

Landing the project is only part of the job for economic developers. Local support is a separate hurdle.

JLL's research finds 79% of Americans support U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence, while only 14% support having a data center in their own backyard.

That gap could become a major economic-development challenge in the AI infrastructure cycle. Communities may want the investment, tax base and technological relevance associated with AI while residents object to the physical infrastructure required to support it.

Community engagement, utility planning and political readiness now belong in the same conversation as site readiness.

~1%
North American data-center vacancy
66 GW
Capacity under construction
77%
Share of construction occurring in frontier markets
79%
Americans supporting U.S. AI leadership
14%
Americans supporting a data center in their own backyard
Source: JLL.

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JLL
North America Data Center Report — Midyear 2026

The post-pandemic race for any available industrial space is giving way to a more selective location cycle. As supply constraints ease, companies can again prioritize labor, transportation, infrastructure and proximity to customers, advantages that can favor established industrial hubs.

Newmark reports U.S. industrial leasing volume increased 24% year over year in the second quarter of 2026, and quarterly net absorption reached 68 million square feet, the strongest level since 2023.

Primary markets captured 32% of U.S. net absorption in the second quarter, according to Newmark, up from a record-low 21% in 2024.

The shift suggests industrial location decisions are beginning to normalize after an unusual period in which companies chased scarce space, supply chains were reconfigured and virtually any available modern industrial capacity could command attention.

Occupiers had few choices while vacancy was tight. As supply loosens, location fundamentals carry more weight.

Companies can be more selective about labor availability, transportation networks, proximity to suppliers and customers, power, operating costs and the quality of the real estate itself.

Secondary markets remain in the mix, but cheap land or an available building counts for less when occupiers have several credible alternatives.

Newmark also found owner-user industrial sales reached a record $12.6 billion annualized pace. That may suggest companies are increasingly willing to control strategically important real estate rather than rely entirely on leased inventory.

For economic developers, availability got many markets into consideration during the supply crunch, and it may not be enough in the next cycle.

+24%
Year-over-year industrial leasing growth in Q2
68M SF
Quarterly net absorption
32%
Primary markets' share of Q2 U.S. net absorption
21%
Primary-market share in 2024
$12.6B
Annualized owner-user industrial sales
Source: Newmark Research.

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Newmark Research
2Q26 U.S. Industrial Market Conditions & Trends

The industrial market is splitting between generic space and space that can support advanced operations. For advanced manufacturers, total vacancy says little about how much usable space a market has.

U.S. industrial net absorption exceeded 60 million square feet for the second time in three quarters, according to Cushman & Wakefield's latest U.S. industrial research.

Demand is concentrated in newer buildings. Warehouses built since 2020 accounted for approximately 137 million square feet of year-to-date net absorption.

Cushman says occupiers are prioritizing newer facilities for characteristics including higher clear heights, greater operational efficiency and greater power capacity to support automation and AI systems.

Power scarcity is usually discussed in the context of data centers, but electrical capacity is increasingly a requirement for advanced manufacturing and other sophisticated industrial operations.

Semiconductors, batteries, aerospace and defense, precision machining and highly automated production can require much more from a building than four walls and loading docks.

As a result, a building can sit vacant and still be of no practical use to the occupier searching for space.

A recent transaction in Rancho Cordova, California, illustrates the distinction.

Precision manufacturer Nominal Machining leased a 21,105-square-foot facility for an operation serving aerospace, defense, semiconductor and medical customers.

Newmark cited location, heavy power, fully conditioned manufacturing space and expansion potential as the features that made the property work.

Those requirements tell a site selector more about the deal than the building's square footage does.

A generic distribution building without sufficient electrical capacity, conditioning or other specialized infrastructure might be sitting vacant a mile away and still not represent a viable alternative.

Retrofitting that building would add cost and time, two variables companies often want to minimize.

Economic developers need more detailed building inventories as a result.

Those inventories should cover power, gas, loading, ceiling height, environmental history and expansion potential, along with what can realistically be upgraded and how long the upgrade will take.

Companies that buy or lease space are also buying a timeline for when operations can start.

60M+ SF
Recent quarterly U.S. industrial net absorption
137M SF
YTD absorption captured by buildings constructed since 2020
21,105 SF
Nominal Machining's Rancho Cordova facility

LOCATION + POWER + CONDITIONED SPACE + EXPANSION
Sources: Cushman & Wakefield and Newmark.

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Cushman & Wakefield
U.S. Industrial MarketBeat

SEE THE DATA IN ACTION
Newmark
Nominal Machining, Rancho Cordova

This week's findings show technology making the requirements of a competitive location more specific.

AI can increase the premium on adaptable talent. Power availability is shifting data-center construction to new markets.

As the industrial market normalizes, companies can become more selective about where they operate. And more sophisticated manufacturing means a vacant building may not be a usable one.

In each case, companies are screening for capability, meaning workers with the right skills, deliverable power on a credible timeline and buildings that can support increasingly sophisticated operations.

Communities, in turn, have to be able to execute as well as look competitive on paper.

For years, economic developers could compete partly by showing an abundance of available workers, land, buildings and power.

Now the test is whether a community can deliver what a project needs, when it needs it. That ability may carry the most weight in the next development cycle.

CRE Research Roundup is Location Decision's recurring analysis of commercial real estate research, focused on what the findings mean for site selection, economic development and corporate location strategy.