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Over the past six months at cove, I’ve been hosting conversations with real estate and technology leaders about how AI is reshaping our industry.
Those conversations happened on the first season of our podcast, Real Estate Meets AI. After nine episodes, a clear disconnect started to emerge: leaders are urging action on AI, while the market remains hesitant, cautious, and slow to move.
So what’s going on? Why is there such a gap between the vision and the velocity?
I’ve come to the conclusion that the market has it backwards. AI in real estate isn’t something to adopt once uncertainty clears—it’s the answer to navigating uncertainty itself.
The “Don’t Fear It” Chorus
Throughout Season 1, we ended each episode by asking guests for one piece of advice for real estate leaders navigating AI and technological change. Fear came up again and again, but always as something to overcome, not indulge.
Keats Ali, Chief Technology Officer at Lincoln Property Company, was direct: “Do not fear technology. Do not fear AI… Technology is your friend, not your foe.”
Antony Slumbers, a recognized PropTech visionary, went further, framing AI adoption in real estate as a moral imperative: “I think you have to lean in hard to AI… This is a really important mega trend societal change that’s going on and we need to be curating it.”
Almost every other guest offered similar encouragement. The real warning wasn’t about AI itself, but about hesitation. Curiosity, action, and hands-on engagement were consistently framed as the path forward. And for a moment, it really did feel like the industry was ready to move.
The Market Reality: Capital Frozen, Deals Stalling
I left each conversation feeling a sense of optimism about where our space is headed. These leaders came from every corner of the commercial real estate world, yet they all shared a genuine excitement for the future and for how new technology will shape it.
But outside of these conversations, the market is moving much more cautiously.
By most accounts, capital is still there, but elevated interest rates and policy uncertainty are slowing decision-making. Investors are hesitant, and development is simply harder to justify financially in this environment. The outlook isn’t collapse, but it’s far from expansive, which feels like a direct contrast to the momentum these leaders were calling for.
The Paradox: The Market Is Waiting for Certainty That Won’t Come
What’s been hard for me to reconcile is that the market seems to be treating AI as something to revisit later, once things feel more stable. Once rates come down. Once policy clears up. Once there’s more certainty.
But that’s exactly when AI matters most.
Across these conversations, AI was not being framed as a nice-to-have for the next upswing, but as a tool for navigating the volatility we are already in. My guests weren’t saying “adopt AI because the market is good.” They were saying adopt AI in real estate because it helps you operate with more speed, clarity, and confidence when conditions are unpredictable.
AI in real estate isn’t a luxury for boom times. It’s critical infrastructure for navigating exactly the conditions we’re in right now, when uncertainty is high, margins are tight, and the ability to move with speed and clarity is becoming a competitive advantage.
The Real Risk: Being Left Behind While You Wait
The bigger risk, in my view, isn’t moving too fast. It’s waiting too long, because the advantage comes from learning over time, not from flipping a switch later.
AI in real estate isn’t “just a tool” any more than the internet was “just a tool” in 1998 or mobile was “just a platform” in 2010. It changes how organizations operate, compete, and make decisions.
And the companies that get left behind won’t be the ones without access to the technology. They’ll be the ones whose leaders never really engage with it.
KP Reddy, Founder and CEO of Shadow Ventures, said it bluntly: “If you are unwilling as the leader of the company to tinker, have intellectual curiosity and do it yourself, then you need to fire yourself.”
It’s an extreme way to put it, but the point is clear. This shift can’t be delegated. The organizations that move forward will be led by people willing to learn alongside their teams, not manage from a distance.
Why Hesitation Is the Real Danger
After this first season, I’m convinced the market’s caution around AI and real estate isn’t prudence—it’s procrastination disguised as risk management.
Here’s why I believe that:
The Gap Is Already Widening
While some companies are waiting, others are already building real estate AI capabilities. And the advantage is compounding. The firms taking action now are learning faster, building internal confidence, and stacking progress quarter after quarter.
Carrie Denning Jackson, Director of Innovation and Sustainability at Jamestown, described that momentum clearly: “Get something small, get a win on the books, make it publicly visible within the company… You’re going to have that really good feedback loop.”
