By Matt Penton, Director, Google Data & AI, BIP Group  

AI is clearly here to stay, and personally, I’m excited about it.

My background is in applied statistics, and I’ve worked on Google Cloud for the largest Google-only provider in EMEA. My passion is advanced analytics and ‘big data’, the kind of data humans can’t process easily by themselves. When you start talking about 16 billion events a day with hundreds of dimensions each, no human can possibly make sense of all those data points, let alone use and combine them efficiently. Humans can’t spot patterns at such a scale, but it’s easily possible for Generative AI and ML. And this is far from the only positive use of these highly intelligent tools.

Just think of the implications for business. The major players such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini have made it possible for anyone to ask challenging deep knowledge-based questions and have the answers explained to them. AI is also capable of repetitive admin work, affording people at all levels of an organisation the freed-up capacity to be curious, learn new things and apply that knowledge to their roles. The levels of opportunity in improving productivity speak for themselves – new ideas, new products and forward progress. We’re in an era defining transformation.

So, how does this apply to real estate? Well, AI can take connected buildings, process all the different forms of their data, clean it, make sure it’s meaningful and then use predictive modelling to forecast results. For instance, during the COVID years, population density needed to be monitored, but single data sets like keycard access were incapable of giving an accurate view. Instead, we needed to look at multiple forms of data – WiFi usage, cell coverage coming in and out of buildings, washroom cleaning sensor cycles, etc. – and cross-reference it to answer questions about how many meeting rooms were needed, and what times of day lights could be turned off to ensure optimum energy efficiency. AI is very good at making connections between disparate things, so it made the whole process faster than it had been when it was manual and provided greater insight than the customer had ever seen before.

Of course, now we can also create digital twins of buildings to simulate weather effects, material behavior changes and the impact of energy efficiency performance. AI can spot anomalies and safety risks that the human eye would potentially gloss over as being too small or just in human error. New innovations are being developed all the time, and AI is only increasing in accuracy as it learns. It’s getting better, most competitors in your vertical sector are using it and customers are starting to expect it. Those who are reluctant to get on board can only keep doing what they’re doing for so long.

Now, a key challenge for real estate companies is to make sure their whole supply chain is operating at a similar level. We’re all cogs in the supply chain, which can only go as fast as its slowest part. At all stages of the process, stakeholders need to embrace modern methods and avoid reverting back to large volumes of irregularly formatted spreadsheets sent by email. We need to get comfortable with change. AI isn’t going away, so we need to quell the fear that it will replace humans by showcasing how it can help humans instead. That’s what we’re trying to do at BIP and Verco as we help clients set baselines and targets, record their progress and keep track of it via a platform that makes sense of the data (MyVerco).

I’m excited to bring this topic, and others, to a panel discussion at UKREiiF 2025. It’s fascinating to get multiple perspectives on what the future might look like in light of the developments we’re seeing. Each of the other experts – from leading organisations like Verco, La Salle, CQuel and Invesco – will share their experiences of using AI to accelerate the journey to net zero. I know how valuable it is to learn from real-life case studies, so I’m looking forward to being there.

Matt will be on a panel titled ‘Accelerate your net zero delivery with digital and AI’, hosted by Verco at UKREiiF 2025. The panel will take place on Wednesday 21st May at 11.00-12.00. You can find them on the Newsroom Stage.

By Matt Penton, Director, Google Data & AI, BIP Group