Artificial intelligence is rapidly moving from an individual productivity tool to an enterprise-level strategy for real estate and construction companies. But as adoption accelerates, the question is shifting from what AI can do to how companies can deploy it effectively, measure its value and ensure it supports the work that matters most.
Will Mitchell, CEO of Rabbet, moderated a panel at CREDA Conference featuring Matt Boras, managing director of RXR Arden Digital Ventures, Ethan Argov, managing director, capital markets and investments of Trailbreak Partners, and Dusti Wofford, global head of digital and technology strategy for Trammell Crow Company. The panelists discussed how their organizations are using AI, where they are seeing measurable returns and what it will take to move beyond fragmented experimentation.
From Individual Experimentation to an Enterprise Strategy
At RXR, a New York-based vertically integrated real estate owner, operator and developer with approximately 30 million square feet of commercial real estate, AI adoption is supported by a roughly 10-person digital lab that works with property management, investment management and development teams to identify business problems that technology can solve.
“We’re pursuing multiple paths at once,” Boras said, including enterprise-wide access and education, department-level consulting, and identifying work that AI can tackle that previously would have been too time consuming.
Denver-based Trailbreak Partners has built an asset management platform from the ground up that consolidates information from multiple property management systems into a single dashboard covering its development and operating portfolio.
“Two years ago, the company looked very different in terms of staffing and overhead, and it’s a direct result of integrating AI into the business,” Argov said.
For Trammell Crow, the challenge is scaling experimentation. Wofford said the company initially encouraged practitioners to “go play” with AI and identify potential applications in their own jobs. That generated a significant backlog of ideas but also exposed the limitations of disconnected tools and agents.
“Having a bunch of agents working independently and not replicating the strategy across your enterprise will only get you so far,” Wofford said. “Today our focus is more on an enterprise AI framework.”
She noted that 80% of AI efficiencies involve doing the same thing, while the differentiation comes from the more complex 20%. “When you are thinking about your AI strategy, lean into the pragmatic and things you can actually change, but don’t forget about that 20% because that’s what’s going to help your company,” she said.
Measuring ROI
At Trailbreak, Argov estimated that AI has increased bandwidth by approximately 25% to 30% across development and operating functions, allowing the company to manage more information and projects without proportionally increasing staff.
“Cost efficiencies are one thing. But it’s about driving revenue,” Wofford said, pointing to the potential for AI to give employees more time to pursue deals, underwrite opportunities and focus on revenue-generating activities.
She cited a simple example of ROI: a research executive who used an AI productivity tool to perform work that otherwise would have required hiring a high-end analyst, making the economics compelling even after the technology cost.
For RXR, Boras said the value is also about enabling work that would not have been practical before. For example, AI can allow asset managers to re-underwrite properties more frequently by gathering and interpreting information that previously would have required too much manual effort.
Start With the Work That Consumes Time
For Trammell Crow, contract analysis is a significant opportunity. AI can help identify obligations and potential risks in purchase and sale agreements, joint venture agreements and construction contracts. Wofford also described an application that automates invoice coding after an initial setup.
Trailbreak has focused heavily on asset management reporting, compliance and construction draws, using AI to flag unusual financial variances and ensure required documentation is included before submissions reach lenders.
Perhaps most valuable, Argov said, is the ability to search the company’s existing legal and deal documents quickly and verify the underlying information.
“That has saved us a lot of time,” he said.
Boras also highlighted computer vision applications that review construction documents, identify potential errors and monitor construction progress, with the goal of preventing rework and change orders.
Flexibility is Critical
With AI models changing rapidly, the panelists cautioned against building a long-term strategy around a single vendor or model.
Wofford argued that companies should create an enterprise AI framework that allows different models to be used for different tasks and swapped out as performance and pricing change.
Boras similarly noted that the industry is still figuring out how AI should be priced, particularly as token-based costs introduce variable technology expenses. Outcome-based pricing may ultimately become more common, with companies paying for a completed service or work product rather than model usage.
The Human Advantage
Despite the technology focus, the panel repeatedly returned to the importance of human judgment.
AI can eliminate repetitive work, but real estate remains fundamentally a relationship business. Deal making, business development, negotiation and the ability to understand people cannot simply be automated, noted Argov.
“Humans add such an intricate part to relationship building, which is all real estate is,” Wofford agreed.
The panel’s primary message was not that AI will replace real estate professionals, but that companies that use AI effectively can create organizations where people spend less time searching, compiling and checking information, and more time making decisions, pursuing opportunities and building relationships.
This post is brought to you by JLL, the social media and conference blog sponsor of the CREDA Conference 2026. Learn more about JLL at www.us.jll.com or www.jll.ca.
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