CBRE: CBRE to bolster digital, technology workforce in India

Global commercial real estate services firm CBRE plans to significantly bolster its digital and technology (D&T) workforce in India over the next two to three years. According to Sandeep Dave, chief digital and technology officer, the company aims to increase its D&T employee count in the country by nearly 30% from the current 1,500.

Dave highlighted the pivotal role India plays in CBRE’s global technology strategy, with the Hyderabad centre, the company’s second largest outside the United States, serving as the primary software development hub for the Asia Pacific region. The India team has been instrumental in developing innovative solutions leveraging mapping, augmented reality, and data analytics.

“I absolutely see Indian tech talent as a game changer,” said Dave. “We did not have a meaningful India presence four or five years ago. We are now 5x in size as far as the India presence is concerned.”

He was on an India visit, speaking to the media in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Dave said CBRE’s hiring strategy is inclusive, encompassing talent from tier two and tier three universities as well as IITs. “We’ve had some amazing mobility as well, where Indian teams have moved on and joined our global teams,” he added.

More than 25% of Dave’s global team is India-based and serves the firm’s global demand. The capacity in the country therefore grows at a faster rate, he said, adding that the employee count will continue to grow as per needs.

“India is a pretty massive talent hub, especially tech talent,” he said, also noting the cost advantage this provides. “Even as it pertains to AI (artificial intelligence), data science, data engineering, we’ve got a lot done in India that we’ve been able to export out.”In terms of innovation from India, for instance, the company developed an AI-powered tool to scan and analyse market news and generate leads. This tool has evolved into a comprehensive workflow that ingests data from various sources and provides valuable insights, and will be scaled globally, Dave said.

“The innovation that you would see in Western markets would be different from the innovation that you would see in Indian markets,” he explained. “Indian markets would be more about scale, would be low cost.”

AI can have a significant impact driving meaningful insights in the real estate sector, particularly on top of the ‘unprecedented’ amounts of data that CBRE has across over 100 countries covering the full life cycle of real estate investments and business, Dave said.

The company is deploying AI to streamline its supply chain and also has a generative AI platform to help employees with research, querying documents, translating content and more.

“We are seeing some meaningful productivity benefits as a result of that. To have any institutional knowledge in one place that you can query is a big thing,” he said.