It’s time to shake hands with your new coworker. Some of you may already know her. Her name is Alexa.
At AWS’s (Amazon Web Services) re:Invent 2017 conference this week, Amazon announced that it’s voice-activated virtual assistant, Alexa, would be making its debut in the office place. This powerful voice interface is opening up a world of possibility for the workplace, allowing employees to voice-access Salesforce data, reference their company calendar and directory, book conference rooms, set up and start virtual meetings, and even order paper for copy machines.
Now, imagine a world where it can help us with our real estate business needs.
“Alexa, what’s my current occupancy?”
“Alexa, what was the net effective rent of the last office lease we signed in DC?”
“Alexa, what’s the remaining budget on the garage repair at 123 Main St.?”
Alexa, pull up the income statement for 123 Main St.?”
Alexa, what’s the since inception IRR for my northeast portfolio?”
How awesome would it be to work with Alexa or any other virtual assistant that could integrate with real estate technology software like MRI or Yardi? Instead of asking follow-up questions to, for instance, an asset manager in a monthly meeting and then wait for them to research a response, which could take a day or two, you could pose these questions to Alexa who could churn out the answers in seconds. The concept of applying Alexa for Business to real estate technology has so much potential; it truly takes self-service BI (business intelligence) to the next level.
While business intelligence is nothing groundbreaking—it’s been around for awhile—it requires a bit of elbow grease. It requires manual searching, analysis, and report generating, which can be time-consuming and best left to analysts efficient at using those tools. A BI tool like Alexa for (Real Estate) Business could create incredible workflow efficiency and offer a level of self-service to anyone regardless of skillset.
In our eyes, this is the one aspect of the future of real estate technology that we’re excited to see come to light. Oh, the possibilities.
