The humanist at the top of real estate’s automation machine: ‘I happen to despise the term headcount in the world of AI’
Source: Fortune ·
JLL’s facilities chief insists AI will protect his 88,000 workers. His company’s own clients see a different future ahead.
From the source
Neil Murray does not talk like an executive preparing to automate a workforce. As the head of Real Estate Management Services at commercial property giant JLL, Murray oversees an organization of more than 88,000 people responsible for keeping the nearly six billion square feet of buildings in his purview functioning daily. Yet when conversation turns to artificial intelligence, he recoils from corporate jargon. “I happen to despise the term headcount in the world of AI,” Murray told Fortune. “I think it sort of dehumanizes what we’re talking about.” While Murray dismisses the idea that AI will shrink the workforce, JLL’s own internal staffing tells a more measured story. Asked whether headcount in Murray’s 88,000-person division has actually grown over the past three years, the company declined to provide figures ahead of earnings, describing headcount as merely “stable” and projecting it to hold flat or grow only modestly in 2027. Instead, the company offered a candid redefinition…