Published on June 24th, 2025
By Stacy Holden

Another NAA Apartmentalize is in the books, and one clear message came through louder than ever: AI is here to stay. And as industry adoption continues to grow, the focus is shifting from hype to tangible impact.

Multifamily operators are embracing and deploying AI across the apartment industry and seeing tangible performance. It’s all about building resilience and maximizing opportunities.

Let’s dive into some of the most compelling insights from the conference.

Operators Are Using AI Organization-wide 

I participated in the “AI and the Future of the Industry” session on Wednesday with Anne Baum, VP of Marketing at Towne Properties,  Cindy Clare, Chief Operating Officer at Bell Partners and Ian Mattingly, President at LumaCorp Inc. We dove into how the industry is leveraging AI, measuring its ROI and overcoming obstacles.

The takeaway? Multifamily operators are actively recognizing AI’s importance and using it at every level of the organization.

Panelists and attendees alike shared how they’re using AI every day, from creating virtual reality trainings for maintenance teams to improving renewal communication to streamlining onsite maintenance ticket submissions.  

One finding from NAA’s AI research report is that 74% of respondents ranked operational efficiency as their top challenge. AI has the potential to address this by moving beyond task-based efficiency gains to drive big-picture operational performance that creates value for property managers, owners and residents alike. 

In recent years, the real estate industry has been limited by fragmented technology, siloed data, and bolt-on AI. These roadblocks have prevented operators from gaining business insights and leveraging the full capabilities of existing tools. But today’s tools enable a holistic performance perspective that drives outcomes for the entire ecosystem.

Our “Leapfrog” Technology Moment is Here

This session tied AI innovation to other “leapfrog” technology moments in history and drew wisdom from those examples. So much of what I discussed with Donna Smith, President of Real Estate Management at Enclave Property Management, and Mike Brewer, Founder and CEO at Multifamily Collective, has stuck with me. 

The apartment industry has long relied on manual processes. But now, operators are facing a leapfrog moment, which Donna defined as “when technology allows us to skip a whole generation of infrastructure or thinking and land somewhere no one expected. It’s not a big gradual improvement. It’s a transformation by disruption.”

This means replacing traditional workflows with intelligent automation for leasing, maintenance, and resident communication, rather than just layering new tech over old processes. It’s about modernizing by eliminating, not just automating.

To do this well, leadership strategies must evolve to:

• Balance tech opportunities with a people-centered approach  
• Prioritize authenticity
• Provide stability amid rapid change

Mike summed this up well by urging attendees to leverage AI in a way that is additive to human strengths like communication and empathy, which will always be important in our industry. 

Agentic AI is the Next Phase of Real Estate Technology 

At Apartmentalize, AppFolio unveiled innovations that will help the industry embrace AI. 

We introduced Realm-X Performers, the next evolution of our embedded generative AI solution, Realm-X. These agentic AI tools are designed to automate complex workflows through advanced agentic operations.

The bottom line: we’re helping multifamily operators deliver outcomes and a better experience for their teams, residents, owners, and investors.

We introduced two new Performers:

• Realm-X Leasing Performer automates the leasing process, from responding to inquiries and managing prospect info to scheduling showings and surfacing important details to property managers
• Realm-X Maintenance Performer self-sufficiently diagnoses and prioritizes resident maintenance requests. It can detect issues via image, create work orders, and log summaries.

Since its launch, Realm-X has already delivered tangible performance outcomes for our customers. Users report saving an average of 10 hours weekly on to-do list tasks, while Realm-X Flows achieves a 73% higher lead-to-showing conversion rate compared to those not using Flows. That’s truly amazing! 

A Future of Performance and Opportunity

The discussions at NAA Apartmentalize, coupled with AppFolio’s latest innovations, point towards a transformative shift. The next stage in our industry will be marked by a move towards performance and value creation. 

Of course, AI will never replace empathy or human connection. Instead, it will free up multifamily teams to engage in the meaningful, people-focused aspects of the business. There’s so much opportunity to be gained by those who can successfully embrace this technology. Check out this article to see how you can manage less and perform more.