Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | May 4, 2026 | Worcester Business Journal 37 ADVICE & OPINION BY HARRISON KLEIN Special to WBJ A benefit of my job is see- ing the detailed leasing information for about 100 office buildings every year. Nowadays, "Will artificial intelligence impact these tenants?" is the first question I'm asking. Call centers, absolutely. Bookkeeping or payroll operations, yes. Medical administrative uses, probably. Dialysis centers remain resilient from both remote work and artificial intelligence. Central Massa- chusetts is well positioned to adapt to the AI transition. Any student of Worcester's history knows that she's a city of transitions. From early textile manufacturing to specialized manufacturing led by companies such as Norton and David Clark Co., and now to today's eds-and-meds era we're enjoying. AI, at best, will leverage the city's existing talent, making Worcester more competitive globally. Automation will remove roadblocks to advanced manufacturing coming into expen- sive labor markets like Massachusetts. e cost of labor drove jobs out of Worcester in the 1960s-1980s. With advanced automation, the role of labor costs in locating factories won't play the same role it did 50 years ago. Base manufacturing employment will increase the need for everything, from diners to grocery stores to accounting firms. Worcester has 50,000+ manufac- turing jobs, 73,000 healthcare work- ers, and 50,000+ employed in edu- cation. ese jobs require in-person work and will be harder to replace with AI. Hybrid and remote work schedules in Boston have contributed to Worcester's class A housing boom. Alternatively, the relative strength in the office market has been spurred by multiple factors. Nonprofit, health- care, and government tenants have taken additional space in Worcester, while professional tenants have gen- erally retained space at a high rate. e Worcester office market is largely locally focused. Only a handful of leases have been signed for more than 10,000 square feet in the Greater Worcester market. Most leases are in the 1,000-8,000 square foot range. ese operations are oen client/patient facing. Many are small legal, accounting, technology, and medical firms. ese firms are slower to adopt new technology, and less likely to replace workers with this tech. Oracle is laying off 18% of its workforce, supposedly because of AI. A 50-person accounting firm with one HR person does not have those types of redundancies. ese smaller tenants may, in fact, have more cashflow with which to pay rent. is is because they will find more efficiencies, reduce the costs of already outsourced labor/tools, and continue providing local services to local customers. e limited supply of modern office space bodes well for the city's landlords. Older office buildings will continue to come off the market as they are convert- ed to housing or demolished. First class space geared toward small and midsized tenants will thrive. AI will change how we work; fortunately Worcester's economy is built on a talented workforce who will thrive in the new world. Harrison Klein is managing director, investments at the Boston office of California-based Marcus & Millichap. He leads e Klein Group, focusing on industrial, office and adaptive reuse opportunities in New England, including deals on numerous Central Massachusetts properties. Worcester's economy in the AI future Harrison Klein VIEWPOINT W BY JULIA BECKER COLLINS Special to WBJ I f you're reviewing your mar- keting analytics, whether on automated dashboards or agen- cy reports, it's easy to assume you're seeing the full picture. Charts look strong. Traffic is up. En- gagement appears steady. But not all metrics are meaningful, and focusing on the wrong ones can stall growth. Vanity metrics are oen the issue. ese KPIs look impressive but fail to show whether your marketing is generating real business outcomes. Metrics like pageviews, social media followers, and impressions can signal activity, but they don't say if that is translating into leads or revenue. at distinction matters more than many realize. A spike in website traf- fic may feel like success, but if those visitors aren't relevant or acting, it's just noise. e same applies to social media growth. A larger audience doesn't automatically mean more customers, especially if that audience isn't engaging or converting. Problems arise when you optimize for these metrics instead of outcomes. We've seen this firsthand. One cli- ent became fixated on their website's bounce rate, the percentage of visi- tors who leave aer viewing only one page. Initially, their bounce rate was low compared to competitors. But as we expanded their strategy to include SEO and paid advertising, it in- creased. At the same time, traffic and leads were rising. Despite that, the client focused solely on the bounce rate, leading to repeated concerns and time spent explaining context rather than advancing strategy. is is a common trap. Markets shi. Marketing evolves. A single metric rarely tells the full story. e same pattern appears in paid advertising. Some businesses focus heavily on impression share without adjusting budgets, limiting mean- ingful growth. Others celebrate high conversion numbers without validat- ing lead quality. If no one is checking with sales, those conversions may include low-quality inquiries or even bot traffic. e solution is shiing toward ac- tionable metrics connecting market- ing activity to real outcomes. Instead of asking how many people visited your website, ask what they did next. Did they explore key service pages? Fill out a form? Make a purchase? Understanding user behavior is critical. Where are visitors landing? How are they moving through your site? Are your campaigns producing qualified leads, not just volume? Is your social media driving traffic to your website or physical location? Answering these questions requires more than surface-level reporting. It demands proper tracking and inte- gration across platforms. Conversion tracking, website analytics, and social media insights all play a role, but only when they are configured correctly and reviewed consis- tently. For many businesses, this means consol- idating data. Aggregated reporting tools can pull information from multiple platforms into one place, making it easier to identify trends and gaps. But data alone isn't enough. Interpretation turns information into strategy. at's where experience becomes essential. Marketing success doesn't come from chasing a single KPI. It comes from understanding how metrics work together and how they tie back to revenue. Julia Becker Collins is the chief operating officer of Vision, a full- service digital marketing agency in Northborough. Vanity metrics need to die Julia Becker Collins KNOW HOW W

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