Would you still read this article if I told you it was AI? The answer is why the personal touch remains king.
I’ve been at RX for 18 months now and feel I’ve genuinely had a front-row seat to test the water with artificial intelligence and see it in action. While AI promises to revolutionise our workflow, I’d argue the commercial property industry is one of the least permeable, in terms of the day-to-day tasks and convincing a cohort that has been labelled prehistoric in its adoption of technology (now changing for the better). At RX we have engaged with a variety of tools that solve complex tasks via text and document input, image / video generation, e-mail organisation, space planning and virtual meeting assistants / notetakers.
It is no secret that larger firms are deploying and developing proprietary tools to analyse historical deal data, financing patterns, and fund structures, transforming how investment opportunities are identified and evaluated. The next wave of AI technology is promising to ‘revolutionise traditional brokerage functions’ but it is worthwhile approaching these broad-brush claims critically and from the perspective of those in the field.
Let me share some insights from our experience at RX as we navigate this exciting yet complex landscape.
Quick caveat, this is the perspective of a leasing agent who has just started to scratch the surface so apologies for any glaring omissions…
The Upside: How AI is Enhancing Our Work
Freeing Up Time for What Matters One of the most noticeable benefits we’ve experienced is the time saved on repetitive tasks. AI can provide snapshot statistics, analyse large tables, and identify year on year trends, allowing our team to focus more on building relationships and closing deals – the aspects of our job that truly require the human touch.
Structuring Our Approach We’ve found AI particularly useful in providing initial structures to get the ball rolling in instances of ‘writers block’. AI has helped us quickly gather and organise relevant data, giving us a solid foundation to build upon. In addition, not everyone loves stressing over producing the perfect social media caption or hashtag, and we’ve found it can swing with the best of the Punsters.
Learning from Success By analysing our past successes, AI has helped us create ‘best practice’ templates for various aspects of our business. These templates ensure consistency across our team while incorporating lessons from our most successful outcomes. Why banish your best set of terms to the depth of the One Drive when it can help those in need.
The Challenges: Hurdles We’re Overcoming
Navigating the AI Landscape With new AI tools and terminologies emerging almost daily, it’s been a challenge to determine which solutions best fit our needs (LLM used to be someone with a law degree, not a deep learning algorithm). We’ve had to invest time in researching and testing various platforms to find the right fit for our specific requirements. We have found questions regarding some tools are often met with immediate and somewhat misplaced optimism by those that pitch them, which doesn’t always hold true in terms of output. You have to ask yourself at every step of the way ‘is this just cool or is it really helping’. For instance, I’ve seen some highly questionable space plans generated, which it is great to produce so quickly until you realise half the meeting rooms don’t have doors and the kitchen is in the basement. However, the speed of progress means issues are often solved at a pace previously unbeknown to the commercial real estate industry, meaning ‘watch this space’ has never been more apt.
Adapting to Change Like many in our industry, there is bound to be initial resistance to AI adoption. We are deploying training programs and open communication to help our team embrace these new tools and understand how they enhance rather than replace our expertise. If we aren’t careful in 10-years’ time the next generation will be leaning across the desk to write our prompt – I imagine akin to those who never learnt how to convert a Word file to a PDF…. I feel the biggest mistake you can make is a refusal to engage because of initial confusion and walk away.
Maintaining the Personal Touch The core of our business is our personalised service. While AI has improved our efficiency, we’ve had to be mindful not to lose the human element that our clients value. The London transactional market is a web of complex emotions, relationships, off-market activity, and opinion – we may well reach the stage where AI has more personality than us all and we will be truly in a whole new world (you might argue we are there already). In essence, it should enhance our capabilities, not render us redundant.
The RX London Approach: Embracing AI Wisely
It is no secret that AI is here to stay, so at RX we are going to commit to our trial and error to harness the power of it correctly. Our clients want us in the field, talking to agents and occupiers, drumming up viewings and deals rather than drowning in admin. Human connection and expertise are irreplaceable, but I’ll happily save the hours going square-eyed looking at a deals database. Do get in touch if there is a product we must try…
I will leave you with a quote that summarises our attitude perfectly, maybe you can ChatGPT who said it… “it is better to do something than to do nothing while waiting to do everything”.
Alfie John
P.s. AI generated one line of this article, if you can guess it, I’ll buy you a coffee
Additional bedtime reading – https://greenstreetnews.com/article/new-technology-reignites-old-agency-debates/?mc_cid=c0df7c561a&mc_eid=6009d67d0d