The Future of AI and Institutional Knowledge for Real Estate

The transformative impact of ChatGPT on businesses and work is undeniable. The cutting-edge AI language model has redefined the landscape of productivity, innovation, and communication across so many industries — and we’re just at the beginning.

ChatGPT’s ability to generate human-like text, comprehend nuanced language, and adapt to various contexts has revolutionized workflows. Teams can now accomplish tasks more efficiently and creatively than ever before. As businesses embrace the possibilities of AI augmentation, ChatGPT is at the forefront — reshaping the way we collaborate, strategize, and thrive in 2024’s digital era.

The new home building industry has already seen firsthand ChatGPT’s impact and reaped its benefits. Not only has AI transformed the way home builders work, it has transformed the way institutional knowledge is utilized and shared across organizations — helping companies become more strategic on every level. 

In this article, we’ll cover the basics of AI tools for real estate, touching on how companies can leverage ChatGPT to disperse institutional knowledge and scale.

We’ll address:

• What is institutional knowledge?
• Complexities of the market
• Stronger, better operations with AI
• Use cases 
• Impact

What is institutional knowledge?

Institutional knowledge is historical knowledge, expertise, and insight that enables team members to make decisions based on what’s worked in the past. It encompasses a wide range of information including market trends, historical data, and best practices. institutional knowledge plays a crucial role in decision-making processes, enables informed judgements, and helps mitigate risks. It serves as a competitive advantage and distinguishes companies by their depth of understanding and ability to navigate market dynamics. 

While the knowledge is usually held by seasoned professionals who have acquired it through years of working in the industry, ChatGPT for real estate has changed the game. With generative AI, institutional knowledge can be more easily organized and spread throughout the organization.

How New Home Star leverages ChatGPT to organize its institutional knowledge

At New Home Star (NHS), leveraging institutional knowledge managed by ChatGPT has been a game-changer. 

Over the past decade, NHS has curated a vast repository of resources: 500 training video modules, 50,000 peer learning questions, 400,000 answers, and 50 training manuals. This wealth of data — critical to sales team performance — presented challenges to access and utilize as it was dispersed across various platforms and formats.

By integrating ChatGPT's technology into their LMS ecosystem, NHS transformed their data into a dynamic, user-friendly interface powered by natural language understanding. Through a process of vectorization, NHS converted their internal knowledge base into a format compatible with ChatGPT's language models, enhancing its contextual understanding and improving quality of responses.

NHS also integrated ChatGPT into their workflow, enabling real-time updates and synchronization between their LMS and the ChatGPT platform. This ensures that every new resource, training video, or peer question uploaded to the system is instantly accessible and actionable through the ChatGPT interface. NHS has also taken advantage of the explosion of tools available to developers, leveraging ChatGPT to convert external knowledge assets into a usable format for their sales agents and executive team.

And the best part: it’s all secure, private, and only visible to their internal team. By keeping vectorized data internal and limiting external access, NHS ensures confidentiality and integrity of their institutional knowledge while still reaping all of the benefits of AI use.

Complexities of the current market and how AI for real estate agents can help

Let’s back up a bit to uncover why AI for real estate agents is important in today’s landscape. 

Today’s current real estate market is quite complex for a few reasons. From the demand side, consumers are grappling with affordability challenges exacerbated by rising interest rates and dwindling supply. The economics of rent versus homeownership have shifted as inflation erodes wage growth and buying power, leading to a weakened real estate market performance that erodes consumer confidence among potential buyers.

Fewer individuals are able to purchase homes or are forced to settle for less desirable housing options. It’s tough out there. Land purchases have become more competitive due to limited supply, construction costs have seen a slight decline, and we’re witnessing fluctuating unemployment rates. 

In this difficult market landscape, organizations have to navigate heightened competition to create more affordable products capable of attracting a shrinking buying pool.

