In a competitive commercial real estate market, speed and data-driven insights are becoming paramount. Henry AI, a company founded in 2024, is addressing this need with its AI-powered "copilot" designed to rapidly transform raw data into polished deal decks. CEO Sammy Greenwall recently shared his perspective on how automation is reshaping the industry and empowering brokers and sponsors to win more business.
Key Takeaways
- Relationships remain crucial, but data and speed enhance their productivity.
- The pre-pitch phase of CRE transactions is ripe for automation.
- Firms should focus on solving specific painful workflows with AI rather than developing broad strategies.
- Investor expectations for data quality, visuals, and response times have significantly increased.
- Current AI technology is now capable of producing institutional-quality CRE work.
Redefining Competitive Edge
Greenwall emphasizes that while relationships are still the ultimate deal-closer, the firms gaining an advantage are those that use data and speed to make those relationships more effective. In today’s market, the ability to present a credible viewpoint quickly is key. Brokers who can deliver thoughtful pitches, complete with accurate comps and underwriting, within hours rather than days are the ones securing mandates. He notes that creativity is important, but the baseline has shifted: slow processes or inaccurate data can no longer be overcome by relationships alone.
The Future of CRE Transactions
Looking ahead three years, Greenwall predicts a significant transformation in the pre-pitch phase of CRE transactions. Currently, analysts spend a substantial amount of time gathering data from multiple sources, formatting decks, and performing other manual tasks. He anticipates that this "intelligence work" will become largely automated, freeing up human capital for higher-value activities like strategic thinking, positioning, and client engagement. While deal memos and pitch decks will persist, they will be the output of a much more efficient and intelligent underlying process. Firms that embrace this shift will focus more on strategy and clients, while those that don’t risk falling behind.
Embracing AI: Practical Steps for Leaders
For leaders who recognize the importance of AI but haven’t yet taken action, Greenwall advises against developing an overarching AI strategy. Instead, he recommends identifying a single, time-consuming workflow and focusing on solving it. The most successful firms, he observes, are those that pinpoint specific pain points, such as lease abstraction or market report generation, and dedicate a small team to finding a solution within a short timeframe, like 60 days. He stresses that learning from a real deployment is far more valuable than prolonged vendor demonstrations. The cost of inaction or slow adoption in the current market is significantly higher than the risk of choosing an imperfect tool and iterating.
Evolving Investor Expectations
Investors and capital sources now demand higher standards across the board. On the surface, this means expecting institutional-quality materials from all market participants, regardless of firm size. Beneath this, however, is a deeper shift towards speed and substance. Capital providers want diligence questions answered within hours, not days, and require defensible underwriting from the outset. Greenwall posits that the traditional Offering Memorandum (OM) is now considered basic; true differentiation comes from the speed and intelligence with which firms can respond to subsequent inquiries and requests.
The Right Time for AI Adoption
Henry AI’s rapid growth in a traditionally slow-moving industry is attributed to a confluence of factors. The underlying AI technology has matured to a point where it can reliably produce high-quality CRE outputs, a capability that was not present just two years ago. Market pressures have also played a role; as transaction volumes fluctuated, firms were compelled to examine where their analysts’ time was being spent, revealing inefficiencies. Greenwall concludes that the industry’s previous slowness was due to a lack of adequate tools, which are now available, leading to an adoption rate that is accelerating faster than many realize.