AI Tackles CRE Contract Risk, Speeds Review for Operators
Contracts have always been a grind for commercial real estate professionals, as they are dense, time-consuming and often under the pressure of tight deadlines where costly mistakes can slip through. Leasecake thinks artificial intelligence might finally change that equation.
The Florida-based lease management software company has rolled out an AI-powered tool designed to analyze commercial leases, flag potential risks and score the overall favorability of agreements. The company claims one national operator used the technology to review 1,500 leases in just minutes. What would normally take weeks of manual scrutiny was reduced to an afternoon, catching clauses that could have undermined a major menu expansion.
Legal technology isn’t new. Law firms have relied on AI and machine learning for years during large-scale discovery processes and document review. But applying these tools directly to commercial real estate leases marks a shift. Instead of relying solely on attorneys, CRE users can now apply this kind of automation to daily business operations.
“Leasecake has always been focused on how we can get risk surfaced in a lease or in a contract,” CEO Scott Williamson tells GlobeSt.com. “The types of contracts that we deal with, which are real estate leases, are notoriously variable. You’ve got leases that could have been in place for decades and are continually renewed and may have had any number of modifications since.” At the same time, national brands may be working with standardized agreements, most of them geared toward revenue-producing assets.
Traditionally, Leasecake’s process has leaned heavily on human expertise through manual abstraction by real estate professionals, paralegals and analysts. That work has long been concentrated on the retail sector, but it has also been a labor-intensive and expensive approach. Williamson said AI speeds up the first layer of review. “Generative AI is good at getting to an 80% answer really fast,” he told GlobeSt.com, though he adds it still can’t provide the more nuanced legal interpretation that comes with experience.
Leasecake’s platform currently integrates OpenAI technology, but Williamson emphasizes it is built to remain flexible. “We are not beholden to any one piece of technology on the LLM side,” he says. The company combines the AI’s findings with human-developed explanations and structured data that can come from clients or third-party sources, creating a system able to interpret specific lease language with more reliability. Over time, machine learning can refine how the software identifies critical clauses and aligns them with business priorities.
Even so, differences in state contract law means the system must account for significant regional variations in lease terms. Williamson cautions that no AI tool erases the need for legal expertise, especially in complex portfolios or high-stakes deals.
“Directionally, there’s something there,” he says of the technology. “But don’t lose the phone number to your lawyer.”
He stresses that the company is not offering legal services, only a new way to streamline oversight. “We are not a legal firm,” Williamson tells GlobeSt.com. “We’re here to facilitate how you look at your real estate portfolio.”
Source: GlobeSt/ALM