AI – will it help or hinder London’s office landscape?

In April, the Greater London Authority published a report warning that a fifth of London’s jobs could be at risk from AI. This would be a major blow to the demand for office space, which in recent years has been recovering. However, contradicting this, AI linked firms are snapping up office space in the capital, with Jeff Bezo’s AI firm, Prometheus looking for space around King’s Cross, joining other AI firms, including Google-owned, Deepmind, and Anthropic.

As in all technological revolutions there will be winners and losers, and in offices, the picture will be similar. Winners are high-quality offices located in or around London’s growing or nascent tech superclusters. 

Last month, when the GLA published its gloomy report, AI firms signed up to a staggering 450,000 sq ft of office space in the capital, according to commercial real estate analytics firm, CoStar. This is more than 11 times the monthly average take-up for office space seen in 2025.

Among the rush of this year’s deals made by AI luminaries are Anthropic, which signed up in April to158,000 sq ft at One Triton Square near Euston, following in the heals of OpenAI taking 88,500 sq ft in King’s Cross for its first permanent UK office.

The AI office space ‘gold rush’ takes place amidst a dearth of prime office space in the capital; a legacy of new office construction almost grinding to halt as interest rates and construction costs peaked after the outbreak of war in the Ukraine. This was on top of uncertainty about the future of offices, which were thought to go the way of bricks-and-mortar retail, demolished by online shopping, but with offices, the threat was working online from home. 

But for secondary, poorly located offices vacancy rates remain high.

This fear for offices has not materialised. The reason is the importance of human contact and face-to-face collaboration, which has been the main driver for in-office working and firms mandating return to the office. 

At first glance, AI and human contact might be seen as mutually exclusive. But one of the main reasons AI firms are looking for physical office space is the attraction of clusters. Serendipitous meetings of AI engineers are more likely to take place in the cafes and bars in London’s tech superclusters, with King’s Cross and Euston, leading the way, but the West End and other London hot spots following closely. They are also interesting and lively places where talented people want to work. Furthermore, King’s Cross’ proximity to the University of London, Imperial College and the Crick Institute add to an almost campus feel, which Silicon Valley’s tech giants like to emulate.  

Competition for AI talent is fierce, which means only the best offices in the best location will do. Which brings us to the risk. This lies with secondary offices in poor locations. 

A likely scenario is that AI will reduce office employment overall, particularly impacting secondary office demand, while boosting the take-up of space in London’s tech superclusters, making the existing two-speed office market even wider.