How Visual AI Is Reshaping Value and Risk in Commercial Real Estate

Artificial intelligence is already reshaping the economics of real estate, but nowhere is the shift more pronounced than in the rapid institutionalization of visual AI. 

These computer-vision systems interpret the built world through images, video and documents. Long viewed as a niche category for digitizing floor plans or powering virtual tours, visual AI has become a core infrastructure layer for owners, operators and investors. It is redefining underwriting standards, operational workflows and venture-capital allocation across both residential and commercial portfolios.

A recent analysis by the Center for Real Estate Technology & Innovation (CRETI) indicates that visual AI is now capturing one of the fastest-growing shares of institutional early-stage investment in proptech. Companies at the intersection of real estate, construction, insurance and financial operations raised an estimated $2.1 billion globally in 2025, a 38 percent year-over-year increase. These rounds are no longer experimental. Seed financings typically range from $5 million to $15 million and resemble traditional Series A rounds in terms of size, diligence and investor composition. Institutional funds that once waited for commercial validation are now entering earlier to secure exposure to the emerging data moats that visual AI creates.

The driver of this acceleration is performance. Visual AI is proving its ability to convert physical world complexity into structured data that improves asset income, operational efficiency and risk modeling. Institutional owners increasingly expect technology partners to eliminate discrepancies that degrade net operating income, automate inspections that reduce capex overruns, and deliver real-time intelligence that informs lending, insurance pricing and underwriting. The companies meeting those expectations are capturing the bulk of early capital.

Consider how this plays out across a set of VC-backed startups, each targeting different layers of the asset life cycle. Matterport, which raised more than $400 million before its public listing and subsequent acquisition by CoStar, began with immersive 3D tours and has evolved into a digital-asset infrastructure layer for residential and commercial properties. On the job site side, OpenSpace, with over $100 million in funding, applies 360-degree imagery and computer vision to document construction progress and verify work in place, reducing delays, disputes and change-order risk. In the insurance and underwriting domain, Cape Analytics, backed by roughly $75 million, uses aerial and street-level imagery to derive property-specific risk attributes, enabling large portfolios to underwrite based on condition instead of age or replacement cost alone.

Real estate operations and portfolio analytics have their own visual AI plays. VergeSense, which raised about $60 million in Series C funding, uses sensors and computer vision to measure occupancy and space utilization in offices and flex buildings, helping landlords optimize footprint and reduce wasted space. Another firm, Density, with over $125 million raised, applies AI to occupancy and traffic analytics across mixed-use and CRE portfolios, converting foot traffic into actionable leasing and operations intelligence.

Meanwhile, in the asset-management and diligence space, Snappt, which raised approximately $100 million, applies document computer vision to leasing applications, bank statements and tenant supporting documents, reducing fraud risk and streamlining underwriting for multifamily owners. And then there is SurfaceAI, which uses computer vision to read leases, rent rolls and financial statements for multifamily and housing portfolios. Its platform identifies revenue leakage, inconsistencies and underwriting gaps by converting scanned or extracted PDF and document workflows into structured data.

To round out the landscape, FurtherAI, which recently raised a $25 million Series A, automates complex insurance workflows using AI for underwriting and claims systems, and ZestyAI, which secured a $33 million Series B, applies computer vision and high-resolution aerial imagery to property-level risk assessment for insurance and real estate portfolios.

The interplay of these companies illustrates why visual AI is becoming foundational. Each maps into a financial or operational lever — occupancy, capex, risk, revenue and turnaround time — that previously lacked scalable digitization. For operators and investors alike, the question is no longer whether to adopt visual AI, but how quickly to integrate it without disrupting core workflows or data integrity.

Venture capital investors are prioritizing companies that combine defensible data architectures with immediate operational impact. Visual AI companies with distribution leverage, embedded into construction management systems, property management systems, insurance underwriting engines or asset management workflows, are raising larger rounds with stronger syndicates. Those offering generic “AI layers” without proprietary data sets are increasingly finding it more challenging to progress beyond seed. As sector-focused investors note, defensibility depends on owning the data loops that compound over time, not on horizontal AI models that anyone can fine-tune.

Fundraising expectations have fundamentally shifted. Visual AI startups are no longer evaluated solely on product market fit. They are now expected to demonstrate enterprise readiness, measurable return on investment, integration pathways and robust data pipelines as early as the seed stage. CRETI’s tracking shows that roughly one in three early-stage financings in visual AI now includes at least one institutional co-lead — a clear indication that investors are moving earlier in the life cycle to secure ownership. For founders, “seed” is no longer a soft launch. It has become an institutional entry point.

For the commercial real estate industry, the next decade of innovation will be shaped not by broad, horizontal AI tools, but by vertical, domain-specific visual intelligence that delivers financial accuracy and operational leverage. The companies leading these rounds are building the next operating systems of the built environment.

Visual AI is emerging as the new infrastructure of real estate. Firms that recognize and act on this shift early will define the industry’s next generation of winners.

Ashkán Zandieh is the founder and managing director at the Center for Real Estate Technology & Innovation.