For all the momentum around artificial intelligence (AI) in multifamily, some of the industry’s most important decisions remain stubbornly human. Tactical investment strategy is one of them.
As Don Oldham of Thompson Thrift puts it, the idea that AI will soon replace operator judgment in high-stakes portfolio calls is still a long way off. “Nobody I know is using AI to determine whether they should hold or sell an asset,” Oldham says. “Those decisions are still grounded in experience, relationships, and what you’re seeing in the market in real time.”
AI may be accelerating the industry’s ability to process information, but when it comes to deciding whether to ride out a cycle or exit an investment, owners are still relying on instincts developed over years in the business.
The same dynamic shows up at the property level, where technology increasingly supports operations but rarely replaces the human layer that makes communities work. “The day-to-day work of running communities still depends on people who can read situations and respond to them,” says Amy Barricelli, senior vice president at RR Living. “You can’t automate empathy: Whether it’s a difficult resident conversation or a sensitive operational issue, the industry still relies on people who understand nuance and context in ways AI cannot.”
Carson Berish of Lessen sees similar boundaries when it comes to operational workflows. While AI can accelerate routine processes, interactions that require emotional intelligence remain difficult to automate. “Sensitive resident conversations, negotiations, anything that has a real human element to it are all areas where AI struggles,” Berish says. “Empathy and emotional intelligence, even something as simple as reading body language or understanding the context of a situation, are very difficult for these systems to comprehend.”
That same logic extends into the investment and management relationships that underpin the multifamily business. Dan Carr of Arqline says AI can help surface data or identify potential opportunities, but the work of building partnerships still depends on people sitting down together to solve problems. “We’re not selling widgets,” Carr says. “We’re selling solutions tailored to an owner’s goals, and that means sitting down with operators and owners and working through strategy together. AI can help organize the information, but the relationship side of the business is still very much human.”
Even among operators pushing aggressively into new tools, there is broad agreement that the success of AI ultimately depends on something more foundational: data discipline. “If the data isn’t clean and governed properly, the AI is just going to give you bad answers faster,” says Tony Lopez, chief information officer at Bainbridge. “Before you can really trust what these systems are telling you, you have to make sure the information underneath them is accurate, structured, and governed the right way.”
For now, that combination of judgment, empathy, and disciplined oversight remains the connective tissue of the multifamily business, and a reminder that even as the industry races deeper into the AI era, the most important decisions are still being made in analog.