黑料专区

Everything you missed at the ARL鈥檚 inaugural Rental Living Tech Conference

People in property are deluding themselves if they think that AI is just going to be doing all the 鈥榞runt work鈥� 鈥� and if it doesn鈥檛 cost you your job, it could even end up bossing you around.

Those were just some of the startling takeaways from May鈥檚 inaugural ARL Rental Living Tech Conference.

The event was designed to give BTR, PRS and co-living professionals a reality check on how AI is disrupting the world of property, how operators are using it and how residents are having their say.

It didn鈥檛 disappoint.

In a remarkable keynote delivered by Antony Slumbers, an expert on AI in real estate, delegates were warned of the 鈥渁valanche鈥� of first-tier tribunals that will be unleashed by a combination of AI tools and the Renters鈥� Rights Act, and reminded of the continuing explosion in AI capital expenditure.

More than 拢800bn of AI capex this year will put AI tools in every renter鈥檚 pocket. Slumbers rammed home the significance of that by pointing out that by 2030 there will be 1,000 times as much compute power as there is now.

鈥淧eople sort of think […] AI is going to do all the grunt work and then we鈥檒l do all the interesting work,鈥� he told the conference. 鈥淗onestly, it鈥檚 not going to be like that. You鈥檙e going to be working in parity with these incredibly intelligent tools. You鈥檙e not going to be offloading your grunt stuff to them. You鈥檙e going to be working with them across the board in everything you do.鈥�

Even more than that, he says we鈥檒l be setting AI off on tasks that might take many hours and will just leave them to it. The pace of change remains to be seen, and people sit in two camps. On the one hand, transformation could be gentle and take 10 to 15 years. On the other, in a view shared by many in Silicon Valley, a far more disruptive scenario would see it upend the world of work within three to seven years.

That would upset the jobs market and destroy value for property鈥檚 late adopters, not least because the tenant and the worker, whose career prospects have just changed overnight, might be one and the same person.

Asset Values

On top of that, rental operators could find they have stranded assets, because the experience they鈥檙e offering doesn鈥檛 meet the expectations of the modern renter. This is already on many operators鈥� radars because amenities have been a key BTR differentiator for some time. Less so is the impact of AI on disputes over rental valuations, now that tenants can much more easily challenge rent increases due to the RRA.

鈥淭he crazy, crazy thing about this is that the delayed increases are not going to be backdated, which is inevitably going to trigger an absolute avalanche of first-tier tribunal appeals,鈥� said Slumbers. 鈥淓very renter is going to have an incentive to [challenge] because, however long it takes, they鈥檙e going to get cheap rent for a while. You can guarantee there鈥檚 going to be tons and tons of appeals.鈥�

Slumbers also gave the audience the inside track on whether algorithmically driven rent maximisation is a good idea, when you need humans to review decisions and how capital markets will punish digital immaturity when schemes are sold.

Awaab鈥檚 Law is soon coming to BTR too, causing Slumbers to declare that 鈥渁mateur hour is over鈥�. But here again AI can play a key role. On a tour through 鈥渃ontinuous provable safety鈥� and how regulations will push some rental properties back onto the market as ill-equipped and amateur landlords throw in the towel, he delivered a masterclass in how operators should be changing the way they work.

Ultimately, he warned, the day will soon arrive when technology is just table stakes and the irreplaceable quality of human interaction will be the new luxury, something that overlapped with his five tests for what a successful operator will look like in the future.

The event, hosted by Willis Towers Watson (WTW), came on the day the ARL launched its first AI Guide for BTR, addressing risks, myths and opportunities. It has been designed to help the industry prepare for what ARL CEO Brendan Geraghty, described as a 鈥渢sunami鈥� of disruption headed our way.

听Each of the subsequent panels revealed fascinating insights that illustrated how AI was already transforming operations. And they were remarkably practical.

AI and NOI

听Amy Davis, Senior Investment Manager at BTR operator Dorrington, spoke of the 鈥渉uge savings鈥� the firm had enjoyed since adopting technology that had helped them move some of the company鈥檚 larger assets to a direct lettings model.

Tom Collins, COO of operator L1 Property, revealed that the company has already been building in-house operating platforms and that 95% of maintenance requests were now handled by AI on WhatsApp.

Collins said it was 鈥渋nsane鈥� how fast things were progressing and that it was 99% cheaper for them if their residents spoke to AI on WhatsApp than a human property manager.

鈥淭he results have been shockingly good,鈥� said Collins. 鈥淭he level of triage the AI can achieve is just better. When the system works, the resident experience is amazing.

鈥淭he vision for us is autonomous buildings […] that manage themselves, with humans still involved but most of the decisions, day-to-day work and administrative work on the buildings being handled by an AI system. And since we鈥檝e started, I鈥檓 even more confident that鈥檚 where we鈥檙e going to end up. We鈥檙e pretty close to doing that already.鈥�

The practical lessons just kept on coming.

听AI in Crisis

No matter how safe a building is, the worst can always happen and Jamie Donald, WTW鈥檚 crisis management and resilience specialist, demonstrated how ultra-realistic dummy news reports of emergency situations focus the minds of teams with responsibility for reacting to such events more effectively.

AI Search

Bidwells鈥� Head of Operational Living, Iain Murray, described the surprising results he got from an AI search for BTR properties. Instead of making a series of Google searches, he was able to instantly identify appropriate properties, receiving advice on budget and amenities and reviews 鈥� all in the space of 20 seconds.

AI search is set to revolutionise the way tenants find suitable properties and will force the power of 鈥榖rand鈥� to take a back seat. Instead, search will nearly always start with price, location and service model, said Murray.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 very interesting that the AI has returned results that I didn鈥檛 ask for鈥�, he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 probably a massive shift that we all need to recognise. That initial search is going to be done more accurately than it was ever done in the past.鈥�

Also increasing the pressure on operators are the demands of client interactions. BTR is moving to 20% of interaction being human but, as for AI, Sam Hay, CEO of BTR operator Livingway, said tenants might move out over one bad interaction so 鈥渋t can be a negative with the resident experience if you’re using it all the time鈥�.

Who鈥檚 The Boss?

听As the event neared its end, it was perhaps poetic that we came full circle.

Slumbers had been at pains to point out that people would become 鈥楢I bosses鈥� in the future, telling their AI assistants what to do.

Marcel Plummer, CTO of ItBox, had other ideas. As he showed the audience how he made a professional new website for his company in under two hours saving weeks of work and 拢20,000 鈥� cue more open mouths 鈥� he saw a world in which AI was the boss.

鈥淚 personally don鈥檛 think we need to boss AI鈥�, he said. 鈥淚 think eventually it will boss us. You鈥檒l have an agent whose job it is to have one specific goal [such as] make more shareholder value, and then it will be able to delegate within the organisation. And then it will use you within that organisation and say 鈥榶ou鈥檙e currently the bottleneck for me, can you do this task?鈥� I think that鈥檚 a very realistic outcome.鈥�

听Disappointed you missed out? We鈥檙e doing it all again in Birmingham on the 8^th of July, join us there with a different line-up and more exclusive insights. You can book your ticket here:

With thanks to our partners

• Willis Towers Watson
• Yardi
• Findable
• Residently
• Homebox

as well as

• Drax Technology
• 2N
• Inventory Hive
• Propco
• Rental Intel

for supporting the event.

We鈥檒l leave you with this鈥�

鈥淵ou should never try to predict the future. You should try to give yourself [options] for whatever happens. The tech won鈥檛 win on its own and the humans won鈥檛 win on [their] own.鈥� 鈥� Antony Slumbers

Article brought to you in partnership with specialist property PR agency, .