Types of AI for commercial real estate, and the best tools

AI for commercial real estate comes in seven kinds: general assistants, lease abstraction tools, underwriting and deal analysis platforms, market data with AI features, marketing and OM tools, prospecting and CRM tools, and property management platforms. Most brokerage and investment teams are best served by one general assistant on a business plan, built around their own templates, plus one or two specialized tools for jobs that are the same at every firm.

King & Company builds custom AI workflows for CRE teams, which makes us one of the options this page discusses, so weigh what follows with that in mind. The products below are described only with what each vendor says on its own site, checked in October 2026. The lists are alphabetical within each category and are not rankings.

The seven types at a glance

Type	What it does	Examples
General AI assistant	Reads documents, drafts, analyzes spreadsheets, searches your files	ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Microsoft Copilot
Lease abstraction	Turns leases into structured data and abstracts	MRI Contract Intelligence, Prophia, VTS
Underwriting and deal analysis	Extracts deal documents into models and manages the pipeline	Archer, Cactus, Clik.ai, Dealpath
Market data with AI	Answers questions about comps, ownership, and markets	CompStak, Cherre, Crexi, Reonomy
Marketing and OMs	Drafts offering memoranda, proposals, and listing materials	Buildout, Crexi, Henry
Prospecting and CRM	Finds likely sellers and tenants and manages outreach	Buildout CRM, HubSpot, Reonomy, Salesforce
Property management	Handles leasing inquiries, maintenance, and accounting	EliseAI, Entrata, MRI, Yardi

1. General AI assistants

These are the broad tools that read, write, and analyze anything you give them. On a business plan, they handle most of the document and drafting work a brokerage team does, and in 2026 all of them work inside Excel and connect to company files.

• ChatGPT (OpenAI). Business and Enterprise plans include ChatGPT for Excel and Google Sheets and apps that connect to SharePoint and other company systems.
• Claude (Anthropic). Claude for Excel is available on all paid plans, and Anthropic says it can update assumptions without breaking formulas and build models from scratch. Team and Enterprise plans include connectors and no training on your content by default.
• Gemini (Google). Gemini in Google Workspace works in Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Drive and is included from the Business Standard plan up.
• Grok (xAI). Business and enterprise plans add connectors, an Excel add-in, and Grok Bot agents. We cover it in detail in Grok and Grok Bot for commercial real estate teams.
• Microsoft Copilot. Built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams and grounded in a firm's own Microsoft 365 content.

When it fits: almost always, as the base layer. The choice among them usually follows the systems the firm already runs and what IT will approve. A general assistant does its best work when someone has built the team's template, definitions, and review step into it, which is what we describe in AI for commercial real estate brokers: where to start.

2. Lease abstraction tools

Dedicated tools that turn leases into structured fields, often with human verification included.

• MRI Contract Intelligence. MRI says it uses AI-powered lease abstraction to digitize and structure contract data in more than 20 languages. MRI acquired Leverton, the product's origin, in 2019.
• Occupier. Lease administration and lease accounting software for tenants, which lists AI lease abstraction among its products.
• Prophia. Prophia says it turns the documents that govern your business into verified intelligence, with AI abstraction validated by experts.
• VTS Asset Intelligence. Launched in April 2026, it combines AI abstraction with human expert verification and lets users ask questions about leases in plain language.

When it fits: when a landlord or tenant has hundreds of leases to abstract and maintain, and a vendor's standard fields are close to the ones you use. For a brokerage team abstracting leases deal by deal against its own template, a general assistant with the method in how to abstract a commercial lease with AI is often enough.

3. Underwriting and deal analysis

Platforms that read rent rolls, T-12s, and OMs into a model, and tools that manage an investment pipeline.

• Archer. For multifamily, Archer says it can automate underwriting, analyze deals, and track your deal pipeline, parsing rent rolls and T-12s with an Excel integration.
• Cactus. Cactus says it turns deal documents into sourced underwriting models that trace each figure to its source and export to Excel.
• Clik.ai. Clik.ai says it powers underwriting, servicing, and data operations for CRE lenders and investors, including lease abstraction.
• Dealpath. Dealpath describes itself as an AI-powered operating system for real estate investing, with AI data extraction and comp recommendations.
• Northspyre. A development management platform that says it uses AI to identify scope gaps and cost-saving opportunities.

When it fits: when the team is willing to underwrite in the vendor's model, or the tool exports cleanly into yours. Teams with a model they trust and a format their investors expect often prefer the approach in underwriting commercial real estate faster with AI, which fills their own template. For the rent roll step specifically, see how to reconcile a rent roll with AI.

4. Market data and research with AI features

The data providers have added AI that answers questions about their own data.

