R
eal Estate and AI: A Partnership with Room for Improvement

    As a data-driven industry, real estate stands to gain significantly from artificial intelligence (AI). According to a recent survey by Dentons, large real estate businesses are already embracing AI, with 75% using it for IT and cybersecurity purposes, 71% in customer services, and 69% in operations and manufacturing.

    While AI has made significant strides in the industry's back-office functions and operational fronts, there is still room for improvement. Emerging areas of AI deployment include property management and due diligence, where specialist AI-powered proptech solutions are being developed. These tools can summarize large data sets, but their performance often falls short of marketing promises.

    To overcome these limitations, property professionals must invest time and resources to train and customize these tools. However, experience suggests that AI-powered solutions still have a way to go to match human capabilities. Three common challenges include consistency of output, limitations on comparing and reporting by exception, and reliability of output – with AI often making mistakes.

    The question of liability also arises, as currently, there needs to be expert human oversight of AI-generated reports. The game-changer will come when AI tools offer reliable results without human oversight. With a vast array of AI proptech products available, real estate businesses must differentiate themselves through unique intellectual property (IP) to maintain their competitive edge.

    However, development is partly curtailed by skills shortages in this area, with 51% of respondents concerned about AI skills gaps within their organization. To bridge this gap, the industry needs a rich seam of underlying AI development skills that make these solutions easily accessible to experienced property professionals without a technical background.

    Ultimately, the drive across the sector is to find and adopt AI solutions that boost real estate's efficiency, accuracy, and productivity.