CREtech Special Report: 5 Takeaways From Day 1
AI is a hot topic at this year's event.
The overarching theme on day one of the 2025 CREtech conference was how AI can help all aspects of commercial real estate. From construction and site development to daily back-end processes, commercial real estate leaders, technology companies and startups came together to share ideas and discuss how AI is being implemented across the industry.
“AI is in the air, and it is in the room with us here today, it’s everywhere,” Michael Beckerman, founder & CEO of CRETech, shared in his opening remarks on the first day. “AI is the thread of everything that is happening in the industry.”
It’s an acquisition market: In the first panel, Stephen Yalof, president & CEO of Tanger, Cathy Marcus, co-head & global COO of real estate at PGIM Real Estate and Toby Bozzuto, president & CEO of Bozzuto, all shared that real estate within the retail, office and multifamily sector is more of an acquisition game. Development within these markets can be difficult without capital, though major companies continue to look for investment opportunities.
AI giving people time back: Each panel highlighted ways AI is streamlining day-to-day processes for commercial real estate professionals. Yalof shared how, when it comes to retail properties, AI has helped identify potential retailers that could perform well in a market, simplifying the initial outreach process. Arpit Gupta, an associate professor at NYU Stern, echoed this sentiment by saying AI has the potential to help automate deal flow and improve the research process. This technology is freeing up time for people within the industry to focus their expertise elsewhere.
Building in flexibility: Gupta also shared that he believes AI within CRE is in its infancy. This learning technology makes mistakes, so while it can conduct research and scan data faster, it is beneficial to audit data on a personal, everyday front and on a customer or tenant front. AvalonBay has implemented AI across its operations and on a multifamily front and its Chief Digital Officer Rukevbe Esi advises against relying solely on these technologies to meet customer needs, as they can still make mistakes, and recommends building in flexibility to adapt.
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Collect and analyze data with AI: Sajit Sankar, VP of global real estate services at Mastercard, said it best in a panel on rethinking office space: “The principles of office have remained the same, but how we’ve done it has changed.” Tenant demands have shifted, so utilizing agentic AI and other AI services has provided landlords and property managers with the ability to see how tenants are interacting with a property in real time. This data can be used for new developments, as well as to improve certain assets and track sustainability. Without this data it’s hard to improve these spaces.
Alternative ROI: AI has even made its way into the construction aspect of commercial real estate. A panel held by Eleftherios Pittas, senior director of design and construction at Tishman Speyer, Sydne Garchik, principal at MRK Partners and Heather Widman, partner at Building Ventures, talked about how it can help identify the feasibility of a project at a much faster rate. They were all in agreement that the biggest ROI will come from contingency rather than costs. The more this technology is used, the more confident people will be in making decisions and speed up the process. Although construction was slow to adopt AI, the panel said that, looking ahead, it can help the industry become more predictive than reactive and prevent problems as the technology evolves.
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