• Cherre. A real estate data platform that now offers an AI agent marketplace and connections to AI tools.
• CompStak. CompStak offers CompScout, which surfaces comps from plain prompts, along with an AI market summary and a connection that brings its data into Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini.
• CoStar. CoStar's 2026 AI launches have been on its residential sites, and the company has said AI will come to CoStar and LoopNet without giving a date.
• Crexi. Crexi's AI suite includes AI market reports, bulk ownership and contact enrichment, and extraction of data points from OMs.
• Reonomy. Now part of Altus Group, Reonomy links properties to their true owners with machine learning.

When it fits: whenever the answer depends on comps or ownership data you license. Use the provider's own AI features or approved integrations, because licensed data has its own rules. CoStar's and CompStak's current terms both restrict using their data with outside AI tools, which we explain in how to leverage your firm's own data with AI.

5. Marketing, OMs, and listing materials

Tools that draft the documents brokers send to market.

• Buildout. Buildout calls itself the AI brokerage solution, generating proposals, marketing materials, property descriptions, and outreach.
• Crexi Create. Crexi says it generates editable offering memorandum drafts from financials, leases, or rent rolls.
• Henry. Henry says it produces pitch decks, underwriting models, cited research, and buyer lists for CRE deals.

When it fits: when your OM and proposal format is close to what the tool produces, or you are already on the platform for listings. Teams with a distinctive house style often get more from drafting on their own best past examples, as in AI proposal drafting from a precedent library and a first-pass BOV with AI.

6. Prospecting and CRM

Tools that find likely sellers, buyers, and tenants and keep track of the relationship.

• Buildout CRM. Buildout, which acquired the CRE CRMs Rethink and Apto, says its CRM surfaces likely-to-sell owners.
• HubSpot. HubSpot's AI tools include a prospecting agent that watches accounts for signals and drafts outreach.
• Reonomy. Owner research and contact data, described above.
• Salesforce Agentforce. Salesforce's AI agent platform, which is general purpose and not specific to real estate.

When it fits: a CRM is a system of record, so the choice usually follows what the firm already runs. The AI value comes from connecting it to the assistant and building call prep and owner research on top, as in Claude skills for commercial real estate.

7. Property management and tenant operations

AI built into the platforms that run buildings.

• EliseAI. EliseAI offers AI automation for multifamily and single-family management, covering leasing, residents, and maintenance.
• Entrata. Entrata describes more than 100 built-in AI agents for leasing, maintenance, and accounting.
• MRI Software. Contract Intelligence, described above, plus AI features across its property management suite.
• Yardi Virtuoso. Yardi announced AI agents for every multifamily role in June 2026, and its commercial suite includes tools for building custom agents.

When it fits: these are almost always the AI features of the platform you already manage on. Residential is further along than commercial here, and most of the products above are built for multifamily first.

How to choose

Three questions sort most decisions:

1. Is the job the same at every firm, or particular to yours? Common jobs, such as abstracting a large lease portfolio or answering resident inquiries, suit a vendor product. Jobs where your team's template, voice, or judgment is the value suit a general assistant built around your work.
2. Where do your documents need to live? Check where each vendor stores your files, whether it trains on them, and what you can export if you leave.
3. Who will run it after it is set up? A tool nobody owns stops being used. Name the person who maintains each template and review step.

It also helps to remember how early the industry is. Deloitte's 2027 commercial real estate outlook, a survey of 950 executives, found 92% still researching or piloting AI and 8% with integrated solutions. JLL's 2025 technology survey found 88% of investors, owners, and landlords piloting AI. The firms that settle on a working set of tools and build their own workflows on top will have an advantage for some time.

If you want help working out which of these fit your team, and building the workflows that sit on top of them, you can get in touch. For a view of the firms that do this kind of work, see AI consultants for commercial real estate brokerages.

Common questions

What is the best AI tool for commercial real estate?

There is no single best tool, because the categories do different jobs. Most teams start with a general assistant on a business plan, which handles reading, drafting, and Excel work, and add a specialized tool where a vendor already does a common job well, such as lease abstraction or OM drafting.

What AI are commercial real estate teams using today?

Mostly general assistants for drafting and document work, plus AI features inside tools they already pay for, such as Buildout, Crexi, CompStak, Yardi, and MRI. Deloitte's 2027 outlook found 92% of surveyed firms still piloting or researching AI, so few teams have a settled set of tools yet.

Should we buy CRE-specific AI software or use ChatGPT or Claude?

Buy software when the job is common across firms and the vendor's way of doing it is close to yours. Use a general assistant, built around your own templates and review steps, when the value is in how your team does the work. Many teams use both.

Which AI tools do lease abstraction?

Dedicated options include Prophia, MRI Contract Intelligence (formerly Leverton), VTS Asset Intelligence, and Clik.ai, among others. A general assistant can also abstract leases well if it is given your template and required to cite a page for every field.

Is AI in property management different from AI in brokerage?

Yes. Property management AI is mostly built into the management platform, such as Yardi, Entrata, or EliseAI for residential, and handles leasing inquiries, maintenance, and accounting. Brokerage AI is mostly about documents, analysis, and outreach, and runs in general assistants and brokerage tools.