Our Answer to the Urgent Need for AI-Capable CRE Professionals
In 2019, Michael and I launched the A.CRE Accelerator with a singular mission: equip CRE professionals with the real estate financial modeling skills needed to thrive in our industry. Since then, it has grown to become the preeminent program of its kind, graduating thousands every year and trusted by the top professionals, companies, and universities in real estate to teach them to build institutional-quality real estate financial models.
But in 2022, something shifted.
While experimenting with GPT-3 in the OpenAI playground (before ChatGPT was released), we saw magic. As we tinkered with this new tech, it became very evident to us that we were staring at the future of work. A technology we believe – and continue to believe – will fundamentally reshape how things get done in commercial real estate.
Suddenly, our mission expanded. And so, in late 2022, we posted our first blog post on the subject: our take on which AI tools are most helpful for CRE professionals (and a post we now update 4-6 times per year).
Just as we felt (and continue to feel) a responsibility to train CRE pros on Excel and cash flow modeling, we now felt that same weight to prepare our community for an AI-native world.
So, we got to work.
Since 2022, we’ve posted hundreds of AI tutorials, tools, custom GPTs, and workflows. We’ve podcasted our thoughts, shared open-source tools, and offered frameworks to think through AI’s role in CRE.
I’ve even stepped away from an active role running a real estate private equity firm to launch an AI agentic platform for CRE, the framework I believe is essential for any person to get maximize value from generative AI.
But one question kept popping up:
“I want to use AI… but how? What is real, and what is hype? What steps do I take first, second…? What should I read and what news matters?”
That question deserved more than a series of blog posts. It deserved more than a course. It demanded something alive, evolving, community-led, and purpose-built for real estate.
And so, we went to work on creating the AI.Edge for real estate.
What Is The AI.Edge?
We took the AI.Edge well beyond just another learning product. It’s an ongoing, active membership. It’s a strategic toolkit, curated intel, and a private community. It’s built to turn CRE professionals into AI leaders inside their firms.
It includes:
- Monthly Skill Drops: Hands-on tutorials that drop on or before the 21st of every month.
- AI Multipliers: Tools, prompts, workflows, and apps (like our AI Advisory Board) to add value while also giving ideas for our members’ first (or next) AI build.
- Intelligence Briefs: Curated AI news and trends specific to CRE delivered on the 4th Sunday of each month.
- Build Showcase: A place for members to share what they’re building, get feedback, and borrow ideas from other members. Not to mention win Build Showcases and gain community and industry recognition as an AI expert.
- AI.Edge Foundations Course: An AI course for real estate designed to build fluency and credibility fast; to teach the fundamental concepts of AI that matter to our industry.
- Build Showcase: a place for professionals to share what they’re building, compete in Build Competitions, and develop credibility in the industry as AI-capable.
- Prompt and AI Tools Library: use our growing library of proven prompts together with our curated list of AI tools we find relevant to CRE.
Thus, the idea isn’t to just “teach AI.” It’s to help AI.Edge members become the AI person in their firm.
Or put another way, we envision members of AI.Edge quickly becoming the person everyone in their orbit looks to when the boss or investor asks: “How do we implement AI?” or “Can AI handle this?”
Why Launch AI.Edge Now?
I think the answer is obvious. But if it’s not, allow me to state it plainly: the shift from AI-haves to AI-have-nots is already happening.
If you don’t believe me, check out two recent studies that bear this out: AI is taking work from the unprepared, while at the same time those that are AI-Native are absolutely killing it.
And as I speak to peers, students, and investors around the country, both the excitement about what AI can do and the genuine concern about what it might mean for their job or firm or investments are palpable.
That’s why we launched The AI.Edge.
We want to help build AI-native people and firms. We want to help real estate professionals win as AI transforms our industry, while also offering them an insurance policy of sorts against obsolescence.
Join the AI.Edge
So, my invitation is simple: join us.
If you’re a student, you’ll likely spend more on one three-credit college course than you will on two full years of AI.Edge membership.
If you’re a professional, the monthly cost is less than a networking lunch.
And if you’re an executive or owner, you’ll spend more in one month on that data subscription your team barely uses than you would on a full year of AI.Edge membership for your entire team!
There’s no excuse not to commit today to becoming AI-native.