How AI could raise expectations for tomorrow’s property managers

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Behind every property, there are often countless decisions, documents, and conversations that AI is beginning to influence. A recent report from Deloitte indicates that AI is moving into real estate workflows. The debate often begins with jobs. A more practical starting point may be the work itself. Which tasks can technology support, and which responsibilities still require human judgment? For property managers, that distinction may matter because a building is a financial asset and a place shaped by owners, tenants, vendors, visitors, and communities. 

Research indicates that many firms remain near the beginning of this transition. In its 2025 commercial real estate outlook, Deloitte found that 76% of respondents said their organizations were researching, piloting, or in the early stages of implementing AI. Among firms in the research and pilot phases, accounting and reporting was the most frequently cited focus at 37%, followed by financial planning and analysis at 36%.

The emerging pattern appears to favor changes in tasks before wholesale changes in jobs. PwC and the Urban Land Institute reported that job transformation was more prevalent than employee replacement among firms at this early stage. The report identified research, paperwork, and recurring administrative work among current generative AI uses in real estate.

Adoption also brings questions about the information behind an output. The Deloitte report found that only 14% of respondents believed their organizations had well-structured data management processes and robust privacy policies. That finding suggests that speed alone is an incomplete measure of useful adoption. Review, data controls, and clear accountability may deserve equal attention.

Bob Murray says he has watched earlier technologies reshape the profession across more than four decades in residential and commercial real estate. He is a commercial property manager with Playhouse Square Management, an organization that handles commercial property and facility operations along with services including asset management and real estate consulting. “Every generation of property managers has had to learn a new system,” Murray explains. “AI is another step, and professionals need to understand how to use it responsibly.”

“The best place to begin is with work that consumes time without requiring the final judgment,” Murray observes. In his current budgeting process, an AI tool can organize prior-year information, place it into a new format, and generate questions about inflation, planned projects, and emergency expenditures. A manager must still verify the figures and decide what belongs in the budget. Based on his experience, Murray estimates that this approach can reduce preparation time by at least half.

He believes the recovered time carries its greatest value outside the spreadsheet. “Property managers can spend more time walking sites, meeting owners, and understanding what tenants are experiencing,” he says. Lease renewals offer one example. Data may help prepare the financial case for a rent change, yet Murray notes that the conversation still requires context and judgment. “When a manager can meet someone face to face, provide the reasoning and listen carefully, there is a better opportunity to build trust,” he explains.

That division of work may offer a practical way to approach AI in property management. Murray believes the technology can support information gathering, record organization, preliminary analysis and early drafts of routine correspondence. He maintains that managers should remain responsible for reviewing the output, protecting sensitive information, negotiating agreements and making decisions that affect people or properties. In his view, AI can help professionals approach those decisions with better information while leaving responsibility for the final outcome clearly with the manager.

“Experience should make a professional curious about a useful tool, even when learning it feels uncomfortable,” Murray explains. He recalls entering the field before property management software became standard and later watching digital systems become part of everyday practice. That history informs his view that established managers can approach AI as another professional capability. Newer entrants may bring greater technical comfort, while still needing to develop patience, financial understanding and interpersonal judgment.

As routine work becomes easier to accelerate, Murray expects the standard for professional performance to rise. Managers may increasingly be evaluated through the quality of their decisions, relationships and oversight as routine document production becomes easier to automate. AI can help prepare the material, he argues, while people remain answerable for how that material is interpreted and used. Under that model, technology may make the human contribution to property management easier to see.