Nick Romito

The dizzying pace of AI advances doesn’t always appear to reward slow, deliberate product development. But proptech giant VTS found its relatively recent embrace of AI has paid off. 

The platform experienced record growth in 2025 after the launch of VTS AI, and the debut of the Asset Intelligence tool for portfolio analysis in April 2026 only further hit the accelerator. It’s a dramatic turnaround from just a few years ago, when the company faced significant layoffs.

“We were really thoughtful about it, and we did not want to just release a product and slap the word AI on it,” said Nick Romito. “To be candid, that was like what everybody was doing.”

For Romito, the long-term roadmap for AI involved figuring out how artificial intelligence and agentic programs could bolster the advantage users already get from the VTS ecosystem, a widely used management software that helps oversee 13 billion square feet of commercial real estate worldwide. Grafting AI onto the existing system worked only if it underscored the company’s locked-in advantage, and showed why having so much data offers users more than just better organization. 

“Our philosophy was, given the market share we have and how much proprietary data lives inside VTS, that we have the ability to almost give the user a little bit of a look into the future,” said Romito. 

Starting with an AI leasing agent, VTS aimed to offer an easy on-ramp for AI in CRE. Romito wagers its AI agent may be the most-used one in real estate, based on the volume of activity it’s tracking in its user base. It’s a vital early lead to establish, as more usage means more data and better utility.  

“I don’t believe you’re going to see hundreds of successful AI companies in commercial real estate,” said Romito. “The enterprise customers want to do more with the partners they trust who have been really good stewards of their data.”