Every quarter you wait is a quarter your competitors are reinforcing that feedback loop and strengthening their organizational muscle memory for innovation. I’ve seen this happen before in other industries. The gap gets exponential, not linear.
This Isn’t About Perfect Conditions
Something our guest Jit Kee Chin, Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President at Suffolk Construction, said resonated with me deeply: “If you’re being held back because the enormity of it is kind of too vast or if you don’t have the perfect plan or if the road’s not charted… pick the right team and just have faith that the team’s going to figure it out.”
The companies waiting for a clear roadmap for AI in real estate are missing the point entirely. There is no clear roadmap. The roadmap is being written right now by the people doing the work. You’re either helping shape this roadmap now, or you’ll be trying to catch up later.
AI Solves the Exact Problems You’re Waiting to Solve
Think about what the market is citing as reasons to wait. Interest rate uncertainty. Policy uncertainty. Economic feasibility questions. Affordability challenges.
These are exactly the kinds of problems AI is designed to help teams navigate. It can model more scenarios faster, sharpen underwriting, and surface patterns that are easy to miss with traditional approaches.
Rukevbe (Rukus) Esi, SVP and Chief Digital Officer at AvalonBay Communities, captured the mindset well: “Align on the problem you’re trying to solve… then determine how we believe success can be determined.”
In other words, the path forward is not waiting for uncertainty to disappear. It is using better tools to make decisions within it. The problems are already clear, and AI helps you solve them faster and more effectively than yesterday’s methods.
The Real Paradox: Waiting Feels Safe But It’s the Riskiest Move
The real paradox isn’t that leaders say “lean in” while markets hesitate. The paradox is that doing nothing feels like the safe choice when it’s actually the most dangerous thing you can do.
In a market defined by uncertainty, waiting can feel responsible. Holding off can feel like risk management. But the longer you stay on the sidelines, the harder it becomes to catch up, not just in technology, but in organizational confidence and capability.
Bill Douglas, CEO of OpticWise, put it in a way that I think every real estate leader needs to hear: “I don’t believe you can outsource your clarity. I think the difference as a leader is your vision and your expression of it… Change is coming. Get your arms around this data in this digital world. Make it clear where you’re going and lead like you mean it.”
The hesitation we’re seeing in the market isn’t evidence that caution is warranted. It’s evidence that many companies are confusing patience with paralysis.
And in a moment like this, paralysis is its own kind of risk.
What Season 1 Taught Me About AI in Real Estate
After nine conversations with leaders who are actively building in this space, my takeaway is unambiguous: AI adoption in real estate isn’t a luxury for stable times. It’s critical infrastructure for uncertain times.
The speed, analytical capability, and efficiency gains that artificial intelligence provides aren’t nice-to-haves when capital is constrained and margins are tight—they’re essential. They’re the difference between staying competitive and becoming irrelevant.
Companies that treat real estate AI as something to explore “when things settle down” are making a bet that:
- Things will settle down (they won’t)
- They can catch up later (they can’t—the learning curve is steeper than you think)
- Their competitors are waiting too (they aren’t, and that’s the whole point)
Meanwhile, the leaders who are acting now understand what Keats Ali said at the very beginning of our show: “Technology is your friend, not your foe.”
What’s Next: Season 2 and the Urgency Question
Season 1 established why AI in real estate matters. Season 2 is going to tackle the how and the now:
- What are the specific AI-use cases delivering ROI today?
- How do you build AI capability with constrained resources?
- What’s the playbook for moving from experimentation to implementation at scale?
But the underlying premise is non-negotiable: this isn’t optional anymore.
We have an incredible line up of guests for Season 2, including voices from JLL Spark, McKinsey & Company, and NYU, and I can’t wait to hear how they’ll answer these questions.
The market will eventually catch up to what the leaders already know. The only question is whether you’ll be leading the shift, or scrambling to follow it.
If you haven’t listened yet, Season 1 is available now, and Season 2 is coming soon.
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Sandeep Ahuja
CEO & Co-Founder, cove