Welcome to CRE TechPulse! A newsletter about AI and CRE, but really, it’s about how we work, adapt, and stay human. Here's the latest news from the week ending May 30th, 2025:
The Year of the Killer Agents
If you’ve been feeling like artificial intelligence is all you ever hear about lately, you’re not wrong. We'll casually ignore the fact that you purposely subscribed to an AI newsletter. I won't even bring up the click-baity title you chose to read. Anyway, for the less tech-focused among us, you may not have heard of the latest buzzterm: Agentic AI.
Now before your eyes glaze over, let me explain. I'm not writing about this because it's the next cool tool (which it is), or because it's likely to increase your productivity (it is), or give you instructions on how to use it (I'm not). I actually want to talk about the potential for serious destruction in many industries, including commercial real estate.
Understood. And no, this is not what this is about. I'm talking about the destruction of entry-level jobs and the transfer of knowledge that could be erased due to agentic AI.
What Are Agentic AI Systems?
Agentic AI are autonomous models that handle specific tasks on the user's behalf, such as researching a market, booking your travel, or creating a new website. These agents are given a task and then go out into the world and find the answers, or use tools to accomplish something all while the user is doing other things. And agents are coming faster than you think. Within the next few years, we will likely have agents that can handle most routine professional tasks autonomously and take over large portions of work. Sounds great right? More productivity means the potential for higher earnings, especially in CRE where more deals equals more money.
The Flip Side of Productivity
Yet there's a flip side to the increase in productivity. Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, recently told Axios in an interview that he expects AI to wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within the next few years. A stark warning and he's not alone in his prognostication.
And if you think about it, the more you realize the truth behind the warnings. In commercial real estate, traditionally seasoned brokers will bring on a junior broker or intern to handle many foundational tasks: market research, drafting proposals, updating CRM systems, and initial client outreach. These juniors don't just fetch coffee, they learn deal structures, client preferences, market nuances, and relationship management while providing genuine value through their research and administrative support.
But AI is already able to do much of this work more quickly and efficiently than a newcomer to the industry. So does the seasoned broker still hire the junior? To do what exactly? Why would they go through the effort of teaching and mentoring a young professional when they can simply prompt an agent, kick back, and take a client out to lunch? Why would they split a commission or pay a salary when AI agents cost pennies on the dollar?
And this isn't particular to brokerage. Think about property management, investments, appraisals, and development. Much like tractors replaced ditch diggers, AI is about to replace entry-level workers across commercial real estate. En masse.
The Knowledge Transfer Crisis
The other downstream effect revolves around the transfer of knowledge. If seasoned brokers are no longer hiring the next generation to do the foundational work, there's no passing of the torch, so to speak. The intricacies of our industry are kept between the seasoned broker and the AI. As agentic AI becomes more specialized and hyper-focused, so too does the knowledge it retains.
So then the question becomes: where's the opportunity for the next generation to learn the specialized knowledge to be a professional in the industry? Education will be easier to obtain, but not everything can be read in a book or online. There's wisdom that comes from hearing the war stories about deals that blew up at the last minute, environmental disasters, or challenging tenant situations. There's learning that happens through observing how a veteran handles a difficult negotiation or manages client expectations during market volatility.
An over-reliance on AI tutors could potentially weaken soft skills like critical thinking, relationship building, and collaborative problem-solving, skills that are often learned through personal interaction and remain key in the CRE industry.
Potential Paths Forward
To be fair, new types of roles may emerge—perhaps AI prompt specialists, human-AI collaboration managers, or roles focused purely on relationship cultivation and strategic thinking. Some firms may continue to value human mentorship for competitive advantage or client relationships. But the fundamental question remains: how do we preserve the human elements that make great commercial real estate professionals while embracing productivity gains?
The answer likely lies in redefining what uniquely human skills mean in practice. In CRE, this might include complex negotiation psychology, reading between the lines in client communications, building long-term trust relationships, creative problem-solving for unusual properties or deals, and the intuitive market sense that comes from years of experience.
The Bottom Line
Ultimately, Agentic AI will transform labor by automating complex tasks and increasing productivity. Yet, it will also reshape how knowledge transfers between generations and put the irreplaceable benefits of human mentorship at risk.
The commercial real estate industry—and others like it—face a critical choice: find new ways to cultivate the next generation of professionals while leveraging AI's capabilities, or risk losing the human wisdom and relationships that have always been at the heart of successful deals.
Younger generations will need to focus on developing skills that complement rather than compete with AI. But it's equally important that industry veterans consider their role in ensuring that essential human knowledge doesn't disappear into the black box of artificial intelligence.
What does this mean for your firm? How will you balance the productivity gains of AI with the long-term need to develop human talent? These aren't just technology questions. They're fundamental questions about the future of professional development in commercial real estate.
Prompt of the Week
Passing the Torch
"Help me design a training program that combines AI efficiency with human mentorship. Outline how a senior broker could use AI agents for research while still providing meaningful learning opportunities for junior staff."
In Other News:
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