How Gen Z In CRE Is Getting Ahead Of The AI Revolution

With questions swirling on Wall Street around the long-term prospects of real estate brokers in the age of artificial intelligence, CRE’s youngest generation is racing to incorporate the tech into their work, seeking a competitive edge.

The use of AI in CRE is still evolving, but young professionals see it as both inevitable and an invaluable tool for seizing opportunity and staying ahead. They also don’t believe the technology will render their jobs obsolete — unless AI goes unused.

“You’ve got to use it or you’re going to get left behind,” said Micah Gray, 27, a senior adviser at NAI SunVista in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who compares AI to the internet boom of the early 2000s.

Like the adjustment to the internet, Gray expects the brokerage profession to eventually adapt. After all, brokers like him used to hand-deliver contracts.

“You need boots on the ground, you need a handshake. You need things that AI can't do, which is the whole point of a broker,” he said. “I think we’re relatively bulletproof in that capacity.”

Still, for young brokers, it comes down to a familiar equation. 

“Everyone in a role without AI will get outcompeted by anybody using AI in that role,” said Jett Smith, a 25-year-old associate director with Colliers’ debt and structure finance team. “It’s similar to how business works. If your NOI isn’t where you need to be, it’s either increase revenue or decrease expenses. In commercial real estate, people are the No. 1 expense.” 

These young professionals aren’t AI masters or striving to become one, but they do see the technology as a must for the future of their careers, from lease comparisons to running analytics reports.

Data on the proliferation of AI into the ranks of CRE is hard to come by, but a 2025 JLL study showed that more than 700 real estate companies have implemented AI-powered tools. 

Talent is being evaluated based on technological savvy across all functions, according to Keller Augusta Senior Managing Director Kaitlin Kincaid. A Ferguson Partners survey from last year found that 88% of real estate firms were investing in AI.

The number of CRE job posts on Select Leaders referencing AI doubled from 2024 to 2025, according to the job board, but is still at just 2.5%. 

Those that do include AI don’t list it as a primary skill, instead using aspirational language such as “leveraging AI tools” or “exploring AI capabilities.” But it’s fast becoming part of the evaluation checklist.  

“When I graduated, it wasn’t part of the conversation,” said Maggie Brady, 24, an associate broker at Northmarq’s San Diego office who focuses on quick-service and casual dining nationwide. “Now, it’s like the first question I ask someone I’m interviewing.”

Smith, who was hired in 2023 due to his technical background, now sets AI policy and practices for a major brokerage’s finance team. He also looks for people with AI familiarity when hiring — anybody he hires isn’t going to build a financing or offering memorandum by themselves, he said. 

Universities are likewise ramping up their efforts to train future generations on the tech, even if companies aren't exactly sure what they are looking for.

“It is absolutely an issue that the marketplace can't define what being good at AI is yet,” said Andy Hunt, executive director of the Vieth Institute for Real Estate Leadership at Marquette University.

Commercial real estate professors are making it a priority to help students level up with AI before they look for their first job. University programs have advanced from the question of if AI should be part of the curriculum to how to best prepare students for a world where fluency will be an expectation. 

At Marquette, for instance, students are using AI to analyze old leases. And the University of Wisconsin-Madison is signing an agreement with Diald, an AI analytics tool, to grant access to the entire real estate program. 

One of the more challenging aspects of devising a syllabus for an AI future is that the marketplace and most real estate firms don’t have a firm grasp on how they’re using AI today and in the near future, as models and workplace norms evolve. 

“We have not seen employers come to us and say, 'Your students must have this level of AI knowledge,’” Hunt said. “That's not something that employers broadly are requiring. But we know every one of them is curious about it.”

The speed of AI proliferation has “overwhelmed everybody,” said Collete English Dixon, executive director of the Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate at Roosevelt University. She and her peers at different institutions have found that it’s a challenge to figure out how to teach students to use the tool without having the tool do the work. 

“We can't question the need for it,” she said. “It's here. It's absolutely here. We need to get our students on the AI spectrum, to create the curiosity in them that keeps them wanting to stay ahead of the curve, or with the curve.”