The surge in artificial intelligence has fueled demand for AI-specialty tech workers in real estate, finance, insurance and other industries, giving a boost — at least for now — to an office recovery in markets from San Francisco to New York.
The share of AI-related job postings doubled to 20% of all available U.S. tech openings as of June from mid-2022 when tech job postings peaked, CBRE said in its annual “Scoring Tech Talent” report released Tuesday. The report covers highly skilled workers in 20 tech-oriented occupations, including computer and information systems managers, hardware engineers and software developers.
“The rapid development and adoption of AI is generating economic growth across major tech hubs like the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and Manhattan,” said Colin Yasukochi, executive director of CBRE’s Tech Insights Center, in a statement from the company. “These markets are receiving record amounts of venture capital funding and corporate investment in AI initiatives, which often results in hiring and future office demand.”
Companies hiring for in-demand, AI-related roles “overwhelmingly” require full-time work in the office, CBRE executives said. They add that fully remote working arrangements have declined in the past year as many employers embrace mandates for hybrid work schedules that require least three days a week in the office.
The San Francisco Bay Area held its No. 1 ranking for overall tech talent, followed by Seattle and Toronto, of the top 50 U.S. and Canadian tech markets based on weighted metrics including tech worker concentration, pipeline of new tech talent, research and development investment, and real estate costs. The biggest gainers this year are Waterloo, Ontario; Edmonton, Alberta; Orlando, Florida; Quebec City; North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham; and Pittsburgh.
But some say the evolving effects of AI render the longer-term impact on office use unclear. The rising adoption of AI has led to companies in several industries slashing thousands of jobs that can now be done by AI, according to a report by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. And as private equity firms invest billions of dollars in AI-related technology, mergers and acquisitions of AI companies could also lead to more job cuts.
Ebbing, flowing AI office needs
While some big office leases in San Francisco and other markets with large workspace availability have been signed by AI firms, Jeff Eiting, a senior vice president at Dallas-based Site Selection Group, said he’s not convinced AI-related jobs going forward will necessarily equate to more leased offices.
“Given my activity in the market, it seems AI company growth is very fluid,” Eiting, who has more than a decade of experience helping tech companies find their real estate, told CoStar News. “AI has disrupted real estate, but it’s unclear if there’s enough data points outside of San Francisco to determine how AI could contribute to office demand. For every company growing, there’s another one being acquired.”
Still, AI is fueling optimism in San Francisco despite office vacancy being above 30%, said Caroline O’Loughlin, CBRE’s first vice president in the firm’s tech and media practice in the city.
“AI is dominating the real estate conversations here,” O’Loughlin said during a briefing on CBRE’s tech talent report on Tuesday. “Roughly half of total AI funding invested in the United States is being deployed here. That’s an incredible concentration, and it’s having an impact on the real estate markets.”
The tech industry employs the largest share of AI-specialty workers in the U.S. and Canada, with Seattle, San Francisco and Vancouver having the most AI jobs at tech companies, CBRE said. Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Montreal and Chicago have the largest concentrations of AI jobs in the professional and business services sectors. Metropolitan New York, Dallas-Fort Worth and Toronto represent the most AI jobs in financial services.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, found to have the most AI tech workers in North America, AI-related job postings increased to 42% of all tech job openings, both remote and in-office, in June from 20% in mid-2022, Dallas-based CBRE said. Meanwhile, tech job postings for remote work in the San Francisco Bay Area dropped to 10% in June from 24% in mid-2022, according to the report.
Office rent is the second-biggest cost item for most companies, with Manhattan commanding an annual office rent of more than $4.9 million for 60,000 square feet of space. The Big Apple was followed by the San Francisco Bay Area, where companies pay nearly $4 million in rent for the same amount of space.
To land top tech employees, O’Loughlin said, AI companies are prioritizing “exceptional experience” for their teams with a high-quality workplace and office experience. CBRE is tracking 1.5 million square feet of office deals tied to AI demand with various timelines, she said, adding that she expects “high-profile deals to land by the end of the year” and on into 2026.
To tackle the widespread adoption of AI, the number of computer and information systems manager roles surged by 9% in the United States and 16% in Canada, CBRE said. Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal are the top Canadian markets for AI jobs, with 62% of the country’s total AI-specialty talent.
Tech employment growth
CBRE’s report, in its 12th year, analyzes the ability of North American markets to attract highly skilled tech employees based on factors including salaries, college degrees and rent for offices and apartments. Overall U.S. tech employment grew only 1.1%, or 64,140 jobs, in 2024, far below its peak of 7% growth in 2022, CBRE said. Canada had a stronger growth rate of 5.9%, or 66,600 tech talent jobs, primarily in the high-tech industry, the firm added.
Wages were at the top of the list of operational expenses for firms employing tech staff, with the San Francisco Bay Area ranking highest for the average tech worker salary of $193,000 per year, which is about $33,000 more than Seattle, the next-highest market. The tech industry has more jobs paying at least $150,000 than any other industry, according to the report. About 40% of tech workers are employed at a tech company.
In combining all 13 metrics, including wages and office rent, the San Francisco Bay Area topped the list of highest estimated annual cost in 2024 at $87 million, followed distantly by Seattle, metropolitan New York and Boston. The least expensive North American markets were all in Canada, with Edmonton ranking as the lowest, at $35 million.
This year’s report marks the first time Waterloo, a municipality about 60 miles outside of Toronto, entered the top 10 because of its strong job growth of computer and information systems managers, software developers and programmers, CBRE said. Waterloo ranked No. 7 on CBRE’s 2025 report, up 11 spots from last year.
Waterloo has become a “tech talent juggernaut” with the area sitting about 90 minutes west of Toronto, creating an innovation corridor that allows homegrown talent to stay in Canada, said Todd Cooney, CBRE’s senior vice president in the firm’s tech and media practice in the Waterloo region.
“It’s made us a magnet for top tech companies,” Cooney said during the briefing on the tech talent report, with costs often being lower than its U.S. counterpart markets. That demand has brought new office investment, he said.