Artificial intelligence is reshaping how commercial real estate leaders think about technology adoption, according to Michael Beckerman, founder and CEO of CREtech. Beckerman, whose firm stages what he describes as the largest global conference platform focused on technology and innovation in the built environment, notes that AI has generated an unprecedented wave of attention from property companies.
Beckerman observes that real estate organizations are engaging with tech in greater numbers than at any point in his career. He says more firms are now attending CREtech events, drawn by both the promise of AI and the need to better understand how emerging tools could influence their portfolios, operations, and long-term strategies.
Alongside this surge in interest, Beckerman points to a high degree of uncertainty around execution. He frames the central question facing owners and operators as determining the right path for AI integration. The options he outlines range from adopting existing “off-the-shelf” solutions from startups and established technology providers to building proprietary tools on top of major AI platforms such as Claude, Gemini, or OpenAI, or combining both approaches.
Those strategic decisions, he suggests, are still very much in flux. Real estate executives must weigh whether to rely on external vendors or commit internal resources to customized AI development, and how to balance speed of deployment against control over data and workflows. Beckerman characterizes this moment as one in which curiosity and experimentation are running ahead of clearly defined implementation roadmaps.
These themes are at the center of the upcoming CREtech New York conference, scheduled for October 20-21 at the Javits Center in Manhattan. Ahead of the event, Beckerman joined Daniel Ceniceros, cofounder and CEO of Connect Media, for a video conversation about the current state of proptech.
In that discussion, the two explore how capital is engaging with property technology, including AI-driven tools, and what this may mean over the long term for commercial real estate firms and their employees. The conversation highlights both the elevated level of investment interest in proptech and the open questions that remain around how AI will be deployed across the sector.
