Noda, an innovative startup in artificial intelligence for commercial real estate operations, has announced the launch of what it calls its 'first Agent AI'. This technology aims to enable 24/7 automation, thereby addressing the industry-wide shortage of facility managers. The Washington, D.C.-based company, which was re-established in its current form in 2023, aims to optimise building operations by mapping data points, automating tasks, and providing actionable insights, as explained by CEO Kate Henningsen.
Henningsen emphasised that the technology had an accuracy of only about 32 percent a year ago. “While companies are deploying AI in buildings, we haven’t seen anyone address the workflows of on-site building engineers in this manner,” Henningsen said. She added that such a solution would likely have been impossible 12 to 18 months ago, and that there had been no provider to date that supported the actions of building operators and engineers in this way.
This market gap presented a significant business opportunity. Henningsen clarified that every building in a portfolio currently forfeits Net Operating Income (NOI) because no team has the capacity to identify and rectify operational waste at the necessary speed and scale. “Noda changes that equation,” Henningsen said. “Our AI works side-by-side with the existing team, taking on the tasks of a full engineering organisation for every asset, every hour of every day – and the impact is directly reflected in the profit and loss statement.”
Noda claims that its Agent AI platform brings about a fundamental shift in how owners and operators manage their buildings and portfolios. Unlike purely analytical tools that refer problems to staff for investigation, Noda’s platform identifies, remedies, and verifies the problem and its financial implications across all assets, without human intervention. According to Henningsen, the company’s portfolio, based on Salesforce data, comprises 1,200 buildings with a total area of 350 million square feet.
In the already implemented portfolios, Noda states it has eliminated 80 percent of manual workflows and reduced the average time from problem identification to complete resolution by 40 percent. Project execution rates have doubled through AI-driven prioritisation, meaning a larger proportion of identified measures lead to realised financial benefits. According to Noda's self-reported figures, based on Salesforce data and measured baselines, customers are seeing NOI growth of 0.5 to 2 percent with a 14 to 20 times multiplier of these gains.
Henningsen further emphasised the magnitude of AI’s potential in the real estate sector. She referred to an annual building operating expenditure market of USD 150 billion, which is threatened by a potential labour crisis. This is because only 15 percent of AI-generated recommendations can be implemented due to insufficient personnel. “This isn’t a story where AI takes jobs,” Henningsen said. “It’s a story where – if people don’t take over this most important asset class in the world and there’s no longer staff to operate the buildings – there will be significant costs and risks. So, this is a somewhat different AI story than if AI were here for everyone’s job. If you can only refill 15 percent of your positions, there will be a crisis.”
