Commercial real estate is overwhelmed by data but a revolution may be at hand

Australia’s commercial real estate (CRE) sector is at a digital turning point, sitting on a mountain of data but too often not knowing how to use it effectively.

Some game-changing technology could be about to help commercial property gain the upper hand as it wrestles with this wealth of information.

That game changer is an advanced form of artificial intelligence (AI).

Unlike traditional AI, which primarily responds to specific commands, agentic AI acts with initiative and can use various tools and data sources to achieve its goals, essentially acting like a proactive, independent employee.

While AI agents help reduce human workload by handling predefined tasks, agentic AI enables proactive, real-time decision making that enhances efficiency, security, and performance at scale.

The term agentic refers to these models’ agency, or, their capacity to act independently and purposefully.

Speaking to Australian Property Investor Magazine, Stacey Walker, Business Director, ARGUS Software and Data at Altus Group, explained how agentic AI could be a game-changer.

“Commercial real estate has always been a numbers game,” Ms Walker said.

“If the numbers don’t stack up, the investment isn’t worth it. But the real challenge is digging into those numbers — especially when data comes from multiple sources, in different formats, or is locked away in systems that don’t talk to each other.”

Too often, she says, valuable information such as leases, market assumptions, and financial data ends up sitting idle in spreadsheets or siloed dashboards.

“The data is collected, but it’s rarely transformed into genuine insight or action — and that’s a missed opportunity.”

Bringing intelligence to information

This is where agentic artificial intelligence is beginning to make an impact.

“Agentic AI tools are built into task-specific digital agents,” she explained. “They can take on clearly defined jobs — like scanning covenants, sourcing comparables, or running a variance analysis — and do them fast, independently, and consistently.”

Agentic AI in commercial real estate refers to autonomous AI systems that go beyond simple automation to make decisions and take action on complex, multi-step tasks like lease negotiation, property management, and investment analysis. 

By integrating data sources and tools, these AI agents can independently perform actions like scheduling viewings, identifying risks in contracts, managing maintenance requests, and optimizing portfolios, freeing human agents to focus on high-level strategy and client relationships

She stressed that these tools are not about replacing people, but about enhancing their judgement.

“The value isn’t in removing the human element,” Ms Walker said.

“It’s in surfacing insights you might otherwise miss — for instance, flagging that a comparable rate might not fit or revealing recent deals you hadn’t seen. The professional still makes the call, but with a stronger foundation.”

“Nobody in CRE wants to hand over multimillion-dollar decisions to a black box. What we want are tools that empower professionals, make decision-making faster, and keep it transparent.”

Driving efficiency and transparency

The efficiencies on offer are hard to ignore. Morgan Stanley Research estimates AI could automate around 37 per cent of tasks in real estate globally, representing about US$34 billion in operating efficiencies.

“Lease abstracts, zoning codes, debt-readiness packs — what used to take weeks can now take hours or even minutes,” Ms Walker said.

“Instead of spending time chasing data, professionals can focus on higher-value work — interpreting results, challenging assumptions, and applying local market knowledge.”

She believes the real shift comes from AI’s ability to process vast amounts of information quickly and make reasoning more visible.

“Agentic AI doesn’t just deliver answers faster; it shows where the data came from and why it matters,” she added.

“That transparency is critical for trust.”

Building a solid foundation

According to US-based technology consultancy Gartner, 33 per cent of enterprise software applications will include agentic AI by 2028, up from less than 1 per cent in 2024, enabling 15 per cent of day-to-day work decisions to be made autonomously.

Despite, or perhaps because of, this rapid uptake, Ms Walker cautions that the technology is only as effective as the data it’s built on.

“Agentic AI isn’t a silver bullet,” she said.

“Poor or inconsistent data will always produce poor or inconsistent results. Data governance, classification, and guardrails are essential if we want meaningful outcomes.”

She says Australia’s CRE sector still faces challenges around cultural readiness and risk management.

“Some organisations hold their data too tightly, worried about losing competitive advantage, while others haven’t built the internal frameworks to manage risk effectively,” Ms Walker noted.

“Until we fix those basics, the full potential of agentic AI will remain out of reach.”

From collection to action

When used properly, she says, agentic AI can transform how commercial property businesses operate — from leasing and tenant management to portfolio optimisation.

“Imagine plugging in a portfolio dataset and instantly seeing why your net operating income has shifted this quarter, what’s driving it, and what actions to take next.

“That’s the difference between just reporting on the past and actively shaping the future.”

For Australia’s commercial real estate sector, considerable hurdles do loom before the agentic AI revolution can take place.

Early pilots show 25 per cent-plus efficiency gains (e.g., in property management), but scaling requires investment.

Integration with legacy systems is labour-intensive, and compliance with Australian privacy laws (e.g., encrypted data) slows rollout. Human oversight remains key for accountability.

Technical hurdles such as outdated software and data silos complicate agentic deployment.

Firms need upskilling; many are building in-house AI (e.g., lease redlining) rather than buying off-the-shelf.

But Australia is well placed to lead innovation in this area.

“We’re the right-sized market to test and learn quickly,” she said. “Agentic AI isn’t about replacing people — it’s about surfacing blind spots, accelerating routine work, and giving professionals confidence in the decisions that matter,” Ms Walker said.

“If we combine this technology with strong human insight, we can move from passive data collection to proactive, explainable intelligence. That’s how Australia cannot just catch up to other markets, but leapfrog them.”