How many steps did you walk at work today?

Tech is rewriting commercial real estate exponentially. Most coverage is news - who raised what, who bought what. This newsletter covers physics. Structural forces. Patterns before they’re obvious. Atoms and bits. Subscribe for updates →

the physics

I’ve never seen this measured, but I’d bet on it: the more steps you take at work, the safer your job from AI. Commercial real estate professionals walk. A lot. And that changes everything about the AI conversation.

The theme question I’ve answered all around the year was if AI will take the jobs of commercial real estate professionals. We’ve all heard the loud voices: AI will replace brokers! And analysts! And investment managers! The sky is falling!

My answer: not today, not tomorrow, and I’m not sure if ever.

Why such a conservative take from a tech enthusiast? Real estate is a physical business. Geo-based. More atoms, less bits.

Here’s my theory: there’s a negative correlation between the number of literal footsteps someone takes in their job and their potential for AI replacement… and CRE professionals do a lot of steps.

But we’re asking the wrong question. We talk too much about AI in negative terms, and too little about the potential for teams to elevate to levels that were impossible before.

The core principle of tech isn’t replacement - it’s “do more with less.”

Think about it this way: today’s real estate companies can hire almost unlimited workforce without consulting their CFO. Without moonshooting their OpEx. Will they optimize and stay in place? Hell no - they’ll “hire” AI agents to win more, beat their competition, and make more money. What does it mean for today’s teams? Companies will need more managers and high-skilled specialists to control and train new AI-rookies. People leverage will be higher than ever.

Think about a talented financial analyst. They see patterns others miss. They drive billion-dollar decisions. Yet they’re limited to a 24-hour clock. They spend maybe 30% of their time actually analyzing. The rest? Data collection. Data prep. Low-leverage work. Delegate that to AI? Now they analyze 100% of the day. Same person. Unlocked potential. Way more time for high-leverage, money-driving work.

the signal

At REDD, we’re living this right now.

Next two quarters, we’re investing heavily in data collection automation. Sharp goal: delegate 100% of data collection to machines.

What does that mean for our team doing semi-automated and manual collection?

We already started prepping them for new roles as data supervisors. Specialists become controllers. Controllers become AI managers. Today, they work with 1-2 AI agents. Tomorrow, they’ll control dozens of “new staff.”

Will they have less work? Absolutely not.

More work. More responsibility. More leverage on the business. More leverage on their careers.

The future is about understanding that AI agents are new employees, not replacements.

the translation

Whether you’re building proptech or running real estate operations, your leverage is going to explode.

For proptech founders: Stop selling “AI replaces analysts”. That’s not the value. Sell “your best analyst just got 50 assistants.” Sell leverage, not headcount cuts.

A COO of a large brokerage told me: “We know AI can transform our business, but we can’t even get our own data in one place.” Your product isn’t the AI - it’s solving 20 years of legacy systems first.

For CRE executives: Your competitive advantage isn’t resistance. It’s speed. That’s the real bottleneck.

And here’s the kicker: 45% of real estate leaders are worried about attracting talent (ULI reports). Digital natives don’t want spreadsheet hell. They want AI assistants and real-time data.

The question isn’t whether AI takes jobs. It’s whether you’re building organizations where talented people get 10x leverage - or watching them leave for industries that already did.

final thought

So how many steps did you walk today?

If the answer is “a lot” - congratulations. AI needs you.

The only question left: will you manage 50 AI employees, or will your competitor?