If you ask a trade publication, they report “the AI/ tech revolution is coming.”
If you ask one of the Big Four, they predict Artificial Intelligence will contribute up to $15.7T to the global economy by 2030.
But, as Commercial Real Estate professionals, you’re likely wondering how this well-hyped technology will affect your world, make you more efficient, or (as the fear-mongers say) whether it will replace you.
Hint: It won’t.
I wanted to address five questions you’re likely asking about AI. If I missed any, please leave your question in the comment section or reach out to me at dcozza@buildingengines.com.
1. Is anyone actually using AI in real estate today?
A: Yes!
Adoption is definitely early, but the potential is highly promising. For example, we’ve built an AI-powered chatbot that responds to a tenant automatically for tasks like registering a building visitor, informing building management of a leaky faucet in the restroom, or finding information among building documents.
The best tasks for AI are repetitive tasks — like tenant requests.
Does anyone actually like filling out a form? No — a conversation is how humans communicate, and because of AI and NLP, a bot can engage with tenants in a human-like conversation. And, because it’s continually learning the more it’s used, it becomes more human-like and more personal over time.
2. Why should property managers and asset owners care about AI?
A: You are under an unbelievable amount of pressure to provide an outstanding tenant experience, and highly personalized service.
But, how do you do this across your entire portfolio? What if you’re growing quickly?
The challenge becomes: How do you provide differentiated, measurable service without overwhelming / slowing down your property management teams?
AI can help you. It can handle fast, personal responses to tenants, at scale, to meet these high expectations. It can help your teams make better decisions in the moment.
With AI-powered chatbots, it’s as if each tenant has their own personal concierge.
3. How do we get started with AI?
There’s so much technology in Commercial Real Estate, it’s reasonable that you may be wary of change. Overall, the adoption of technology is a major challenge facing property teams.
The key is not to overwhelm your staff with new tools. Forward-looking firms like our customers at Beacon Capital Partners experiment with new technology to differentiate and drive efficiency. They may try AI-based approaches in select properties to assess the benefits before rolling them out across the portfolio
4. What should we worry about with AI?
One concern about AI is the management of personal information. For that reason, we recommend you choose technology that is SOC II and GDPR compliant.
- SOC II compliance means a company like ours has been audited to ensure we securely manage your data to protect the interests of your organization and the privacy of your clients.
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a major privacy regulation out of the EU about how organizations handle personal data.
In general, these days it’s critical to ensure any vendor you trust with your data has strong privacy policies in place.
5. Will property managers be replaced by AI?
No way.
Think of AI as an assistant to you, not a threat to you. AI helps businesses complete cumbersome, manual, or tedious tasks in a more efficient way. And, if that process is prone to human error, it can help improve accuracy. For example:
- Understanding building energy consumption
- Handling repetitive tenant requests
- Managing intricate lease details
The benefits to property management teams?
- Free you up from mundane tasks to allow you to do what you do best, provide GREAT customer service to tenants.
- Scale your service capabilities to every single tenant.
Imagine predicting that a tenant won’t renew, or knowing that equipment will break down in the next two months, or understanding which amenities truly matter in each of your properties.
AI can see patterns and trends providing insight to CRE professionals they’d not otherwise see, helping management teams avoid unnecessary spend and invest wisely, put their resources where it matters most, run their businesses better, and improve life at work
AI is coming!
AI has a ton of potential in real estate, especially given the amount of data being created in properties thanks to all the technology available and the rise of smart buildings
We hope this has clarified a few questions you’re probably asking about AI in Commercial Real Estate, and that you check out what Bengie can do!
