At Bright Spaces, we are committed to exploring how innovation and technology are reshaping the built environment. That’s why we were proud to co-sponsor “AI & The City”, an exclusive, sold-out event hosted by Dror Poleg at WeWork London HQ, alongside our partners at Artefact.

The event brought together some of London’s most forward-thinking investors, founders, and real estate professionals for an evening of deep reflection on how artificial intelligence is reshaping our cities, companies, and careers.

As we continue to help landlords and developers build the future of real estate, these are the conversations we believe matter most. Below are the core takeaways from Dror’s keynote—insights that challenge long-held assumptions and inspire new ways of thinking about space, work, and innovation.

The Shift to Intangible Assets The economy has fundamentally transformed from tangible to intangible assets. “In 1975, if you look at the balance sheets of the 500 largest companies in the world, almost 90% of the assets were tangible things… By 2020, about 90% of those assets were intangible in terms of value.”

Non-Linear vs. Linear Economy Traditional “linear” business models (predictable inputs/outputs) are being replaced by “non-linear” ones where success depends on unpredictable, high-impact events. “In a world of non-linear products or intangible products, every success is a black swan. Every success is a low probability, high impact event.”

AI Will Accelerate These Changes AI will intensify economic non-linearity by injecting uncertainty into previously stable professions. “It injects uncertainty into even the most stable, predictable, safe professions and industries and countries. We have no idea today what work we will be doing in six months.”

Cities Designed for a Linear Past Our urban infrastructure was built for the linear economy of the 1950s. “Our cities were shaped by those linear assumptions… the assumption that planners can know which activities should be done in which parts of the city and sometimes have that set in stone for 50 years or even for a hundred years.”

Importance of Flexible Spaces More spaces like WeWork are needed to enable experimentation. “Spaces that enable people to experiment cheaply quickly, whether it’s to start a new business, to spend time on some other project… and also just the basic necessities of life.”

Excel as a Metaphor for Cities Cities should provide infrastructure without dictating use, like Excel: “Excel gives you the infrastructure, it gives you the power to do all sorts of things, but it doesn’t tell you what needs to be done inside of it.”

San Francisco’s Paradox Even thriving tech cities face challenges: “In San Francisco at the moment, there’s both a .com level technology boom and financial boom… and at the same time offices there are half empty, tech companies are laying off tens of thousands of people.”

Need for Cheap, Accessible Infrastructure Success requires lowering barriers to experimentation. “Making it cheaper and easier and giving people more certainty when they invest or when they try new things… if the infrastructure, if the energy is cheaper, if public transport is great and dependable and cheaper, that makes all of these things easier.”

The End of Predictable Office Work Traditional management assumed office work was predictable and measurable, but companies struggle to actually measure productivity: “Even the most sophisticated companies in the world a few years ago… were talking about what kind of office designs and management methods make people more or less productive… the moderator asked them, how do you measure productivity… We do a survey, we ask people, do you feel more productive today? And that’s it.”

The Disconnect Between Revenue and Office Space There’s a fundamental shift in how companies grow: “Tech companies are showing us that they can make more money, grow more quickly while cutting inputs, cutting employees, cutting land use, cutting real estate.”

The Challenge of Measuring Nonlinear Work Knowledge work productivity can’t be measured in traditional ways: “I can do the same thing or nothing for a month, and then in five minutes I’ll do something really useful that’s related to maybe all the stuff I was doing or not doing before, but I have no idea where it came from or how much it’s going to be worth.”

The Failure of Managerial Capitalism The mid-20th century belief that professional managers could optimize everything is outdated: “The world in the 1950s and 1960s was governed by an ideology called managerial capitalism. Essentially, economists, policy makers, managers, thought that the world has reached a point where things essentially became manageable.”

New Models of Office Use The WeWork model represents a shift toward experimentation: “Do a smaller pilot. Do whatever scale you’re comfortable with, try to do it, and at least try to learn from what other people are doing… Suddenly everyone was interested in understanding how other people are dealing with vacancy.”

The Importance of Flexible Infrastructure for Work Commercial real estate needs to support experimentation: “We need an infrastructure for more frequent failure in cities… We’re not facilitating that initiation of growth because we don’t have access to space infrastructure that allows it.”

The Decoupling of Work from Traditional Offices Innovation doesn’t require traditional office settings: “Silicon Valley is not a city. It’s a bunch of suburbs connected by two or three highways. So the innovation that happened there had nothing to do with cities.”

Central Purpose vs. General Purpose Urbanism Poleg contrasts “Central Purpose Urbanism” (CPU – rigid, centralized) with “General Purpose Urbanism” (GPU – flexible, multi-core): “We can think of a whole new paradigm… General Purpose Urbanism or GPU, which can have many more cores… allows for parallel experimentation.”

Tokyo as a Model Tokyo offers a template for non-linear cities with flexible zoning focused on building impact rather than use. “Zoning and planning focus more on the shape of the building, its impact on their environment, the noise. They tell you very little about what you’re allowed to do or not with the building.”

This event reinforced something we’ve long believed at Bright Spaces: the future of real estate is not fixed—it’s fluid. As AI continues to challenge traditional structures, it also unlocks an opportunity to rethink how cities and spaces are built and experienced.

Real estate can no longer rely on predictability. Instead, it must embrace agility, digitalization, and user-centric design. The rise of intangible value, non-linear success, and flexible work demands a built environment that enables rather than restricts.

With our focus on creating interactive, digital-first leasing journeys, we’re committed to staying ahead of these paradigm shifts—and to fostering the kinds of conversations that move our industry forward.

A huge thank you to Dror Poleg for sparking such a relevant dialogue, to our partners at Artefact for co-sponsoring this event with us, and to WeWork for kindly hosting us at their London HQ.