Forget AI — Abundant Intelligence Is What Will Transform CRE

For decades, commercial real estate has operated within familiar parameters: Brokers connecting buyers and sellers, complex deals requiring weeks of due diligence, and market information siloed among select industry players. Today, we stand at an inflection point.

What we’re witnessing transcends what’s commonly labeled as “artificial intelligence” in real estate. There’s nothing artificial about this intelligence. It’s instead derived from real data, generates authentic insights, and creates tangible value. What’s revolutionary is the sheer abundance of intelligence now available. This transformation represents “abundant intelligence” — an unprecedented gateway to analytical capabilities and market insights once restricted to a privileged few. 

By reframing our perspective from artificial to abundant, we better capture this shift’s true magnitude: An exponential multiplication of intelligence accessible to all stakeholders, reshaping how CRE professionals work, and expanding the entire industry’s reach.

The question isn’t whether abundant intelligence will transform CRE, but how significantly it will expand the entire market. Analysis suggests three key mechanisms through which intelligence technologies will grow the CRE pie. 

Reducing market friction and enhancing liquidity. CRE has historically been characterized by significant transaction friction, including lengthy due diligence periods, complex documentation, and limited price transparency. Abundant intelligence is systematically eliminating these barriers.

Recent research from Deloitte indicates that real estate organizations have a “generational opportunity” to strategically position themselves as they move past turbulent years. With generative AI supporting property operations, acquisition strategy, and portfolio planning, industry experts project a 15 to 20 percent increase in transaction velocity by 2027.

Unlocking previously inaccessible market segments. For too long, CRE investment has been accessible primarily to institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals with specialized knowledge. Abundant intelligence is democratizing access by making sophisticated analysis available to a broader range of market participants.

The Business Research Company reports that the AI in the real estate market is projected to grow at a 34.4 percent compound annual growth rate, reaching $988.59 billion by 2029. This growth reflects how intelligence tools are enabling smaller investors to participate in previously inaccessible segments of the market, potentially expanding the overall investor base by up 25 to 30 percent over the next five years.

Creating new value through previously impossible insights. Perhaps most significantly, abundant intelligence is enabling entirely new forms of value creation through pattern recognition and predictive capabilities that were previously impossible.

According to NAIOP, forward-thinking real estate companies have already included AI in their businesses, with one executive noting that “artificial intelligence has unveiled approaches that increased our knowledge of an asset class that was previously uncharted.” These capabilities are helping investors identify overlooked opportunities and optimize asset performance, potentially adding 10 to 15 percent to overall market valuations by 2028.

Abundant intelligence is fundamentally about enhancing human capabilities rather than replacing them. As multi-agent AI teams emerge — where multiple specialized AI systems work together on complex tasks — we’re seeing a shift toward human-AI collaboration that amplifies our strengths.

A sponsored Deloitte report in the Wall Street Journal said that these autonomous teams can handle increasingly sophisticated workflows, but their greatest value comes when they complement human expertise rather than attempt to substitute for it. This collaborative model enables CRE professionals to focus on relationship building and strategic judgment while intelligent systems manage routine analytical tasks, creating outcomes neither could achieve alone.

The coming wave of abundant intelligence represents not a threat to established CRE practices but rather the most significant market expansion opportunity in decades. By reducing friction, democratizing access, and enabling novel forms of value creation, these technologies will grow the overall pie rather than merely redistributing existing slices.

Our projections suggest a 22 percent increase in transaction volume by 2028, a 28 percent expansion in active CRE investors over the next four years, and a 12 to 18 percent uplift in overall market capitalization. Intelligence-driven identification of underutilized spaces could unlock an entirely new category of flexible assets worth $75 to 100 billion annually by 2030.

The future of commercial real estate isn’t just more intelligent — it’s more abundant, with expanded opportunities, broader participation, and entirely new categories of value creation. That’s the promise of abundant intelligence, and it’s a future the industry is actively building together.

Oded Noy is chief technology officer of data platform Crexi.