Real Estate Meets AI

In this episode, Sandeep Ahuja sits down with Dr. Sarah Buchner, Founder and CEO of Trunk Tools, a former carpenter and superintendent who now builds AI that reads every drawing and spec on a construction project.Sarah explains why most of the AEC industry is still stuck in pilot mode on AI, and what the few firms ahead of the curve are doing differently. It starts with the CEO using AI personally.Whether you’re leading a firm or still figuring out where AI fits, this conversation is a blunt look at what it takes to get past the pilot stage.

In this episode, Sandeep Ahuja sits down with Jennifer Kolstad, Global Design & Brand Director and Global Head of Retail at Ford Motor Company and a doctoral researcher in neuroaesthetics, the study of how spaces affect the way we think and feel.They talk about how bringing science into design can help prove what a space will do before it's built, what it takes to apply that at Ford's scale, and why Jen sees AI as the latest of many shifts the design profession has already worked through.Whether you're designing spaces, investing in them, or figuring out where AI fits into your practice, this conversation is a fresh look at what buildings can do for the people inside them.

In this episode, Sandeep Ahuja sits down with Matt Knight, PropTech investor, founder of the PropTech Angel Group, and the person behind the Foundation for Innovation in Real Estate. Matt sees hundreds of deals a year and has spent over a decade investing in and advising real estate technology companies.They discuss why AI adoption looks completely different depending on property type, where the gap between experimentation and real deployment still sits, and what Matt looks for when separating substance from buzzwords.Whether you're building a proptech company, leading innovation inside a real estate firm, or investing in the space, this conversation is a practical, unfiltered look at where the industry actually stands.

In this episode, Sandeep Ahuja sits down with Dave Gise, Senior Vice President and Head of Hospitality, Amenities, and AI at RXR, the firm behind a $17 billion portfolio that includes 75 Rockefeller Plaza. Dave's path to leading AI didn't start in tech. It started in personal training, community building, and a career-long obsession with elevating the human experience.He walks through how RXR is applying AI across its residential and commercial portfolio, from a custom GPT that helps property teams craft better, faster incident responses to Tulu, an AI-driven amenity platform that residents have ranked number one in multiple buildings. He also makes the case that embedding AI into a company isn't a technology problem. It's a cultural one, and it starts with one-on-one training, executive buy-in, and the patience to meet every person where they are.If you're thinking about what AI-powered hospitality actually looks like in practice, or how to bring an entire organization along for the ride, this one's worth your time.

In this episode, Sandeep Ahuja sits down with Jon Birdsong, CEO of South Downtown Atlanta, and Lucas Roberts, Director of Architecture and Design at South Downtown Atlanta, to unpack one of the most ambitious urban revitalization bets in the country: rebuilding 16 acres of historic buildings in Atlanta's original downtown core.They get into running an entire neighborhood like a startup, where AI and technology actually fit into development today, and the hard work of bringing century-old buildings back to life, all timed to Atlanta's turn hosting the World Cup.Whether you're developing, investing, designing, or simply rethinking what a city core can be, this conversation offers a candid, ground-level look at what it really takes to bring a neighborhood back to life.

In this episode, Sandeep Ahuja sits down with Dr. Sam Chandan, professor at NYU Stern and founder of Chandan Economics, to explore how AI is reshaping real estate, the labor market, and the way we prepare the next generation of leaders.Sam shares his honest read on where commercial real estate stands on AI adoption today, why a willingness to experiment marks a real shift for the industry, and what separates the firms making progress from those still on the sidelines.They also dig into how AI is already showing up in white collar labor data, why bipedal robotics could be the next major disruption to the built environment, and where Sam sees both the biggest opportunities and the most significant risks ahead.Whether you're leading strategy or rethinking workforce planning, this conversation offers a grounded perspective from one of the most respected voices at the intersection of real estate, economics, and AI.

In this episode, Sandeep Ahuja is joined by two guests who live at the crossroads of research and real estate: Arpit Gupta, Associate Professor of Finance at NYU Stern, and James Robert Scott, Director of the Real Estate Transformation Lab at MIT.Arpit shares how he built AI tools to structure messy zoning codes into usable data at national scale. James explores where AI is creating real value on the ground, including tools that analyze public meeting sentiment to help developers navigate approvals. Together, they rate where the industry stands on AI adoption, why real estate faces unique challenges, and what practical steps leaders can take right now.Whether you're a real estate professional figuring out where to start with AI or a researcher exploring what's possible, this episode connects the dots between academic insight and industry reality.

In this episode, Sandeep Ahuja sits down with Will O'Donnell, Managing Director and Head of Global Corporate Development and Growth at Prologis, and founder of Prologis Ventures, to explore how the world's largest logistics real estate company is evolving from four walls and a roof into an intelligent infrastructure platform.Will shares what he's learned from 22 years inside Prologis and backing 53 startups through the venture arm, from why clean data became a company-wide mandate to how nearly the entire organization now uses AI on a daily basis. He breaks down what it actually takes to move from experimentation to enterprise-wide adoption — and why digitizing a bad process just gives you a digital bad process.They dig into the strategic logic behind Prologis's $25 billion commitment to data centers, including a new partnership with Nvidia to explore micro data centers for distributed AI. The conversation also covers what's changing on the warehouse floor, where automation and computer vision are reshaping operations, and why change management remains the hardest part of any technology rollout.Whether you're navigating AI strategy inside a large organization or investing in what's next for the built environment, this episode offers a grounded, practical perspective from someone with a front-row seat to the transformation.

In this episode, Sandeep Ahuja sits down with Alex Wolkomir, Partner at McKinsey & Company, to talk about what AI adoption looks like from the inside, through the lens of someone advising the largest real estate firms in the world.Alex co-authored McKinsey's landmark report on generative AI in real estate and shares why the numbers have only gotten bigger since. He makes the case for why use cases are actually the wrong way to think about AI adoption, and why redesigning workflows end to end is where the real opportunity lies.They explore the areas gaining the most traction today, from leasing automation to maintenance triage, and what leaders need to get right to actually capture that value. The conversation also gets into the tension between automation and human judgment — and why protecting the moments that matter is just as important as automating the ones that don't.Whether you're leading innovation or just figuring out where to start, this episode is for you.Read McKinsey’s latest article on how agentic AI is reshaping real estate’s operating model at www.mckinsey.com/industries/real-estate/our-insights

In the Season 2 premiere of Real Estate Meets AI, Sandeep Ahuja sits down with Danny Klein, Partner at JLL Spark, the venture arm of JLL, to unpack where AI is truly gaining traction across real estate — and where it’s still early.Danny shares what he’s seeing after evaluating hundreds of AI startups, from tools accelerating leasing conversations to enterprise platforms layering real estate context onto large language models. They explore how firms are moving beyond experimentation and what it takes to translate AI from insight into action.The conversation also looks ahead to emerging opportunities in robotics and physical AI, and why getting your data house in order may be the most important move leaders can make right now.Whether you're investing in innovation or navigating change inside a large organization, this episode offers a grounded perspective on what’s real, what’s hype, and what’s next.