Pete Lomchid | Moment | Getty Images
A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Property Play newsletter with Diana Olick. Property Play covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, from individuals to venture capitalists, private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors and large public companies. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
AI is impacting everything, so it should come as no surprise that demand for AI-specific tech talent in certain cities is fueling real estate demand in office, residential and even retail.
Across the U.S. and Canada, the pool of tech workers with AI skills grew by more than 50% from mid-2024 to mid-2025 to 517,000 workers, according to a CBRE analysis of LinkedIn data. That talent is concentrated most in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Seattle, Toronto and Washington, D.C. The top three account for 35% of the national total.
Looking just at growth, the New York metropolitan area added the most AI tech talent over the past year by absolute numbers (with 20,000 new AI-skilled workers). Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Toronto and Washington, D.C., each saw 75% year-over-year gains in these workers — or more.
Not all of this growth is new jobs but some is new skills, as tech workers upskilled their capabilities to perform AI-related tasks and systems development. Some, though, entered the workforce with those skills.
“With this AI revolution, it’s been a fundamental game changer for the city of San Francisco, because that’s really ground zero for the AI revolution and where most of these major high-profile firms like OpenAI are located,” said Colin Yasukochi, executive director of CBRE’s Tech Insights Center.
Silicon Valley was, of course, the initial heart of the tech sector, but AI appears to have longer limbs, reaching into cities and sectors where basic tech is now retreating. Part of that is because AI tech talent is now in high demand by the so-called FIRE group – financial services, insurance and real estate. That’s why Manhattan is seeing so much more office and apartment rental demand.
Financial services companies are having to up their game because fintech companies are becoming far more competitive in the market, thanks to AI. While the overall tech industry has cut back, financial services have been some of the top hirers of AI talent.
Unlike some other types of tech, which has gone more remote, AI is still in its early innovation stages. That has a direct impact on how tech talent operates. In the first half of 2025, tech companies accounted for 17% of total U.S. office leasing activity, up from 10% in late 2022.
Just in the city of San Francisco alone, over the last 2½ years, 1 out of every 4 square feet of office space was leased by an AI company, according to CBRE.
“AI is predominantly in-office work, and they’re sort of back to the earlier days of tech innovation, where they’re in the office five, six days a week and for long hours,” said Yasukochi. “That’s certainly boosted office space demand.”
The in-migration of talent to these tech markets also has a sizable impact on residential real estate, according to the CBRE report, which shows that apartment rents have increased in all of the top AI tech markets.
The apartment rent growth from 2021 to 2024 in Manhattan was more than14%, in D.C. more than12%, in Seattle above 7% and in San Francisco nearly 6%.
Part of that is because tech salaries in AI can cover the cost of rents in most of the highest cost markets, which CBRE bases on the affordability standard of 30% of income to housing.
In Manhattan, where apartment rents are highest, tech worker salaries are such that workers are paying just 29% of their wages on rent. In the San Francisco Bay Area and in D.C. it’s as low as 19%.
“This idea that AI is obviously the future of technology, that it’s just kind of getting started, it’s still relatively early days – it’s another potential tech boom, and that’s driving people to come to cities where this is happening, and that’s affecting the real estate markets,” said Yasukochi.
