“Without data, AI is useless,” said Hamid Moghadam, chairman and CEO of Prologis, during the Groundbreakers event hosted by Prologis on 27 September in San Francisco.

Artificial intelligence feeds on data, and wielding robust and relevant data sets is integral to running an effective AI system. Moghadam emphasised that many real estate companies do not have their data organised well enough to digitise it for AI use. In the age of AI, organisation and digitisation of data is becoming one of the fundamental cornerstones for any business.

Ted Decker, the president and CEO of Home Depot, agreed with Moghadam. “Every company [now] has to be a technology company, a data company, and increasingly, a data science company,” he said.

Both Moghadam and Decker highlighted customer engagement as a significant and useful application of AI for businesses. Decker said he believes it likely will be possible in the future to have 80 million propensity models for 80 millio