The world of real estate tech or “proptech” is quickly evolving. New ideas on big data, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, facial recognition, blockchain, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), autonomous vehicles, drones and so on have captured our attention. One of the most exciting developments is the application of AI for commercial real estate investments, which our industry is on the cusp of leveraging to transform the way we identify risk and opportunity, and invest in and manage commercial real estate portfolios. Companies that ignore this actual reality will be heavily disadvantaged.

This article aims to provide an overview of developments in this nascent, but promising, space.

Slave to the spreadsheet, but there’s hope

If you have had to prepare quarterly portfolio reports or investment proposals, you will likely recall long hours poring over volumes of data, validating conflicting info