{"id":1004750303,"date":"2025-03-12T03:10:11","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T11:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?p=1004750303"},"modified":"2025-03-17T05:34:12","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T13:34:12","slug":"retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/","title":{"rendered":"RETCON Special Report: Refined Tech Palates"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"The<\/a>
Thesis Driven’s Brad Hargreaves moderates the keynote discussion between Andrew Segal of Boxer Property, Mark-Taylor Inc.’s John Carlson, Yao Morin of JLL and Konrad Koczwara of ElevateOS. Photo by Gabriel Frank<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Panelists speaking on the first day of the 2025 Real Estate Technology Conference, hosted in Las Vegas, revealed refined, precise tastes for technology, particularly in the realm of artificial intelligence. These discussions occurred at the heels of recent breakthroughs in agentic artificial intelligence and a valuation of the industry at more than $180 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From tenant experience app features to construction design software preferences, panelists from across the industry are well aware of what works and what doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artificial intelligence: CRE\u2019s new cell phone?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At a keynote discussion titled Investing in Innovation: Building Strategy to transform Real Estate<\/em>, panelists from the office, multifamily and software sectors agreed that the use of artificial intelligence<\/a> has become more of a necessity for employees looking to maximize productivity than another tool at their disposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One area where this is present is lead interception for leasing at office properties; something as simple as a chatbot can respond to inquiries on a perpetual basis, while an agentic model may be capable of autonomously communicating with potential tenants. \u201cIt\u2019s a game-changer that we couldn\u2019t do with humans fast enough,\u201d said Andrew Segal, chairman & CEO of Boxer Property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The humans at Boxer Property probably agree. According to Segal, they went from using some form of AI platform roughly 500 times a month in September of last year to more than 2,000 times in January. Where efficiency is concerned, \u201cwhen you combine it with offshoring, it\u2019s not an option anymore; it\u2019s like saying you are not going to use a computer,\u201d Segal said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yao Morin, JLL\u2019s technology officer, compared the adoption at her firm which has developed a proprietary GPT model to the ubiquity of cell phones. \u201cNowadays, you can\u2019t go without your phone,\u201d Morin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, universally adopting artificial intelligence for nearly every part of a workflow is easier said than done. A key question was how to get decades-long employees to embrace the technologies. Morin prefers a brass-tacks approach, where existing users share the way they use these technologies with the rest of their team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others mix carrots and sticks. Konrad Koczwara, ElevateOS\u2019 founder & CEO, prefers the former. \u201cIf you have a group of 10 people, you will have a group of three that is going to be curious, and those are the ones you should incentivize and reward to train the rest,\u201d Koczwara told the panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Segal, on the other hand, is all in. \u201cYou can get in line, or you can use it to write your resume,\u201d he quipped. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to replace everyone\u2019s jobs, but it will make them a lot more productive,\u201d Segal said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Optimized offices<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"A<\/a>
A discussion on technology’s role in fostering office occupancy between Alv\u00e9ole’s Natalie Pereira, Maja Sofic of CIM Group, Todd Januzzi of Paramount Group and Andrew Segal of Boxer Property. Photo by Gabriel Frank<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

During a discussion about the best ways to keep office buildings active and occupied, slumped occupancy and space activations were viewed not so much as the result of lackluster amenities or programming, but suboptimal adoptions of technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A prime example of this is tenant experience apps, often used from filing work orders to reserving conference space. Despite all the programming and amenity spaces that they are capable of showcasing, \u201cthey\u2019re not getting the traction of tenants,\u201d said Maja Sofic, first vice president of property management at CIM Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, this is outside operators\u2019 control; developers making the applications one-stop shops for everything from work orders to lunch reservations can often be counter-intuitive if they include sensitive payment information that some tenants are forbidden from divulging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a struggle for people to even download the app, and that is because of the companies they have,\u201d said Todd Januzzi, president of Paramount Group Inc., an office REIT with holdings in New York City and San Francisco. \u201cWe have some household name banks, with 4,000 people in a building not downloading the app; law firms won\u2019t (touch) it, and financial services won\u2019t use wallet or payment features\u201d Januzzi added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

READ ALSO:<\/strong> Office Owners Scale Back Concessions<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

But there are some workarounds. Januzzi\u2019s company thought to make visitor access to amenity spaces exclusive to a tenant experience app. \u201cThey sign a waiver saying that they won\u2019t be nefarious, and they\u2019re in,\u201d But without it, you\u2019re not going anywhere,\u201d Januzzi detailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sofic, on the other hand, sees the use of apps that can book spaces at multiple locations<\/a> as providing employees with a degree of flexibility that will make in-person office work more appealing. \u201cThere\u2019s so much traction in that space of jumping on your phone and plugging in; that gives the modern tenant that flexibility,\u201d Sofic said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Builders tough it out<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"A<\/a>
A discussion on construction innovation between David Swiatkowski of Exclusive, Thornton Tomasetti’s Thomas Scarangello, Suffolk Construction’s Jit Kee Chin and Hamid Hajian of Zebel. Photo by Gabriel Frank<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

