The commercial real estate industry has long been seen as slow to adopt new technologies. It’s a reputation that isn’t without merit: the war cry, “because that’s how we’ve always done it,” has long been the defense for those unwilling to change — even as evidence for the effectiveness of the various technologies grows.
That mindset appears to be changing.
SIORs are increasingly adopting AI and discovering its wide range of capabilities. From automating administrative work and creating marketing materials to more advanced functions like delivering data-driven insights that enhance decision-making on complex commercial real estate deals, AI is proving to be an invaluable tool.
When it comes to the potential of applying AI to commercial real estate, “the sky’s the limit,” says Bridget Richards, SIOR, principal and broker at BRAND Real Estate in Las Vegas. “The potential for AI in CRE is limited only by our imagination.”
The Basics of AI in CRE
When most commercial real estate brokers first began experimenting with AI, it was primarily used for creating marketing materials more efficiently and/or streamlining time-consuming paperwork. Those functions still provide great value, freeing up time for higher-priority activities like deal-making and client engagement.
Richards uses ChatGPT to quickly create polished, client-facing marketing materials, but she also includes an executive summary that allows them to easily digest the essentials of a property offering. “Where in the past I might have just sent a link to a LoopNet report, now I can take that data and produce a document with pictures that they can roll through and click on the (LoopNet) link if they want more details,” says Richards. “I’m providing shortcuts so that they don’t have to wade through dense data, and that adds tremendous value for my clients.”
Richards, who, in addition to her brokerage and developer duties, runs a CRE-centric marketing company that uses AI to help brokers match their real-life expertise with their marketing. “My business partner and I noticed that some of our colleagues had amazing track records of performance, yet their marketing materials weren't always reflective of that,” says Richards, who emphasizes that social media is now a cornerstone of CRE marketing. “It seems like if you're not on Instagram, or you're not posting things on LinkedIn, that you're virtually invisible (especially since Google now indexes those social media apps).”
Richards and her clients use AI to generate content for social media in a way that not only reduces the time needed to produce blog posts and articles but also does so in a way that is authentic. One of the complaints often heard about AI-generated content is that it’s robotic and lacks a human feel. Large language model (LLM)-powered AI assistants like ChatGPT Plus (the $20 per month subscription model) and Microsoft CoPilot can now produce content that mimics the person's tone of voice and writing style. Using AI strategically, she helps brokers generate authentic, scalable content that reflects their personal voice.
From automating administrative work and creating marketing materials to more advanced functions like delivering data-driven insights that enhance decision-making on complex commercial real estate deals, AI is proving to be an invaluable tool.
At the core of Richards’ approach is what she calls Master Prompt Development, a framework that ensures outputs consistently reflect the broker’s unique tone and perspective across reports, case studies, and client materials. This philosophy extends into her Prompt Vault trainings, which provide specialty-focused examples like site selection matrices, tour recaps, and negotiation scripts. “It’s not about just getting words on a page,” she says. “It’s about sounding like yourself at your best.” Richards notes that the process has also sharpened her thinking: “The better I write the prompt, the better the reading assignment. I feel like I’m back in school and I love it.”
Leveling the Playing Field
One of the benefits for small-to-midsize brokerage firms using AI is that it enables them to operate with the sophistication of their larger corporate counterparts. By leveraging these affordable, scalable tools, AI democratizes technology, enabling smaller shops to compete more effectively with resource-rich firms.
“When I started this company, one of the biggest knocks to being a boutique firm was that we could not generate data and research reports like the big real estate companies,” says Grant Pruitt, SIOR, president and managing director of Whitebox Real Estate in Dallas. “But with AI, what used to take days or weeks to do, we can now load data, push a button, and create research reports for office and industrial for the entire market. We've also been able to apply that data to our CRM system, which allows us to throw rocket fuel on top of our (marketing efforts).”
Getting Started
Adopting and integrating a new technology into your operations can be daunting, but SIORs interviewed for this piece say the results from adopting AI have been eye-opening. Pruitt decided in late December of 2024 that one of his goals for the new year would be to master AI. “I very quickly realized that there was no way I was ever going to ‘master AI, ’ but I didn't necessarily have to master AI; I just had to figure out how to use it and adopt it for my business,” says Pruitt. “I started gradually and used it a little bit, then the next thing I knew I was using it around the clock.”
He hired a computer science major to help him get started and has moved from simple administrative tasks and report generation to predictive analytics, benchmarking, and more advanced problem-solving applications. One application that he describes as “the biggest game-changer” for his industrial leasing business was employing AI to calculate the volume of an industrial space rather than the lineal square footage – what the tenant actually pays for. “We’re on the tenant side, so if we can get more creative from a volume standpoint, we can help our clients save money,” says Pruitt. “We can run a sensitivity analysis in about 3 minutes as it relates to what square footages look like at different clear heights, and then we can take what the rental rates are for different markets and submarkets, and we can generate financial analysis and sensitivities that honestly, I've never been able to do in my entire career because it just takes too much time and effort.”
I very quickly realized that there was no way I was ever going to ‘master AI, ’ but I didn't necessarily have to master AI; I just had to figure out how to use it and adopt it for my business.
Tripp Guin, SIOR, principal and managing partner at Charlotte, North Carolina-based Tripp Commercial, also began using AI in his business this year. He uses the subscription model, Chat GPT Plus, and has created a personal and a work file, uploading not only his bio, company website information, but also results from personality profile tests, “so that (the LLM) really knows who I am.”
Guin uses AI as a personal and professional assistant and for a variety of administrative functions but also uses it for business analysis. For example, when working on a complex deal where the numbers don’t pencil, he can ask ChatGPT for five alternative strategies that he can research – like analyzing new construction costs versus renovation costs, analyzing local market rents, etc., so that he can build a stronger case for a project and guide his client more effectively.
Guin also developed what he calls a “conference commando” using AI, where, when attending an SIOR conference or another event, he creates a file and records his interactions with event participants and what actions he needs to take as a follow-up. “I just speak into my device for two or three days, and when I get back, I say, ‘Give me a list of action items based on my notes, and I email it to myself.” He then goes over the items with his assistant, separates them into two folders: one for urgent tasks (“front burner”) and one for general to-dos, and sets up calls with the contacts.
Encouraged by what he has seen so far, but wanting to take full advantage of AI’s potential, Guin is exploring building a custom AI agent to integrate all of his business systems. “I don't know if it’s even doable yet, but my mind is now working in a way that thinks that nothing is outside the realm of possibility,” he says.
Enhanced Decision Making and Problem Solving
Guin, Richards, and Pruitt all emphasized that AI has transformed their business. It has proven especially valuable in providing fresh perspectives on deals, enabling them to supply their clients with outside-the-box solutions. “For us, AI widens the decision tree so much more so than what you could do as an individual, a team, or an office and allows us to make better, wiser decisions on behalf of our clients – or in conjunction with our clients – that we wouldn't have otherwise been able to do,” says Pruitt.
For those reluctant to embrace AI, what is the downside?
“You're either going to adopt it or you're just going to go out of business, because you're not going to be competitive anymore,” Pruitt asserts.
This article was sponsored by the SIOR Foundation - Promoting and sponsoring initiatives that educate, enhance, and expand the commercial real estate community. The SIOR Foundation is a 501(c)(3) not-forprofit organization. All contributions are tax deductible to the extent of the law.
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