PR Newswire·Nov 11, 2026, 10:08 AM ET

AI's blind spot: CRE investors' top priorities aren't delivering the biggest returns

83% of real estate investors have moved AI beyond testing, yet 43% struggle to achieve their stated goals due to a misalignment between priorities & realized returns.
Asset & property management deliver the strongest gains in efficiency (66%) & decision quality (57%) despite being lower investment priorities, whereas capital deployment remains the top priority (49%) but yields limited results.
Only 15% of investors have developed custom agentic workflows, yet firms with such workflows are more than twice as likely to report broad benefits.
Data readiness significantly impacts success: 59% of investors with non-AI-ready data struggle to realize benefits compared to just 21% of those with clean, connected data.
88% of investors have hired dedicated AI talent or leads, & 81% have engaged external advisors, reflecting high organizational pressure regarding competition & operational change.
Competitive advantage increasingly depends on proprietary agentic workflows & unique data assets rather than generic enterprise LLM tools which lead to competitive convergence.
JLL recommends investors evaluate AI through a value retention lens, build proprietary workflows, & direct budgets toward unique moats like relationship networks.