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What CRE Professionals Really Want from AI: Lessons from the ADR Pro Cohort
AI promises to transform commercial real estate workflows, but what do the people managing those workflows actually want?
Through conversations with participants in our ADR Pro cohort, we heard directly from professionals responsible for tenant coordination, construction, operations, and property management. Their feedback revealed a common theme: the real opportunity for AI isn't simply to automate more work. It's to help teams manage complexity, reduce risk, and make better decisions.
Here are five insights shaping how we think about the future of AI-powered design review.
1. Faster Reviews Mean More Time for Higher-Value Work
Manual drawing review remains one of the most time-consuming parts of tenant delivery.
As one Senior Manager of Construction observed:
"Manual drawing review is slow, inconsistent, and often performed by teams whose time is better spent managing construction, tenants, and openings."
An Operations Manager reinforced the challenge, noting that teams can spend hours or days reviewing drawings, with queues adding further delays.
The opportunity isn't just to complete reviews faster. It's to free experienced professionals from repetitive work so they can focus on construction progress, tenant relationships, and getting stores open.
2. Human Judgment and Relationships Still Matter
One message came through particularly clearly: users don't necessarily want full automation.
As a Director of Tenant Coordination explained:
"Users want to control the narrative between landlord and tenant to help build that relationship. They do not yet want full automation."
Design review isn't simply about identifying issues. It's also about communicating requirements, resolving disagreements, and maintaining productive relationships between landlords and tenants.
AI can support that process by preparing findings and organizing information, but professionals still want control over how those findings are interpreted and communicated.
3. Design Review Is Ultimately About Protecting the Asset
While efficiency matters, risk reduction is an equally important priority.
A VP of Construction described the purpose of review succinctly:
"The review process is really about reducing risk before construction starts."
A Director of Operations offered an even more direct perspective:
"Our biggest concern isn't design. It's protecting the building."
These comments highlight why landlord design review differs from simply checking drawings for technical accuracy.
Property teams must consider how proposed tenant work could affect existing building systems, structural elements, and operational requirements. Identifying potential problems before construction begins helps teams address risks when changes are easier to manage.
4. The Challenge Isn't a Lack of Information
Commercial real estate teams often have extensive documentation available. The difficulty lies in finding and interpreting the right information at the right time.
As one Senior Tenant Coordinator explained:
"There's so much information in engineering drawings. You have to know where to look and what you're looking for."
This is where AI-assisted review can provide practical support: helping teams navigate complex drawing packages, locate relevant requirements, and surface potential issues for professional assessment.
The objective isn't to replace expertise, but to make that expertise easier to apply consistently.
5. Today's Reviews Could Become Tomorrow's Portfolio Intelligence
Beyond immediate workflow improvements, cohort participants also looked toward the longer-term value of review data.
A Senior Retail Delivery Manager raised questions about recurring comments, historical issues, standards gaps, asset information, and operational metrics.
One Director of Property Management captured the opportunity:
"Start capturing structured metadata now so ADR Pro becomes the foundation for portfolio intelligence later."
Each tenant review contains information about an asset, its requirements, and the issues teams encounter.
When that information is captured consistently, individual reviews could eventually reveal patterns across properties, helping owners and operators identify recurring challenges, improve standards, and make more informed portfolio-level decisions.
Building AI Around the People Who Use It
These conversations have reinforced an important principle for Vynes: successful AI adoption starts with understanding the people, decisions, and responsibilities behind the workflow.
With ADR Pro, our focus is on supporting the first pass of tenant design review, making findings easier to trace to their source requirements, and giving professionals a clearer starting point for their assessment.
The longer-term opportunity extends beyond individual reviews toward more connected information and greater visibility across portfolios.
Our cohort's feedback continues to shape that direction.
The takeaway is simple: the future of AI in commercial real estate isn't about removing people from the process. It's about giving them better tools to do the work that matters most.
