The artificial intelligence (AI) landscape in commercial buildings is rapidly evolving. Significant growth in the number and size of companies offering AI-enabled products and services in commercial real estate has been growing around the world in recent years.

The private sector has seen a sharp rise in AI development and with that, the number of commercial building use cases has mushroomed. The market for AI in commercial buildings is now starting to take shape, as outlined by our latest competitive landscape study.

Our research identified 361 companies offering AI and machine learning solutions for commercial buildings, a 42% increase from the 255 companies revealed in our 2021 study. Hosting 173 of those companies, the Americas region accounts for almost half (47.9%) of the market, largely from the US, which alone represents 44% of the global total with 159 AI companies.

“US dominance can be attributed to several factors, including a mature and extensive commercial real estate market, a strong technology ecosystem, robust venture capital funding, and a supportive regulatory environment,” explains our 2024 AI study. “The presence of major technology hubs particularly around Silicon Valley, but also in cities such as New York, and Boston which have fostered a thriving startup culture and attracted top talent in AI and related fields.”

Home to 27.1% of companies, Europe is the second largest region for AI in commercial buildings, with notable clusters in the UK, France, Germany, and The Netherlands. In third, the Asia Pacific region accounts for 20.5% of the smart building AI companies identified, with significant representation from India and Asia-Pacific countries including China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Australia.

“The Asia Pacific region's contribution to the smart building AI market cannot be understated. Countries like China, Japan, and South Korea have made significant strides in AI research and development, with their governments actively promoting the adoption of AI technologies across various industries, including the built environment,” our AI research continues. “As these markets continue to mature, we can expect to see a more comprehensive representation of the Asia Pacific region in future analyses of the global smart building AI landscape.”

Leading Use Cases for AI in Commercial Buildings

Among the 12 use case domains outlined in the report, security and access control emerges as the most popular, with 40.7% of companies offering solutions in this area. This is closely followed by space, occupancy and people movement, and data integration and analytics, while energy management and efficiency are catching up quickly. The research explores all 12 domains in detail to understand the direction of the market as a whole.

“The prominence of security and access control as well as space, occupancy and people movement use case domains can be attributed to both the importance of safety, security, and space optimization in commercial buildings, and the relative maturity of the technologies employed within these domains,” our new report explains. “Data integration and analytics, meanwhile, play a crucial role in unlocking the full potential of AI in smart buildings.”

The share of the market held by the security and access control domain has actually decreased, according to the study, from 45% in 2021 to 40.7% in 2024. This relative decrease has been made up by incremental gains across a wide variety of use cases in the commercial building sphere, most prominently in energy management and efficiency, as well as occupant engagement and experience. This makes for a broad, innovative, and robust market for AI in commercial buildings in the coming years.

While some domains have seen a relative decline in prominence, the actual number of companies offering solutions in all domains has increased despite high levels of consolidation through M&A. This is due to both new market entrants and expansion in the scope, scale and ambition of AI-enabled services by existing players. Overall, these trends are strong indicators of overall growth, interest and maturation in the market.