by Lachlan MacQuarrie

How AI Changed My Work – Part 2 – Post Toronto Real Estate Forum

Last week, I shared my article about how AI is transforming real estate and my journey using tools like ChatGPT. This week, at the Toronto Real Estate Forum, Ajay Agrawal’s discussion on the first day of the forum validated my early conclusions about AI’s transformative potential. His insights reinforced what I’ve observed through my own limited use—and what many others are now discovering. As I chatted with attendees, it became clear that more people in our industry are starting to experiment with AI. This was amazing to hear and further validated my intuition.

Ajay’s talk was inspiring, particularly his explanation of how AI has decoupled prediction from judgment. Human judgment remains critical, and AI will find its rightful place and function over time. But make no mistake: AI is coming faster, it’s smarter, and it’s going to change everything.

This year’s forum featured at least three sessions (one on the main stage and two breakouts) focused on AI. Some, like Ajay’s main stage talk, were inspiring. Others, however, felt frustrating—taking a 30,000-foot view that overcomplicated how to get started with AI rapidly. One breakout, hosted by Thano Lambrinos from QuadReal, hit the mark by showcasing practical AI applications for real estate. Thano’s session, which included insights from Joseph Martino of Primaris REIT, demonstrated how AI is already making an impact in the industry.

Thano also wowed the crowd by using Notebook LM to turn a document into a fully immersive podcast experience – cheap and convincing AI trick Thano! The result? A truly amazing podcast that sounded like it was recorded live. This kind of creative, practical use of AI underscores just how transformative it can be when applied thoughtfully. Imagine using this for training, case studies for web sites, or even streaming.

Here are two ways to build rapid adoption of AI in real estate

1. Education and Training: Roll out AI training to a broad team to teach them the power of AI. This training should equip them to understand the role of personas, crafting effective queries, and the importance of training AI by teaching it context. Empowering teams with these foundational skills helps them unlock the full potential of AI tools in their roles.
2. Pilots and Experimentation: Equip a diverse group of people across roles to tackle analytical tasks tied to real problems that take too much time. For instance, in acquisitions, you could upload all the leases and use AI to query a simple descriptive hot button list, such as “leases that have termination clauses” or “leases that have CAM and Tax caps.” This allows teams to rapidly sort and identify critical items before evaluating specific outliers in more detail.

The challenge isn’t just learning AI; it’s scaling its use meaningfully across processes and systems. It’s easy enough to turn on subscriptions, but embedding AI into workflows and making it an integral part of decision-making takes effort. However, here’s the key: don’t let the fear of scale or data cleanliness hold you back from experiencing what AI can already do.

Here’s my takeaway

• Don’t delay experimentation—use initial tests to uncover AI’s potential and build momentum.
• Don’t worry (too much) about how clean your data is. AI can often interpret and predict valuable insights even from imperfect data. Figure out cleansing later.
• Talk to peers and colleagues—they’re already using it. Find out how, and don’t look back. Don’t let your own hesitastion stop you one more minute!

AI is here, it’s exciting, and it’s going to blow your mind when you figure out how its capabilities can improve your productivity.

As I continue to explore this space, I’ve also been listening to Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick. It’s a fascinating and useful read as I shape my opinions on AI’s value, potential and limitations. It is also easy to read, approachable and worth exploring.

If you haven’t yet, check out my original article here: My LinkedIn Post.

What’s your take on AI in real estate? How are you or your organization starting to integrate it? Let’s keep the conversation going.