Software Teams Are the Guinea Pigs for Commercial Real Estate’s Future

Last week, the CTO Forum hosted a discussion entitled “Software Development Lifecycle Reimagined: Building in the AI Era,” which revealed something fascinating: Software teams are living six months in the future. They’re the guinea pigs for a transformation that’s about to reshape every professional industry — including commercial real estate.

As moderator, I watched three engineering leaders from QA Wolf, Criteria and Crexi describe changes that have nothing to do with code and everything to do with how work gets done. Their insights illuminate what we call “abundant intelligence,” unprecedented access to analytical capabilities once restricted to a privileged few. What’s revolutionary isn’t the technology itself, but how it’s reshaping who does what work, how quality gets defined and what professional expertise means.

Software just happens to be the testing ground. Emerging patterns provide a road map for what’s coming to CRE and every other knowledge-based industry.

The most striking change is how intelligence tools are reshaping the talent landscape. Chris Daden, the chief technology officer for Criteria, described a dramatic shift. Senior developers are becoming exponentially more productive while junior developers gain access to expertise that previously took years to develop.

But here’s the key insight: It’s not about replacing people. It’s about changing how people spend their time. Senior developers now focus on complex problem-solving and strategic decisions, while intelligence handles routine analysis. Junior developers spend more time on code review and understanding what good work looks like, rather than struggling to produce basic functionality.

 “We’re seeing people move up the value chain faster,” said Jon Perl, the CEO of QA Wolf. “What used to be junior work for two years is now six months, but they’re doing more sophisticated work sooner.”

This pattern is starting in commercial real estate. Experienced brokers and analysts will gain exponential leverage, processing more deals, evaluating larger data sets and focusing on relationship building and strategic advisory work. Meanwhile, newer professionals will access sophisticated market analysis and underwriting capabilities immediately, but they’ll need to learn evaluation and client advisory skills much faster.

The question isn’t whether this happens in CRE. Rather, it’s how quickly professionals adapt to working at a higher level of analysis and client service.

Perhaps the most important insight from our panelists addressed the evolution of quality control. Chris Smith, the vice president of systems engineering at Crexi, said that traditional pass or fail testing is becoming inadequate. Instead, teams now generate high-quality options and use human judgment to select the best approach for each situation. This represents a fundamental shift from “Is this correct?” to “Which of these good options works best for our specific needs?” Intelligence provides the analytical foundation, but professional expertise determines the factors that matter most.

The panelists described building “evaluation frameworks,” systematic ways to assess viable approaches rather than seeking a single perfect answer.

This evolution is already beginning in property analysis and deal evaluation. The most sophisticated CRE professionals are moving beyond rigid valuation models toward nuanced, context-aware analysis. Instead of seeking algorithmic property values, they’re using intelligence to generate multiple scenarios, comparable analyses and risk assessments they evaluate and refine.

Success comes from transparency throughout the process rather than black box recommendations. Clients trust professionals who can show how intelligence identifies specific market factors, demographic shifts or comparable properties, then explain why certain factors matter most for a specific situation.

The panelists agreed on a crucial point. The most successful teams aren’t trying to automate away expertise, but amplify it. Intelligence handles data processing and routine analysis, freeing professionals to focus on judgment, strategy and complex problem-solving.

But this requires what Daden called “cultural change.” Teams had to learn new workflows, develop evaluation skills and rethink what their highest-value activities actually are. Successful companies invested heavily in helping people adapt to working at a higher level.

CRE professionals face the same transition. Intelligence will handle comparable property analysis, market data processing and routine underwriting calculations. The professionals who thrive will embrace intelligence as an analytical foundation and deepen their expertise in areas that require human judgment, such as market nuance, client relationships, deal strategy and risk assessment.

The software leaders at our forum weren’t describing some distant future; they were sharing changes that happened in the last three months. Their experiences provide a preview of a workplace transformation that’s about to accelerate across every knowledge-based industry.

For CRE, this means the changes are already beginning. The question isn’t whether abundant intelligence will reshape how properties get evaluated, deals get structured and markets get analyzed. The question is whether CRE professionals will learn from software’s experiment and adapt proactively to working at a higher level of analytical capability and client service.

Software teams have shown the path: Embrace intelligence as an analytical foundation, develop stronger evaluation and advisory skills and focus on the uniquely human elements of professional expertise. The transformation isn’t about replacing professional judgment. It’s about providing unprecedented analytical capabilities that amplify human expertise and expand professional reach.

The guinea pig experiment is complete. The results are clear. Now, it’s CRE’s turn.

Oded Noy is the chief technology officer for data platform Crexi.