Have you recently been writing using Microsoft Word, and it finishes a sentence for you? Were you thrilled, or mad that it said something you did not want? Did you even notice?
It’s using an app called “Co-pilot” which the name would imply help or back-up for your work. Sometimes great, sometimes not so, causing time loss and re-writes. It may also be marrying other apps or programs we may not know about.
Apps and general AI are, in some cases, already working together, in what is called “model-to-model integration.” Also called “multi-agent systems.” We can’t see it, or control it. Like it or not, it is here and expanding at warp-speed.
Clearly, this is not only cutting edge, but a birth of programs working without programmers. For example, one AI program might review another for mistakes, critiques, or edits. In other words, people are ultimately, sometimes, less involved, a little like the futuristic sci-fi prediction we all were brought up on.
According to recent news, estimates suggest there are about 90,000 AI companies world wide, including the obvious Apple, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft, as well as smaller companies and start-ups.
Like any new science (think industrial revolution) it takes time and there will be set-backs. That said, the pace is dramatic, and the results should help science, research, logistics, and manufacturing. In our arena, it should bolster real estate design, engineering, financing, and brokerage. But, it will require a new learning curve, and much training, although as suggested here, new programs can take care of business, all by “themselves.”
On the negative side, despite all the potential benefits of AI, and AI integrated with AI, unintended as well as unanticipated behavior can occur, creating more potential security risks, in some cases “going wild.” Hopefully, some AI programs will be dedicated to review and repair tasks in other programs. As real estate practitioners, we should keep an eye on the future, but scrutinize the current!
Daniel Calano, CRE, is managing partner and principal of Prospectus, LLC, Cambridge, Mass.
