AI Moves From Hype to Operations as Retail Real Estate Focuses on Efficiency
LAS VEGAS—As the retail real estate industry gathers for ICSC Las Vegas 2026, one of the most talked-about themes across the conference floor is artificial intelligence moving beyond just the hype. It is becoming an operational infrastructure for landlords, owners and property managers.
Executives across CRE are increasingly focused less on flashy "AI-powered" branding and more on practical systems that can improve efficiency, preserve institutional knowledge and help teams operate more strategically in a challenging retail environment marked by rising operating costs, evolving tenant demands and pressure to maximize asset performance, David Stifter, founder and CEO of PredictAP, explained.
"Proptech is finally moving past what I would call the 'digitization theater' phase," he tells GlobeSt.com.
"For years, much of the industry conversation was about getting paper onto screens faster, adding dashboards, and layering workflows on top of old processes," Stifter said. "That work mattered, but it did not solve the hardest problems inside commercial real estate operations."
According to Stifter, the next phase of proptech innovation is centered on solving what he describes as "judgment problems disguised as workflow problems" — areas where AI can analyze operational context and support more informed decision-making across portfolios.
In retail real estate specifically, that could mean improved common area maintenance (CAM) reconciliation, cleaner expense coding, faster invoice processing and earlier detection of financial discrepancies that impact property performance and tenant relationships.
"That is where AI is starting to matter," Stifter said. "The shift is that AI is getting better at understanding context inside very specific operating environments."
As retailers continue adapting to omnichannel consumer behavior and landlords work to optimize mixed-use and experiential destinations, operational efficiency has become a central concern throughout the industry. Many owners attending ICSC are looking for technology that can reduce repetitive administrative work while allowing property teams to focus more directly on leasing, tenant engagement, maintenance and customer experience.
"The goal should not be automation for its own sake," Stifter said. "The goal should be to remove the administrative work that keeps people from doing higher-value work."
That distinction is becoming increasingly important as the proptech sector matures. Industry leaders say buyers are becoming more skeptical of generalized AI claims and are instead demanding measurable operational outcomes.
"Owners and operators are no longer impressed by a product being 'AI-powered,'" Stifter said. "They want to know what it actually does. Does it reduce friction? Does it improve accuracy? Does it preserve institutional knowledge? Does it help teams operate at a higher level?"
The comments reflect a broader shift that is currently underway across the sector, where technology investment is increasingly tied to operational resilience rather than experimentation alone. While early proptech adoption often focused on digitizing paperwork and centralizing data, many firms are now prioritizing systems that can quietly integrate into day-to-day workflows without disrupting existing operations.
Leading into 2027, Stifter predicts the industry will see a growing divide between companies merely adding AI features and those fundamentally built around the technology natively.
"The biggest shift over the next several years may be that the best proptech becomes less visible," he said.
"The winners will not necessarily be the loudest platforms or the flashiest demos. They will be the systems quietly embedded into day-to-day operations, removing repetitive work, surfacing exceptions earlier, strengthening controls, and giving experienced people more room to apply judgment."
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Source: GlobeSt/ALM