If there is one industry that is being hampered the most by the current macroeconomic environment, it\u2019s construction; labor shortages<\/a> and potentially hiked supply costs are putting a thorn in the side of builders looking to go vertical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But necessity is the mother of invention, and the digital environment, particularly the realms of automation and data analytics, give developers an edge when it comes to making projects faster and more efficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI algorithms can potentially evaluate innumerable iterations of a building design in a matter of seconds, while some large language models can mimic the expertise of retired welding experts. Almost by accident, some of the technologies are uniquely suited to the present moment; \u201ctariffs on or off<\/a>, if someone said they are going from concrete to steel, with some of the tech you are seeing today, you can make your pivot a lot quicker,\u201d said Thomas Scarangello, managing principal & senior advisor of Thornton Tomasetti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One consequence that Scarangello has observed is a leveling of the architects\u2019 and construction firms\u2019 playing fields, giving smaller firms a leg up. \u201cEight years ago, you had to build your own data team and extract data from your systems, but if you look to today, solutions have now come out that do that work for you, and serve you the data in a more clean and transformed matter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s still up to the data teams to make the best decisions using them. \u201cData is the new oil, but it\u2019s more of a crude oil. We need to refine it into something useful,\u201d Scarangello said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AI took center stage in discussions about innovation across the business. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3012,"featured_media":1004750304,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21782,21808,23891,21742,21747,21787,51037],"tags":[52568,37734,33194,52566,32796,52567,52569,36485,52340],"class_list":["post-1004750303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-development","category-featured","category-national","category-latest","category-office","category-technology","category-trends","tag-alveole","tag-boxer-property","tag-cim-group","tag-elevateos","tag-jll","tag-mark-taylor-inc","tag-paramount-group","tag-suffolk-construction","tag-thornton-tomasetti"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRETCON Special Report: Refined Tech Palates - Commercial Property Executive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On the first day of the 2025 Real Estate Technology Conference, AI took center stage in discussions about innovation across the business.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"RETCON Special Report: Refined Tech Palates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On the first day of the 2025 Real Estate Technology Conference, AI took center stage in discussions about innovation across the business.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Property Executive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CPExecutive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-12T11:10:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-17T13:34:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2025\/03\/RETCON20251.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gabriel Frank\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/\",\"name\":\"RETCON Special Report: Refined Tech Palates - Commercial Property Executive\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2025\/03\/RETCON20251.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-12T11:10:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-17T13:34:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/cf1bfd2d6753f6ea305911ffd020862c\"},\"description\":\"On the first day of the 2025 Real Estate Technology Conference, AI took center stage in discussions about innovation across the business.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2025\/03\/RETCON20251.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2025\/03\/RETCON20251.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1440},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"RETCON Special Report: Refined Tech Palates\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Commercial Property Executive\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/cf1bfd2d6753f6ea305911ffd020862c\",\"name\":\"Gabriel Frank\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2025\/05\/GF2.jpg?w=90\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2025\/05\/GF2.jpg?w=90\",\"caption\":\"Gabriel Frank\"},\"description\":\"Gabriel Frank is a Senior Associate Editor with Multi-Housing News and Commercial Property Executive. He has a background in journalism, and is the editor of MHN's Daily and Weekly newsletters. He lives in New York City.\",\"birthDate\":\"2000-05-11\",\"gender\":\"Male\",\"jobTitle\":\"Editor\",\"worksFor\":\"Yardi Systems\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/author\/gabriel-frank\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"RETCON Special Report: Refined Tech Palates - Commercial Property Executive","description":"On the first day of the 2025 Real Estate Technology Conference, AI took center stage in discussions about innovation across the business.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"RETCON Special Report: Refined Tech Palates","og_description":"On the first day of the 2025 Real Estate Technology Conference, AI took center stage in discussions about innovation across the business.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/","og_site_name":"Commercial Property Executive","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CPExecutive","article_published_time":"2025-03-12T11:10:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-03-17T13:34:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1440,"url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2025\/03\/RETCON20251.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Gabriel Frank","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@cpexecutive","twitter_site":"@cpexecutive","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/","url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/","name":"RETCON Special Report: Refined Tech Palates - Commercial Property Executive","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2025\/03\/RETCON20251.jpg","datePublished":"2025-03-12T11:10:11+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-17T13:34:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/cf1bfd2d6753f6ea305911ffd020862c"},"description":"On the first day of the 2025 Real Estate Technology Conference, AI took center stage in discussions about innovation across the business.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2025\/03\/RETCON20251.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2025\/03\/RETCON20251.jpg","width":1920,"height":1440},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/retcon-special-report-refined-tech-palates\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"RETCON Special Report: Refined Tech Palates"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/","name":"Commercial Property Executive","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/cf1bfd2d6753f6ea305911ffd020862c","name":"Gabriel Frank","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2025\/05\/GF2.jpg?w=90","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2025\/05\/GF2.jpg?w=90","caption":"Gabriel Frank"},"description":"Gabriel Frank is a Senior Associate Editor with Multi-Housing News and Commercial Property Executive. He has a background in journalism, and is the editor of MHN's Daily and Weekly newsletters. He lives in New York City.","birthDate":"2000-05-11","gender":"Male","jobTitle":"Editor","worksFor":"Yardi Systems","url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/author\/gabriel-frank\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2025\/03\/RETCON20251.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004750303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3012"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1004750303"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004750303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1004750341,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004750303\/revisions\/1004750341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1004750304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1004750303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1004750303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1004750303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}