AI ambitions require real estate that can keep up

The Netherlands voices big ambitions. About AI, about digitalization, about productivity and technological autonomy. About attracting and retaining international talent, about start-ups and scale-ups, about strengthening our knowledge economy. These are legitimate ambitions, and there is good reason for optimism. We have strong universities, serious technology companies, data centers, internet exchanges, and a relatively high-quality digital infrastructure. Our starting position is better than that of many other countries.

But there is a question that, in our view, is asked far too rarely. Where is that AI economy actually supposed to work? AI is digital, but the companies that use AI are physical. They sit in offices, business premises, laboratories, and campuses. And precisely there, in the final physical link to the user, a blind spot emerges.

You cannot become a digital frontrunner on a real estate stock of which you barely know what it can handle digitally. A country's strong digital infrastructure does not automatically translate into strong digital infrastructure for every individual building. And that is where the issue that IT-Label addresses begins.

Ambition first, infrastructure second

The figures on AI adoption vary, but the direction is unmistakable: more and more Dutch companies are using AI, and adoption is accelerating. Virtually every organization now runs largely on cloud services and digital applications. The digital economy has become one of the most important engines of economic growth, and the ambition to keep pace internationally is widely shared.

Give the Netherlands credit here. At the top of the chain, substantial investments have been made in recent years, and that remains necessary. But a strong national starting position says little about the individual building in which a specific company is located. Two properties on the same street, connected to the same network, can perform completely differently in digital terms depending on what has been arranged behind the facade.

That is exactly the level where things go wrong. National ambitions are measured at the national level, while companies operate at building level. Anyone who takes the ambition seriously must therefore also look at the building, not just at the backbone.

AI comes from the cloud, but you still have to reach it

Every AI prompt, every cloud application, every video call, every dataset, and every digital transaction ultimately travels through a chain. That chain starts in the cloud and the data center, runs via the backbone and the fiber-optic network to the building, and continues there via the internal IT infrastructure and the network to the workplace.

The Netherlands can invest billions at the top of that chain. But if we do not know at the bottom what our buildings can handle, we are missing a crucial link. The connection between cloud connectivity and the building is not a technical detail, but the place where the promise of AI is either delivered or stalls.

AI runs in the cloud. But the user sits in a building, and between those two the full infrastructure has to work.

We know how many parking spaces an office has

Open any real estate brochure. You will read how many square meters are available, how many parking spaces there are, how high the ceiling is, what flooring is used, and what energy label the building has. Sometimes you will even find out how many charging points there are and which brand of sanitary fixtures was used.

Then ask the question that actually matters in the AI economy, and things go quiet. Which digital infrastructure will I actually get? Which fiber connection is actually installed? Are multiple providers available? Is there redundancy on the connection? What can the wifi infrastructure handle? How is the server room set up? What does the landlord provide, and what does the tenant have to arrange themselves?

That leads to an uncomfortable observation. Are we serious about building an AI economy while, during an office viewing, we sometimes know better where the bike storage is than how the digital infrastructure is arranged? If this remains a detail dealt with only after the signature, then we are treating the most important condition for modern business operations as an afterthought.

This is no longer just an IT problem

Twenty years ago, IT infrastructure could still be seen as something for the IT department or the tenant. Today, organizations run on the combination of data, cloud, connectivity, cybersecurity, software, and AI. That changes the nature of the matter entirely.

IT infrastructure is no longer a facility provision, but economic infrastructure. Without power, an office does not function. Without water, it is of limited use. But for an increasing number of knowledge-based companies, the same now applies just as much: without IT, the organization grinds to a halt. The question is why we still so often treat the digital layer of commercial real estate as a separate, secondary matter.

Real estate sector, do not wait for The Hague

We could wait. For regulation, for Europe, for a new standard, or for a mandatory digital building passport. But why would we? The real estate sector can start on its own, and has a strong interest in doing so.

Property owners have an opportunity that is barely being used. Rather than waiting until tenants start massively demanding digital requirements, anticipate them. Have your buildings assessed for what they can handle, make the infrastructure transparent, invest where necessary, and clearly document the responsibilities. Anyone who arranges this early can also give it a place in the long-term maintenance plan instead of letting it come down to an emergency fix later.

