How Cushman & Wakefield Turns AI into Local Power for 400+ Locations

A Global Brand with a Local Online and Offline Reputation to Uphold

If you've ever been inside a commercial office or retail space in a major city around the world, there's a high chance that you've already had a local experience of a space managed by Cushman & Wakefield.

What started as a small family business more than 100 years ago, today Cushman & Wakefield is among the largest real estate services firms, delivering exceptional value to real estate occupiers and owners in over 400 locations across 60 countries.

Since partnering with Uberall in 2020, the brand has scaled its local digital presence significantly. While the brand is well known around the globe, it's critical each office location has a local online and offline reputation to uphold. By leveraging Uberall's proprietary Location Performance Score (LPS), the team now tracks this success with precision — achieving an 81% Visibility score for profile completeness and a 96% Reputation score.

To learn more about how Cushman & Wakefield creates a global-local brand across thousands of locations, we sat down with Flo Guerrouani, Associate Director, SEO Lead of Global Marketing & Communications, to learn about her current local strategy.

The Challenge: Navigating the AI Search Landscape

The global marketing team at Cushman & Wakefield needed a centralized management tool that could not only automatically update critical information from a single source of truth but also make a positive impact on each location's online visibility in a rapidly evolving AI search landscape.

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With the rise of AI-powered discovery, from Google's AI Overviews to voice search, the "ten blue links" of the past are disappearing. Flo Guerrouani discussed this pivotal shift as a featured speaker on the recent industry panel, "Real Marketing Leaders Don't Fear AI — They Turn It Into Local Power."

She recognized that to stay visible, the brand needed to do more than just list addresses; they needed to be the "best answer" for AI algorithms. "Real marketing leaders don't fear AI," Guerrouani notes, "they turn it into local power by ensuring their data is the fuel that drives these new discovery engines."

Q&A: Turning AI into Local Power

How has your strategy evolved with the rise of AI in search?

Flo Guerrouani (FG): We stopped looking at listings as just "digital phonebooks" and started treating them as data sources for AI. We know that AI models prioritize businesses that are active, accurate, and responsive. That's why we focus on our Location Performance Score. Maintaining an 81% Visibility score isn't just about housekeeping; it's about ensuring that when a client asks an AI, "Find a top-rated commercial real estate partner near me," our data is pristine enough to be the answer.

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You mentioned "Real Leaders Don't Fear AI." How are you applying that to reputation management?

FG: Fear often comes from the overwhelming volume of tasks, but we use AI to solve that. We are leveraging Uberall's AI review reply assistant to handle the scale of our feedback. Because of this tool, we are now responding to 96% of reviews that have no text — a 5% increase YoY. This might seem small, but to an algorithm, it signals "this business is alive and cares." It frees my team to spend quality time writing personal responses to complex, text-based reviews, while AI handles the volume. It's not about replacing humans; it's about powering them up.

What results are you seeing from this "AI-Ready" approach?

FG: The proof is in the engagement. By keeping our data "AI-ready" and our reputation active, we've seen a +9% year-on-year increase in clicks on Google directions. We're capturing high-intent traffic because we are visible exactly where, and how, our clients are searching.

Furthermore, using Uberall's Apple Business Connect integration, we've seen a +3% increase in Apple views (total) and a massive +16% in Apple interactions (total). We're ensuring our brand is front and center, no matter the platform.

A Partnership Built for the Future of Search

As the digital landscape shifts from traditional search to AI-driven discovery, Cushman & Wakefield demonstrates that true market leadership requires both vision and the right technology partner. By combining their deep industry expertise with Uberall's AI-driven platform, they have successfully future-proofed their local presence. This enduring partnership proves that when brands stop fearing AI and start using it to enhance human connection, they don't just survive the evolution of search — they lead it.

* 2025 vs 2024