Real estate professionals say adopting technology and innovation has now risen to one of their top three challenges, passing up human resources and staffing, according to a new study.
The new survey of nearly 2,000 real estate industry professionals was done by AppFolio, a property management software platform, in partnership with the National Apartment Association (NAA) between July 16 and August 4, 2025.
Operational strain
“The largest threat to property performance today isn’t demand, it’s operational strain,” NAA CEO Bob Pinnegar said in a release. “At such a crucial time for our industry – where property teams are being asked to operate more strategically than ever – this timely analysis sheds light on constraints like staffing challenges, fragmented systems and reactive workflows.”
“Long-term performance will depend on how well the industry aligns teams, technology and the customer experience, and we are grateful for the opportunity to work with AppFolio to analyze and leverage these insights to address challenges moving forward,” Pinnegar said.
Routine and reactive tasks
The survey found that real estate leaders spend the majority of their time on routine operational work (42%) and reactive tasks (24%) but aspire to spend much more time on strategic, performance-driven work. It would seem that AI could help with that, but respondents weren’t convinced.
“The real barrier to performance and ROI in real estate is not the potential of AI, but the limitations of legacy, task-based property management systems (PMS),” said Cat Allday, vice president of product for Appfolio, in the release.
“Traditional PMS is built on fragmented technology and silos, creating a data disconnect.”
Falling Short of AI’s Full Potential
The survey says AI adoption is widespread; however, its full potential to generate strategic value for property managers remains largely untapped. There is a clear opportunity for property managers to embrace AI-native technology that creates a unified experience and drives true performance:
- The majority of respondents use general-purpose AI tools (53%) like ChatGPT and Gemini, and 43% use AI features embedded in their property management software.
- With 77% of companies already reporting overall performance improvements – largely driven by generative AI – the industry is seeing the beginning of what is possible. Widespread adoption of AI capable of executing complex workflows is poised to take these gains even further.
Read the full report here.
