AI vendors have earned a reputation in multifamily, and it isn’t a flattering one. Some believe implementing AI with a vendor is increasingly stressful. Operators sign on expecting relief, then watch the work pile up. The technology may be impressive, but onsite teams are the ones who feel the stress.
We wanted to reset that expectation. Recently, Nurture Boss hosted Breathe Easier, a webinar about the people, processes, and support behind successful AI adoption. We started somewhere you won’t find on most vendor webinars: five minutes of guided breathwork with Morgan Raphael, a meditation instructor with an online community of more than 30,000 people.
Then we handed the conversation to three operators who have done the work.
- Allison Crawford, SVP of Technology and Strategic Services at Knightvest Residential
- Tracy Bowers, Managing Partner at Gallery Residential
- Windell Mollenido, VP of Marketing and Technology at The REMM Group
They have all evaluated technology, managed implementations, and helped their teams adapt. Our CEO, Jacob Carter, moderated a discussion that moved through three stages of adoption: implementation, customization, and support after launch. Here is what stood out.
Implementation Depends on People, Not Just Setup
The REMM Group chose Nurture Boss after testing it head-to-head against another AI solution. When Windell looked back on what made the rollout succeed, he didn’t point to a feature. He pointed to the people who helped his team learn it.
“What made Nurture Boss work well was because your team was willing to show up onsite and support our team in understanding how to adopt the AI.”
That’s important because AI only produces results when the people using it understand it and trust it. A tool that sits unused, or gets used the wrong way, won’t book more tours no matter how capable it is. Training onsite teams in person gave REMM’s leasing staff the confidence to put the AI to work.
For Tracy, implementation is never a single event. Gallery Residential is a growing third-party manager, which means new communities and new teams arrive all the time. Each one has to be brought into the same process consistently. Tracy described Nurture Boss as a standard part of every property Gallery takes on.
“This is built into our tech stack. This is what we do because we know we can perform with this product.”
When a portfolio is always changing, a partner has to keep pace with it. Implementation becomes a repeatable practice rather than a project with an end date.
Customization Should Follow How You Already Work
No two operators run their communities the same way, and AI shouldn’t force them to. Windell described what changed once the AI was tailored to REMM’s own standards.
“The AI now follows our SOP. It follows how we want to respond to our prospects and residents. It’s incredible to see that we can tailor the AI.”
Customization at Nurture Boss happens property by property. Each community gets its own knowledge base, brand voice, and messaging, and operators decide when AI steps in and when their team leads the conversation. The goal is an assistant that sounds like your team, not a generic script.
Allison shared a story that shows what customization looks like when something goes wrong. During Knightvest’s pilot, one of its sites noticed an issue in how the AI was answering.
“… one of our sites had caught something during our pilot period. We realized it was wrong. It was something that needed to be fixed. Normally, my team would have to go do 100 times on their own and Josh [Nurture Boss customer success rep] went ahead and did it on his own and fixed it for our whole entire company.”
The lesson isn’t that AI never makes mistakes. Every system needs oversight. What made the difference was a partner who corrected the issue at the source and then checked every similarly configured property, so Allison’s team didn’t have to find and fix it a hundred more times.
Support After Launch Is Where Trust Is Built
Going live is a milestone, not a finish line. Teams change, business needs shift, and performance needs ongoing attention. Allison described a pattern that many operators will recognize.
“After your launch, you usually feel like you’re forgotten. ‘Everybody’s rolled out; put in a support ticket.’ And that support ticket goes somewhere that is never answered half the time or it takes a long time. It’s been the exact opposite with you all. It’s been so refreshing, and I know the teams feels it too.”
Windell put it simply. For REMM, good support has a name and a face.
“Good support really looks like no help desk ticket … I love the way your team operates. We don’t call them support. We call them Jamie. We call them Larkana. We call them Marissa.”
Gallery took the relationship a step further by hiring Ryan, an internal team member dedicated to AI adoption. Tracy explained how Ryan and Josh, Gallery’s Nurture Boss customer success rep, work together.
“Josh [our Nurture Boss rep] and Ryan [who we hired to manage the relationship] have conversations every day. They really tackle it as a team. Josh teaches our teams, and we do trainings with all the new team members.”
In each case, support wasn’t a department operators had to chase. It was an ongoing relationship with people who knew their portfolio.
What Operators Can Take from This
If you’re evaluating AI for your portfolio, these conversations point to three questions worth asking any vendor.
- Who will show up to train your onsite teams during rollout?
- Can the AI follow your SOPs, community by community?
- And after launch, will you have a named person to call, or a ticket queue?
None of the three operators credited technology alone for their results. They credited the people, processes, and support around it, which is the same belief behind our No Pressure Promise. AI shouldn’t be difficult to buy, implement, or manage, and it should give onsite teams more time for the people they serve.
Thank you to Allison, Tracy, Windell, and Morgan for helping everyone breathe a little easier. Watch the full Breathe Easier webinar to hear the complete conversation.