Stronger, better operations with AI

Enter AI: AI tools for real estate are coming onto the scene and making true resilience and operational excellence achievable. The role of AI in structuring institutional knowledge emerges as a critical strategy for companies to gain a competitive edge. 

Today, every leader wants to achieve more with less. There’s an emphasis on the need for cohesive teamwork drawing upon subject matter expertise from various domains. The transition from traditional knowledge repositories to modern learning management systems (LMS) has improved user experience, but we can take it one step further now. The evolution towards AI-driven knowledge compilation and dissemination can revolutionize these processes, making them easier, faster, and more cost-effective.

Whether entrepreneurial startups or established corporations, the ability to tap into a wealth of institutional knowledge regarding housing cycles and consumer behavior is a crucial asset for success in the ever-evolving real estate market.

Use cases 

There are three primary use cases for implementing an institutional knowledge database powered by ChatGPT. These include:

1. Training and knowledge dissemination: All of your knowledge is finally in one place and accessible to all. Whether a salesperson on the floor or a member of the purchasing department, teammates can access information tailored to their specific queries, leveraging the collective wisdom of hundreds of colleagues. PDFs, strategic guides, and other resources no longer risk becoming obsolete or overlooked. Instead, a multi-modal interface offers dynamic access to relevant content, linking directly to videos, PDFs, or other resources tailored to the topic at hand. Whether seeking strategic advice or practical guidance, employees can navigate the database and make informed decisions backed by comprehensive insights.
2. Use as a repository of past important leadership conversations: Economic data, publicly available insights, and historical discussions among leadership groups can all be uploaded and accessed by all. The database serves as a place to store critical data and past conversations, leading to better decision-making processes. 
3. Use as a company directory database: Whether seeking assistance from HR or connecting with a specific colleague, employees can input their query and access contact information instantly. This catalog of organizational insights grows and evolves with each interaction and contribution. The ability to tap into this expansive knowledge base in mere seconds provides a competitive edge.

Impact 

A truly customer-centric approach

Building an institutional knowledge base powered by ChatGPT holds immense potential for revolutionizing the customer experience. AI-driven consistency in interactions not only ensures high-quality engagement but also drives down costs, making personalized experiences more accessible. Its ultimate goal is to create the most favorable thought process for customers and orchestrate the best customer journey. 

Imagine a scenario where a customer is searching for their dream home. With just a few prompts, the system can identify the perfect match for their needs, bypassing the variability inherent in relying solely on individual salesperson preferences. This consistency fosters stronger customer relationships while also building affinity for the brand, positioning homebuilders as trusted partners in the home-buying process.

Bigger and better websites and digital experiences 

By leveraging AI, websites and digital platform designers and writers can deliver dynamic, personalized content tailored to each customer's preferences. Visualization tools bring home designs to life, enhancing the browsing experience and empowering customers to envision their future home.

Broad access to the same critical knowledge = speedier operations

As more repetitive tasks in sales and marketing are automated by AI, institutional knowledge becomes the backbone of efficiency. 

From the salesperson on the front lines to the CEO steering the company's strategic direction, access to the same wealth of institutional knowledge fosters growth opportunities and enhances decision-making capabilities.

Doing more with less 

By placing the customer or homebuyer at the apex of the value pyramid and reverse-engineering resource allocation, organizations can ensure that every effort is directed towards enhancing the customer experience. 

Siloed data and knowledge become relics of the past. Instead, a collaborative approach drives organizations forward.

Data is king

The best teams will find gaps in their knowledge and try to fill them. The more you can give your team easy access to critical historical data, the more you arm them with the tools they need to move beyond the competition. 

The impact of an institutional knowledge base powered by ChatGPT extends far beyond operational efficiency — it reshapes the way homebuilders engage with customers. It drives stronger relationships, informed decision-making, and sustained growth in today’s increasingly competitive market.

One thing is for sure: the companies taking advantage of AI now will be the ones moving beyond the competition 🚀

Check out New Home Star’s New Home Connect™ and learn how our AI for real estate agents is transforming the industry.