This requires collaboration. Owners, developers, investors, asset managers, property managers, brokers, fit-out specialists, installers, IT companies, telecom providers, and cybersecurity experts all need each other. No single party holds the complete answer on its own. IT-Label aims to be the common language among them, so that all these parties are talking about the same thing when they discuss digital quality.

From competition between buildings to competition on digital quality

Imagine two office buildings standing next to each other. Same location, comparable appearance, same energy label, same rent, comparable accessibility. Building A can barely demonstrate what is digitally present. Building B has had its digital infrastructure audited: the connectivity is documented, the redundancy is known, the internal infrastructure is recorded, the demarcation is clear, and the points for improvement have been mapped out. The tenant gains insight into the digital delivery level before signing.

Which building would a technology-driven company choose? And perhaps more interesting: which building would a company choose that is not an AI-driven organization today, but will largely operate on AI within five years? Visibility thus becomes a distinguishing factor, exactly as IT-Label's new role in real estate value describes.

Every company is becoming more dependent on technology

We should stop thinking that digital real estate quality is only relevant for data centers, tech companies, fintech, and AI start-ups. An accounting firm uses AI. A law firm, an architect, a logistics company, a broker, a manufacturer, a healthcare organization, and a retailer now use it too.

Strictly speaking, not every company needs to become a tech company, but virtually every company is becoming increasingly dependent on technology. As a result, digital real estate quality is becoming an ever broader user requirement, no longer a niche wish of a handful of frontrunners.

Do not invest blindly, measure first

IT-Label explicitly does not claim that every building must be maximally packed with technology. That would be pointless. A building should fit its users, and a deliberately modest delivery level can be a perfectly logical choice. That is why it starts with measuring, not with investing.

What is present? What functions? What is missing? What does the landlord provide and what belongs to the tenant? Where are the risks, and where can improvement add value? Only once those questions are answered can sensible investment take place. In this way, the label also helps prevent owners from spending money on technology their users barely need. Thinking in terms of six levels, from IT1+ PREMIUM to IT5 SHELL, makes it possible to discuss which level fits which use.

Transparency can drive investment

There is a market mechanism underneath this that is often underestimated. What we measure, we can compare. What we compare, we can value. What users value gains market value. And where market value arises, willingness to invest arises.

That is why transparency can be more powerful in the short term than new regulation. As soon as tenants can compare buildings digitally, an incentive naturally emerges for owners to improve. In this way, insight into digital quality can make the broader adoption of digital technology by Dutch companies easier. IT-Label does not build AI models, does not lay fiber, and does not build data centers. But it can make visible whether the final physical link to the user is in order.

We took grid congestion seriously too late

The Netherlands now knows what happens when economic development moves faster than infrastructure. Grid congestion is slowing development, electrification, expansion, and sustainability efforts in various places. The lesson from this reaches beyond the electricity grid alone.

With digital infrastructure, we should not wait until the limit is reached. The term data congestion can serve as a provocative concept here, although it is not a one-to-one equivalent of grid congestion. The underlying lesson applies just as much: infrastructure must be able to grow ahead of economic demand, not trail behind it for years.

Prove the AI ambition in our buildings

AI strategies, subsidies, research, computing power, talent, and energy are all important. But ultimately, technology has to be used by companies. The AI economy does not just begin in the data center, it ends at the workplace. And between those two points, the full infrastructure has to function.

That is why the message to the market is more concrete than an appeal to government. Property owner: have your building assessed for what it can handle digitally. Asset manager: put digital CAPEX on the agenda. Broker: ask about IT during an inspection too. IT specialist: help translate the technology into real estate terms. Provider: make clear what is actually available. Fit-out contractor: factor in digital infrastructure from the design stage onward. And tenant: ask before signing what you will actually get digitally, using the checklist on what to pay attention to.

Tomorrow's most important real estate question may not be how many square meters a company needs, but what it can handle digitally within those square meters. No IT, no AI. No digital infrastructure, no digital economy. And without insight, we do not even know where to start. If you want to get that insight in order for your own portfolio, start with a conversation about how an IT-Label comes about and which next steps fit your situation.