Generative AI, PropTech, and Human-Centric Real Estate

Antony Slumbers / Midjourney

I recently presented my ‘𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗔𝗜, 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻-𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲’ talk, at CREtech London.

You can view it all here:

https://lnkd.in/eY7JiyuM

A rapid, 25 minute version. but we cover the What, So What, Now What? of the subject - what’s going on, why we need to pay attention, and what we need to do NOW.

When something improves 1000 times in just 8 years, you know something big is going down.

100% this is both a BUG and a FEATURE - we have agency, but we really do need to use it.

Hope you like it. Let me know. And of course if you would be interested in me presenting to your company, or at your event, just get in touch.

It is not 2nd best when the best would never have happened.

Antony Slumbers / Midjourney

It is not 2nd best when the best would never have happened.

I have ‘read’ 6 research reports this morning, relating to Skills, Science, AI and Foreign Policy.

A total of 533 pages.

Or rather I have read comprehensive summaries of each of these, the result of fairly elaborate prompts given to ChatGPT 4o.

‘But that’s cheating. Very much a 2nd best approach. You should read the reports A to Z.’

Some would say.

And they’d be right if the alternative was to read each of these cover to cover.

But that’s not the alternative is it? The realistic alternative is to read none of them, or maybe one in full.

Much of AI is about enabling things to happen that simply would not happen without it.

It’s not about replacing human skill, it’s about enabling humans to build bigger pies.

And bigger pies matter. Without bigger pies there won’t be much left for us to do. With them, the upside is infinite.

Something to think about the next time you read or hear about AI making us lazy and stupid.

I predict a riot …..

Antony Slumbers / Midjourney

I predict a riot …..

95% of people in real estate have never used a state of the art, frontier large language model.

Only a very small number have been using the paid version of ChatGPT.

Mostly the industry has dabbled with the 3.5 version, which is now 18 months old, and dramatically less capable than the new 4o (‘o’ for Omni) version.

WHICH IS NOW FREE!

And will, I think, shock users who’ve got used to the ‘meh’ responses of 3.5. The ‘intelligence’ is next level, you can perform data analytics that will surprise, upload files to summarise or interrogate, and interact with images. Very soon the new voice and vision capabilities will be rolled out where natural language conversations will be smooth and instant, and you’ll be able to ask ChatGPT to describe anything it can see via your phone’s camera.

And you’ll be able to use Custom GPTs (like the sustainability advisor and Lease negotiator on my website)

The physical world is becoming perceivable to the digital.

‘The Space around Us’ is becoming understandable in an entirely new way.

FOR FREE …..

We’ve all been given a software update!

Now all you need is training to make the most of it.

How long have you got?

Antony Slumbers / Midjourney

Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet & Amazon are set to spend $200 BILLION on AI infrastructure THIS YEAR.

The fundamental consequence will be that the price of intelligence will drop.

Leading to wider adoption & more innovation.

Leading to more efficient & effective AI solutions.

Leading to changing competitive dynamics in the tech industry & profound implications for the broader economy.

So best to pile in now, open up the big cheque book, and get ahead of the pack?

Err, no.

Because applying new AI to old operating models has a finite upside.

Electricity did nothing for the productivity of steam powered factories until they were redesigned to accomodate the capabilities of the new technology.

That process took forty years.

With AI you may have two.

Not two until you adopt any AI but two to understand how to really leverage it.

Essentially into three buckets:

1. Tasks to be automated by AI
2. Tasks to be augmented with AI
3. Tasks to remain solely human

Whilst looking for where value, skills, data, product and service will be commoditised and where enhanced by AI.

This has to be done, with the assistance of AI (of the $20 a month variety), BEFORE you go all in and commit to significant expenditure.

Sounds obvious but anecdotally there’s a lot of ‘What’s our AI Strategy - Why haven’t we launched anything yet?’ coming from C suites.

Bottom line is you don’t have much time but not so little you can’t ‘engage brain’ first.

This is as much a change management as a technology issue.

AI and Real Estate - You can Predict the Future

This is a presentation I gave at Future PropTech in 2018 - years before Generative AI was a ‘thing‘. Much of what I forecast was spot on, though has not yet come to pass. But ….. it is coming.