Ep 27: Human Is the New Luxury: Balancing AI and Humanity in Real Estate With Expert Antony Slumbers

In episode 27, I’m very excited to welcome Antony Slumbers, a globally recognized speaker, advisor, and writer specializing in AI, PropTech, and Space-as-a-Service. His entrepreneurial journey includes founding and successfully exiting several PropTech software companies. Today, he consults with leading real estate boards, guiding their transformation, technology, and innovation strategies. 

Additionally, Antony offers an online course, Generative AI for Real Estate People, designed to equip professionals with the knowledge and tools to harness the power of AI in the real estate sector. He is at the forefront of the AI revolution in real estate, and it’s why he joins us as a hero and AI Insider of hybrid work today.

Predictive AI vs. Generative AI: Antony’s Journey Into Revamping Real Estate

Antony Slumbers recounted his two-decade journey through software development in real estate developing property management software and productivity solid software. His company was in conjunction with then the largest real estate company in the UK, so their software was used in some of the most prestigious office buildings in London.

About seven years ago, he became very interested in AI and its use in optimizing real estate. However, few people were doing it at the time because of the scarcity of relevant data. When ChatGPT was launched in November 2022, he discovered the potential of Generative AI in driving innovation and creating new opportunities. Generative AI opens a wide array of use cases in real estate without needing extensive data.

“Predictive AI is an analytical tool. Generative AI is a creative tool. You generate new things based on training data. That suddenly opens up a huge range of use cases within every building, business, industry, and especially within real estate facilities management, property management, etc.” - Antony Slumbers, Speaker, Advisor, and Writer specializing in AI

Function of Moore’s Law: AI’s Impact on Real Estate and Current Trends

Our discussion shifted to the rapid evolution of AI and its implications for the real estate industry. The impact of COVID-19 prompted a reevaluation of the necessity of office spaces as technology enabled remote work. Antony Slumbers emphasized the critical moment when technological advancements reshape workplace dynamics post-COVID, enabling higher productivity and differentiated service delivery.

Antony Slumbers explained that the evolution of AI tools, particularly generative AI, can make individuals significantly more productive. However, only a tiny percentage of workers use AI tools. The Federal Bank of Saint Louis did a big survey in August and found that only about 10% of knowledge workers use AI daily, implying immense potential for competitive advantage.

“The Federal Bank of Saint Louis did a big survey in August, and they concluded that about 10% of knowledge workers use it every day. And that’s it. So the potential for gaining individual competitive advantage from these tools is huge.” - Antony Slumbers, Speaker, Advisor, and Writer specializing in AI

Antony Slumbers shared that significant developments stopped happening from 2002 to 2022. However, with the introduction of generative AI, we will start seeing them happening quickly. He attributed it to a function of Moore’s Law, doubling computer power every 18 months or so.

“You’ve got this incredible situation at the moment. Look at Nvidia chips, which have gotten 8,000 times more powerful in eight years. The amount of data has been doubling every day, every decade. And the size of AI models has been increasing by a factor of ten each year for the last ten years. The scaling of everything has gone crazy, which means we’ve now got a situation where things are developing at hyper speed.” - Antony Slumbers, Speaker, Advisor, and Writer specializing in AI

Antony Slumbers explained that COVID-19 impacted real estate because people realized they had technology and didn’t need an office. It wasn’t necessary to always go to the office to do work. AI is one of these technological advancements that is making waves. An individual can be ten times as productive as another individual. Some jobs will be directly impacted, but the vast majority of jobs will change to include extra technologies at various stages. It’s going to allow an individual to operate at hyper speed. 

“You’re gonna start to be able to develop things like custom GPTs. They are a form of what people call agents, which are discrete pieces of software with a predetermined output and are given the tools to enable them to achieve that output. That will happen across the board in everything to do with the workplace and facilities management.” - Antony Slumbers, Speaker, Advisor, and Writer specializing in AI

Human Is the New Luxury: Embracing Humanity in an AI-Driven World

Antony Slumbers underscored the importance of maintaining human interaction amidst technological progress. He noted how AI can optimize processes but not replicate genuine human empathic connections, particularly in facilities management. The conversation revolved around the coexistence of AI and the human element in workspaces; while AI can handle many tasks, human empathy and design are essential for creating user experiences.

“We are going to be able to optimize so many things. The fundamental point here is: ‘human’ is the new luxury.” - Antony Slumbers, Speaker, Advisor, and Writer specializing in AI

Antony Slumbers shared an anecdote about the customer service experience in a multifamily operator, highlighting the effectiveness of AI in managing common tenant queries, which allowed for better service in complex inquiries. They had a thousand pieces of people writing to them each month, and the number one complaint they were getting was they were slow to respond. With AI, they now have a chatbot that deals with 60% of the problem, which enabled them to respond to the 40% that needed personalization.

“It is undoubtedly true that these tools are gonna move higher and higher up the knowledge tree in terms of what they are capable of doing. It’s just a matter of time before you lose. These machines can simulate humanity and empathy, but they’re not actually human and can’t do empathy.” - Antony Slumbers, Speaker, Advisor, and Writer specializing in AI

The Future of Office Spaces Hinges on Creating Exceptional Employee Experiences

Antony Slumbers highlighted the necessity for engaging user experiences, articulating that the future of office spaces hinges on their ability to offer unique environments that foster satisfaction and productivity, driven by human-centric design and smart technology integration. He stressed the importance of innovative design and management in real estate, indicating that the future success of office spaces will depend on creating exceptional user experiences.

