It’s About Time: AI-Powered Software Expedites Project Due Diligence

Location is everything in commercial real estate, but another concern for commercial real estate lenders and investors is time, or the lack of it.

The success of a construction project or property purchase can be jeopardized if stakeholders do not have the time to perform a thorough due diligence and rely instead on conventional information-gathering methods such as a search engine. That means they could miss potential red flags.

“In real estate, we always say it's location, location, location,” said Eduardo Foss, chief operating officer of startup Diald, an artificial intelligence-powered CRE research tool. “But everyone is understaffed and using the same limited tools, like Google Street View, to learn about the location. This can be an issue when you're selling the deal to potential investors and you really only know 10% of what you need to know about the neighborhood.”

Foss said Diald addresses the problem by automating the collection of location-specific information and quickly synthesizing it into actionable insights. Instead of the weeks or months required by humans to pore over thousands of pieces of information, Diald's patented agentic AI model extends the powers of AI chatbots and takes only hours to present its CRE-relevant findings in an easily understood format.

Huber Bongolan, head of capital markets for Credible CRE and a Diald beta user, said the technology complements his regular due diligence process.

“I’m always looking for ways to make smarter decisions faster and when buying multifamily, for example, one of the challenges I face is understanding the full context of a neighborhood: its growth potential, risks and long-term prospects,” Bongolan said. “I usually have to do a lot of Google searching and many phone calls with my contacts familiar with the area. This takes a lot of time that Diald helps speed up for me.”

‘More Confidence’ 

CEO Steven Song, who led a real estate investment firm for 12 years prior to founding Diald, is familiar with the challenges of sifting through and making sense of mountains of data. He said reviewing thousands of news articles, government reports, zoning regulations, demographic studies and more is no easy task for even the savviest researchers.

Diald, he said, streamlines the process.

“Using AI-driven insights, we connect all the relevant variables — demographics, market trends and even expert opinions — into one cohesive picture,” Song said. “It ensures that users aren’t making decisions in silos but with a full understanding of the site’s conditions and potential.”

Diald aggregates information from a wide range of sources, which it analyzes using 19 separate AI bots, each with its own area of expertise.

“There's an AI bot that just looks for land use news, and there's a public works bot that will find out if there's a street nearby being repaired or a new traffic sign installed, or if the water system needs to be overhauled,” Foss said. “It looks at crime statistics, restaurant openings and closings, new employers, neighborhood sentiment — all of that.”

Other areas of expertise for the tool’s AI bots include school performance, industry trends and activist/community group activity in the target neighborhood. 

Bongolan called the insights that Diald’s bots provided ahead of a potential deal a “game-changer” for him.

“It highlighted major investments in the area that I wasn’t fully aware of before, allowing me to ask more targeted questions of my investment sales agent and better assess the long-term viability of the location,” he said. “Also, knowing that other major players were investing heavily into the area gave me more confidence in my investment.” 

The company is expanding its reach to add to the more than 500,000 information sources it currently uses. Song said the goal is to be the most comprehensive AI-powered due diligence and underwriting tool for CRE

“People tend to think they can find everything on Google, but we have access to a lot more than what Google will find for you,” Song said. “Search engines tend to prioritize the kind of information you want to hear, to the exclusion of information you need to hear, like potential black swan events.”

Making Sense Of Data — And Rebuilding Smarter

Diald users gain proprietary access to reports and metrics that help them make sense of the collected data. This includes an analysis of a property’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats over a yearlong period.

“The user can know whether they should or should not invest in a property because the analysis revealed all these qualitative problems that other quantitative software wouldn't show them,” Foss said.

A recent SWOT analysis of a Florida multifamily development revealed great economic potential for the site supported by data on local job growth and business investment. But Diald’s AI bots also revealed “severe crime issues” and highlighted local NIMBY concerns. 

Whether they represent opportunities or threats, all of these factors are important to making the best-informed decisions, Foss said.

Diald also assigns a score to the property using a proprietary benchmark based on historical data from similar properties. A “probability of success” metric, based on Diald’s analysis of the data, benchmarks the property’s potential.

“These reports are designed to be visually intuitive, allowing users to quickly grasp the insights they need,” Song said.

Song said he can foresee Diald helping communities recover from disasters like the January wildfires that swept through Los Angeles, the company's hometown. 

"The city faces the challenge of rebuilding quickly and thoughtfully from the Palisades Fire, creating an urgent need for well-informed planning," he said. "Diald can help ensure reconstruction efforts are efficient, strategic and aligned with community needs."

The tool's ability to synthesize zoning updates, environmental risks and neighborhood dynamics can help city planners and developers avoid oversights and build smarter, Song said. It can also highlight overlooked factors, such as community sentiment and infrastructure vulnerabilities, to help make communities more resilient.

An Evolving Tool

Song said the response to Diald’s rollout has been “incredibly encouraging,” particularly when potential users see how the tool can free up their people to focus on strategy instead of research.

They also see that the tool has the flexibility to accommodate their unique priorities, which has attracted major enterprise clients who seek customized AI solutions.

“There’s very strong interest in customization, and users want reports tailored to specific investment criteria or lending thresholds,” he said. “For example, some lenders are particularly interested in safety metrics while others might prioritize zoning compliance or market saturation.”

Based on his early experience with Diald, Credible CRE’s Bongolan said it is a potentially “powerful tool” for CRE professionals.

“For investors like me, it can provide the confidence to make big decisions by highlighting key factors like nearby developments, economic trends and potential risks,” he said. “I can see Diald becoming an essential resource for investors, lenders and developers looking to stay ahead by leveraging data-driven insights to minimize risk and maximize returns.”

Because Diald continues to evolve, insights from people like Bongolan are important, Song said.

“The real estate market is dynamic, and so is our platform,” he said. “Right now, we’re focusing on incorporating user feedback to make the experience even more intuitive and powerful.”

This article was produced in collaboration between Studio B and Diald. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.