At first, proptech was a novelty. Then it became something of a toy, an opportunity to show peers and competitors a company’s ingenuity and willingness to experiment. Today, in an increasingly complex and challenged real estate world, tech has become a tool the industry is employing to understand current trends and prepare for the future.
Multiple speakers at the Blueprint 2025 conference, held in September in Las Vegas, spoke of the need to centralize data so that it can be properly analyzed by both humans and artificial intelligence (AI) and then provide real solutions to real problems.
The thing is, AI is nothing new, observed David Rose, CEO of U.S. Real Estate Market (USREM). The common thermostat in its way was a precursor of smart tech today that is more easily understood in everyday living.
“AI has been developed for 50 years,” he said. “ChatGPT created a text-based interface. We’re still in a human-centric world in which technology exists to serve humans. If technology can do whatever you’re doing better, faster and cheaper, you cannot produce economic value better than the technology. There’s a reason Uber and AirBnb are what they are — they’re technology applied to existing problems.”
Saving energy is still a critical concern for management.
“People are paying attention to efficiency from business perspective,” said Brad Pilgram, co-founder of Parity, which works to eliminating energy waste from HVAC systems in large residential buildings. The company recently expanded to California. “How do we solve the ever-growing demand and strain on the grid, including high growth for electrification from data centers and EVs.”
The residential sector also increasingly relies on AI.
“AI is a huge factor in our business,” said Jonas Bordo, CEO and co-founder of Dwellsy, which says it democratizes home rental data by eliminating pay-to-play listings.
It will be particularly important as the residential sector faces growing challenges.
“We are at a potential inflection point right now,” Bordo said. “I tend toward optimism. It’s been tough for a lot of years, more so in single-family rentals than multifamily. On the rent data side, we’re seeing leasing on a steady cadence.”
The opportunity in non-performing loans will be huge, but “it’s important to be surgical,” in selection, said Wally Charnoff, CEO of property intelligence company AbodeMine.
The greatest challenge may be in the data itself — or, more accurately, how it’s used. Real estate by its nature generates a lot of information. The problem is that these data points typically are siloed within their individual departments, depriving companies of the full picture. But major companies are finding a way to integrate their data for better analysis.
“We’ve developed a framework for thinking about how we take our existing resources, bring into a centralized model and drive aspects of how we manage our facilities,” said James Whalen, senior vice president and chief technology officer of BXP.
The bigger the company, of course, the more technology must be integrated. When Empire State Realty Trust began to explore AI, it brought in software company Informatica to bring together data from its various systems, including building operations and even turnstile swipes.
“We could [the] start to make decisions and ask AI to analyze it faster than any human can,” said Sandy Jacolow, chief technology officer of Empire State Realty Trust.
AI can also revolutionize long-stagnant industries. For example, parking had evolved little for decades but now is undergoing a revolution thanks to new tech that is creating a seamless experience for the user, said Jeff Johnson, chief customer officer of Flash Parking.
“This industry has been so static. There is a move toward AI camera-driven technology, where it’s a garage or service lot,” he continued. Flash Parking has actually developed its own camera line specifically for the parking industry. “Entry, exit and transactions are being driven by cameras.”
But first, a visitor has to find the garage or space. Flash Parking has also developed the ParkWhiz app, which allows consumers to find, reserve and pay for parking online. The information is also available on maps including Google and Waze.
“We believe we have to move people away from ‘accidental parking,’ circling and looking for a spot, to reserved parking experiences,” he continued. The benefits help both the environment and the motorists. “This reduces the vehicles in the urban core.”
But AI still has its limitations, some observed.
AI can be “a little arrogant,” according to Helane Stein, executive vice president and chief information officer at Brixmor.
“We have not found a good AI solution for reading and evaluating plans,” said Ryan Bylor, senior vice president and head of operations at Perform Properties. “It’s not good at spatial.”
“When embracing technology, I always think about the relationship,” said Dennis Gvozd, CEO at PropTech Vision, which is aiming to transform real estate with AI, including placing data in one location so it can be easily transferred or integrated into others program to make it usable. “If we solve a small problem, it will be a huge benefit.”
But it all comes down to each individual item of information stored within a server.
“It’s all about the data,” Brixmor’s Stein. “Having clear, accurate data for decision-making is now the fuel that drives our business.”
