New York has overtaken the San Francisco Bay Area as the nation’s largest tech talent market by workforce size for the first time, as the artificial intelligence boom helps reshape where technology companies are hiring and expanding.
CBRE’s 2026 Scoring Tech Talent report found that New York’s tech workforce grew by 30,640 workers between 2022 and 2025 to 394,300, while the San Francisco Bay Area’s tech workforce shrank by 23,900 to 375,730.
Fran Loftus, chief experience officer at New York-based EliseAI, told FOX Business that the numbers reflect what her company is seeing on the ground.
“I definitely think New York has become a major AI hub,” Loftus said.
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“Walking down Fifth Avenue, seeing so many other AI companies, it’s clear that there is a concentration of great AI technical talent here, which is exactly why we’ve grown our New York footprint.”
But why has New York become an AI hub?
Loftus explained that being in New York puts the company close to both its customers and the people using its products, while the city’s broad mix of industries gives AI companies access to workers with different types of experience.
EliseAI, a New York City-based AI startup that automates workflows for housing and health care operators, recently moved into a new 109,000-square-foot headquarters in the former Tiffany & Co. building on Fifth Avenue, joining several other AI and tech tenants on the block.
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“New York’s strength is its diversity of industries, which is amazing for us to pull from as a fast-growing company in AI,” Loftus said, adding that the city is “a great place for AI catalysts.”
As AI becomes more prevalent across the economy, Loftus acknowledged that the technology is changing jobs.
“You can say it replaces some, it creates others,” she said.
But she argued that in housing and health care, AI can automate repetitive or administrative work while employees move toward more complex responsibilities.
“Generally, the organization structure is just changing to now give a lot of this work to AI and up-level the responsibilities of the teams that are managing these workflows today,” Loftus said.
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When asked about growing concerns surrounding AI, Loftus said its real-world applications are key to evaluating the technology’s impact.
“I think when you’re looking at the application of AI, and EliseAI in particular’s application of AI, I think it’s pretty clear that this growth is sustainable and the impact is positive to the end user, the renter or the patient,” she said.
For young professionals entering the workforce or looking to break into the tech industry, Loftus said they should take advantage of the AI boom.
“There’s a ton of opportunity,” she said.
“I think that the role opportunities for folks that are very entrepreneurial are massive in AI organizations like ours,” she continued.
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Loftus argued that as AI changes jobs in industries such as health care and housing, automating repetitive work could make some career paths more attractive.
EliseAI itself is hiring across several markets, including New York, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Austin and Toronto, according to Loftus.
She also said EliseAI recently surpassed $200 million in revenue and has doubled its revenue every year for the past five years, adding that its AI agents now support roughly one in six U.S. apartment units.
While New York has become the largest tech talent market by total workforce, the San Francisco Bay Area remains a major technology center.
According to CBRE, tech workers account for more than 10% of overall employment in the San Francisco Bay Area, putting it among North America’s most tech-concentrated labor markets.
Loftus also said EliseAI is expanding in San Francisco, even as New York remains its largest office.
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