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Economic growth, not AI adoption, is key office indicator
- June 1, 2026: Vol. 20, Number 6

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Economic growth, not AI adoption, is key office indicator

by Marek Handzel

Companies at the forefront of AI-adoption are more likely to hire staff than shed personnel at present, says Savills.

In a report on AI and the office sector in Europe, the firm says economic growth and business sentiment, rather than AI, are the most significant drivers of office-based employment growth. Savills points to survey data from the European Central Bank (ECB) in March 2026 that indicates companies that make significant use of AI are about 4 percent more likely to take on additional staff. “In other words, AI-intensive firms tend to hire, rather than fire,” says the report. “Much the same can be said of investment into AI: firms that invest in AI are nearly 2 percent more likely to hire additional staff than those that don’t.”

There is also only a weak-moderate negative relationship between the proportion of businesses using AI and office-based employment growth since 2024, according to data from Eurostat and Oxford Economics. Nordic and Western Eu

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