While AI has been a buzzword in multifamily for the better part of a decade, it remains in its infancy. Its presence can be compared to the early stages of the internet—the days when chat rooms were popular—in that people are recognizing its value but still figuring out its capabilities and large-scale ramifications. 

In recent years and particularly in 2024, AI has transformed from a background concept in the industry to a full-fledged trending topic. Most industry conferences, board meetings and general discussion focus upon the subject. Members of Entrata’s Product Design team discussed AI’s short- and long-term possibilities at the 2024 Entrata Summit session Humanizing AI: Leveraging the Strength of Humans and Machines. 

“One of the best ways AI enhances our intelligence is through the power of data processing,” said Jenny Mack, Director of Product Design for Entrata. “It’s efficient, it’s fast and it’s accurate. But AI is amoral and can be rigid, while humans exhibit the emotional side with ethics and accountability. That’s why AI works best in tandem with humans.”

To this point, the industry has largely utilized AI in the form of instant message-style chatbots to interact with prospects, automation of routine tasks for onsite teams and as a writing assistant in the form of ChatGPT. The industry is exploring ways AI can make a greater impact in larger-scale activities, such as key revenue management and accounting processes, and deeper-rooted leasing initiatives. 

While multifamily generally relies on AI to augment human processes rather than replace them, it’s worth noting that Goldman Sachs estimates 300 million jobs will be lost worldwide in 2024 due to AI. While that might cause some trepidation among associates, that total largely reflects manual labor jobs that machines have been designed to take over. The apartment industry often utilizes AI not to replace associates but to make up for hiring challenges, such as leaning on automation to enable single-property associates to move to centralized roles. 

Jeff Nicholson, Senior Vice President of Product Design for Entrata, believes multifamily organizations should aim to strike a balance with their AI initiatives. 

“Under-reliance on AI can be dangerous and leave your organization behind the competition,” he said. “But over-reliance on AI can be dangerous, as well. Many kids growing up believe AI means ‘when computers think for you,’ which shouldn’t be the perception. It’s important to talk to those growing up about AI and how it should be approached.”

Jeff believes AI is more accurately characterized as supplemental intelligence rather than artificial intelligence, and the acronym itself might be more fitting as augmented intelligence. That’s because humans are supplying the initial ideas and commands, hoping for assistance in achieving their desired output.

For instance, organizations can lean on AI to record a meeting, summarize it and blast it out to email contacts. But a human associate can instruct the platform to capture any key phrases, write the summary while reflecting the brand voice and blast it out only to those who weren’t present in the meeting. 

“Human intelligence and supplemental intelligence work together to create effective AI,” Jeff said. “Humans are rational and intuitive, and they should always be part of the process.”