In January 2026, I jokingly told Common Ground’s property managers that there KPI’s (key performance indicators) would include a tolerance to caffeine.  Following some confused looks, I told them that AI will eventually do the bulk of their work, and their job will be to meet customers for coffee.

Whilst this is a gross over-simplification, it’s a clear indication of the way a property managers job is expected to change as AI becomes more effective.

Common Ground prides itself on the client/property manager relationships as these are the key to successful outcomes. AI is very good when it comes to low level repetitive tasks and one example of this where Common Ground uses AI (and has done for a while) is the reading of invoice data and transcribing it directly into the finance system. Once trained, the AI does this with incredible accuracy.

What AI (currently) can’t do is understand the needs of individual customers and this is where the relationship side matters so much, and I don’t see this changing anytime soon. Peoples’ homes are usually the most significant asset they own but the financial value of a property is only half the story.

Homes are unique because they sit at the intersection of economics and emotion.

A share portfolio, a savings account, or a commercial property may be valuable assets, but they are rarely woven into the fabric of a person’s identity. A home is different. It is where people raise children, celebrate milestones, grieve losses, build memories, and establish a sense of security and belonging. The financial value of a home can be measured by surveyors and estate agents, but its emotional value certainly can’t.……. only a human can tap into this level of emotion and our property managers fully understand this.

Our property managers do use AI but it is strictly a tool for increased productivity and NOT their replacements.

We have seen an increase in customer enquiries which have clearly been generated by AI. Experienced property managers can often tell as what on the face of it may seem like an intelligent and well-crafted enquiry is often undermined by AI not providing factually correct information and this is almost always a function of the way AI is prompted.

At Common Ground we use AI extensively to analyse leases, help draft budgets, produce emails and letters but this is always prompted by trained staff. A good property manager can usually predict how the AI will respond especially to things like lease analysis……if it responds in a seemingly counter-intuitive way, then more prompting is required to either verify the response or correct it and only experienced property managers can do this reliably.

We even had a recent FTT case where the claimants quite clearly relied on ChatGPT right from the outset and represented themselves. The FTT hearing took place online, and we were able to listen to ChatGPT’s responses as the claimants’ answered questions. The claimants lost on all counts, in my view, because they didn’t possess the background knowledge of an experienced property manager to prompt Chat GPT accurately.

So, in summary, I see property managers becoming exponentially more efficient as repetitive work is automated by AI engines, allowing them to focus more on relationship building and higher-level work……………and drinking coffee.