AI, specifically Generative AI, has advanced at a rapid rate in the past few years. Many industries are capitalizing on these powerful improvements, one of the ways we are leveraging these advancements in Multifamily is with the creation and use of a Virtual Leasing Assistant. Some of the most notable and powerful AI providers moving us forward are: OpenAI, Gemini (Google), Meta AI (Facebook), and many more.
A Virtual Leasing Assistant, is an AI powered leasing solution that moves prospects and residents through the lead to lease or lease to renewal lifecycle.
When onsite teams or property management companies leverage a Virtual Leasing Assistant it allows the onsite team to focus their time and energy at what they do best, building relationships while the Virtual Leasing Assistant focuses on the more time intensive tasks like prospect follow up, answering questions from prospects and residents, and facilitating tour scheduling.
What A Virtual Leasing Assistant Is Good At
The Generative AI used to power a Virtual Leasing Assistant specializes in creating new content. A practical example of “generating new content” for us in Multifamily is formulating responses to questions or comments from prospects and residents.
Not only can Generative AI create custom or new content but it can also personalize that content. Personalization can refer to a specific industry (Multifamily), a specific property, or even a specific customer (prospect or resident).
One of the great things about Generative AI is it’s ability to have good customer service. Your Virtual Leasing Assistant’s ability to respond naturally, in a human way, with a polite demeanor is a great example of the power of Generative AI at work. Take a look at some of these other examples of AI in Multifamily.
Things To Consider Before Using A Virtual Leasing Assistant
There are a few important things to note, test, and monitor if you are using a Virtual Leasing Assistant:
- Hallucinations: In short, hallucinations are when your AI responds with completely false information in a very believable way. In fact, the AI can often explain, in a logical and believable way, how it derived this completely false narrative. When leveraging Generative AI or Large Language Models (LLMs) at your properties, you need to test thoroughly for hallucinations and understand when and how these hallucinations may crop up.
- Information Threshold: It is important that our AI at properties we manage understands to not answer questions it doesn’t know the answers to. Specifically to mitigate hallucinations that we went over in the previous bullet point. This also means, we need to ensure as much information as possible is available to our AI. Having a robust and evergreen Knowledge Base that powers our AI is critical to providing a smooth and result oriented experience for our prospects and residents. Better yet, the technology behind your Virtual Leasing Assistant can implement a RAG strategy (Retrieval Augmented Generation). The leaders in the space (like Nurture Boss 😉) are already doing this today.
- Monitoring and Adjusting: Your AI won’t be perfect, especially out of the gate. It is important that you, or your vendor partner, have mechanisms set up to monitor the Virtual Leasing Assistant. How is the VLA answering questions? Is it accurate? Is the tone what you desire(d)? Is it trying to move the prospect forward (tours and applications)? How often does it get “stuck” or fail to answer questions? Why did it get stuck? Knowing this information is critical to create an environment of continuous learning for your AI. It is also important to understand who is in charge of this monitoring and training. At Nurture Boss, the Customer Success Teams and Engineering Teams do the heavy listing for our customers. However, some vendors will expect you to do this work. Make sure you know what you are in for before you partner with a Virtual Leasing Assistant provider.
In Conclusion
The adoption of technology, specifically Artificial Intelligence, in Multifamily is on the rise. This is a wonderful and exciting thing! Specifically, Virtual Leasing Assistants are offering onsite teams across the country powerful tools to give them back dozens of hours a week while drastically increasing their conversions from lead to lease AND lease to renewal.
Implementing a Virtual Leasing Assistant makes good sense at the vast majority of properties. However, it is important that marketers and operators educate themselves on what it is they are buying. Not all AI is created equal and not all AI implementation is done right. Hopefully this post helped to shed some light on how to best go about choosing your Virtual Leasing Assistant.
