In the modern era, only two technologies have fundamentally rewired how human civilization operates: electricity and the internet. We are now at the opening chapter of the third — artificial intelligence.
AI is best understood not as a product, nor as a threat, but as a utility, the third great utility of the modern age. Like electricity before it, AI is a general-purpose capability whose ultimate value will be determined not by the technology itself, but by the applications, industries and human creativity that grow around it. The power outlet on the wall is meaningless without the appliances that plug into it. AI today is that power outlet, and the institutional real estate industry is only beginning to figure out what to plug in.
For the investors who allocate to private real estate, that delay is a due diligence variable, one that will increasingly distinguish the managers who generate alpha from those who simply track it.
The historical evidence reveals a