“The workplace is much more now the place of work. It could be a hotel lobby, a coffee shop, a third place, anything. Why would anyone go to a physical office unless it’s a better experience and enables them to do what they want to do better than anywhere else? I always ask landlords, ‘What can someone do in your building that they can’t do anywhere else?’ And if you think, ‘Well, nothing really,’ you have a problem because your building’s expensive.” - Antony Slumbers, Speaker, Advisor, and Writer specializing in AI

With machines doing more of the intelligence work, Antony Slumbers shared that people will do more and more of the ‘human’ work. Much of the human work will be in creating and curating the systems, telling the machines what to do. He encouraged property and facilities leaders to embrace technological advancements and enhance human interactions within real estate, marking a crucial turning point for the industry. The purpose of the workplace is changing, and with that, the design. Slumbers foresee a new entrance into the real estate market with a huge potential to create services that didn’t exist before.

“We have this interesting situation developing where people will come to a space because it provides a fantastic user experience that enables them to be as happy, healthy, and productive as possible. It’s gonna be a real skill to create these types of environments. The interesting thing is: who is going to do this? Where’s the opportunity?” - Antony Slumbers, Speaker, Advisor, and Writer specializing in AI

Space-as-a-Service: Balancing Tech and Humanity To Optimize the Modern Workplace

Antony Slumbers forecasted significant changes in real estate market dynamics, emphasizing the emergence of a human-centric focus in property management, where flexibility, sustainability, and effective use of data will dictate success in a rapidly evolving landscape.

Slumbers explained that the current office market faces challenges in maintaining product-market fit. Organizations must start seeing ‘space-as-a-service,’ focusing on balancing technology and personal interaction to optimize productivity and satisfaction.

“The idea of space-as-a-service is twofold. Space-as-a-service could be that you’re procuring the space as a service. You’re buying space for an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year, ten years. But the more important point is creating space that provides the software and services that enable the person in there to do whatever they need to do as effectively as possible.” - Antony Slumbers, Speaker, Advisor, and Writer specializing in AI

Slumbers shared that employees are expensive, so organizations must ensure they’re as productive as possible. Workers need to feel healthy and happy to be as productive as possible. Being healthy means putting someone in the right environment for the job they need to do then so they can operate at maximum cognitive ability. To create an attractive environment for maximum productivity, organizations should include human-centric design elements and the necessity for flexibility and adaptability in buildings.

“To enable really nice environmental conditions, you need a high-tech building. If you look at the buildings doing well now, there’s this chasm. Part of it is that those buildings have the technology to create the services. So it’s partly a fundamental technology thing that the building has to be capable of creating these environments (adjust temperature, noise, lighting, etc.).” - Antony Slumbers, Speaker, Advisor, and Writer specializing in AI

Antony Slumbers said that if you have the right technology in place, you can apply AI to optimize your workplace management (i.e., water, waste, HVAC systems) because you have enough data. He put into three buckets how organizations should start thinking about optimizing their office space:

1. How well is your building working physically?
2. How are people using your building?
3. What do people do in your buildings?

“When you’ve got AI, let’s look at it two ways. On the generative side, if anyone breaks their job down into the very granular tasks they need to do to fulfill their goal to enable them to do their job, 40% of them could do slightly better using generative AI. On predictive AI, this is where the real estate industry does have a lot of data. If you take a big modern building, it throws off a tsunami of data. We can use that data to optimize so much.” - Antony Slumbers, Speaker, Advisor, and Writer specializing in AI

The Four Buckets and Six Pillars For Creating Human-Centric Buildings

There are four buckets of office spaces that Antony Slumbers foresees: top buildings, flex buildings, mixed-use buildings, and character buildings. He shared that the office market is good for the top 15% because there’s simply a shortage of state-of-the-art buildings. The very top buildings will be in high demand by multinational companies that can make workplace changes in-house. Slumbers believes that most other organizations will be best served by using flex operators, whose job is to create good user experiences and build hospitality-focused real estate.

“You’re gonna get the top buildings and the flex buildings. There’s a market for two other areas. One, there’s gonna be a strong market for mixed-use developments where people are much closer together. Live, work, and play all together. Then, there will be a strong market for character buildings, which you can’t necessarily bring up to the highest technical quality, but they’re just beautiful buildings.” - Antony Slumbers, Speaker, Advisor, and Writer specializing in AI

Antony Slumbers explained that his statement ‘Human is the new luxury’ is fundamentally about creating human-centric real estate. For him, human-centric real estate sits on six pillars:

• Pillar 1: Environmental quality (health and well-being)
• Pillar 2: Physical quality of the space (ergonomics and comfort)
• Pillar 3: Personalized technology integrated seamlessly
• Pillar 4: Designed for community and connectivity
• Pillar 5: Sustainable
• Pillar 6: Designed with maximum flexibility and maximum adaptability

“Sam Altman, boss of OpenAI, supposedly has a sign above his desk that says, ‘No one knows what happens next.’ And that’s the point. Thirty years ago, you knew exactly what was gonna happen in your office building for the next twenty years. But when we’ve got five hundred times the technological capability in ten years, who knows? So you need to build it all in the first place.” - Antony Slumbers, Speaker, Advisor, and Writer specializing in AI