Tenants Mistake AI For Real People As Landlords Start Using Chatbots. They Come To The Office To Ask The AI Assistant Out For Coffee

Apartment complexes across the country have new maintenance coordinators who’ve been receiving praise for always being available and helpful. But here’s the twist: these hard-working “employees” are AI bots.

As The New York Times reports, in an apartment complex in Dallas, AI bot Matt and two other bots, Lisa and Hunter, have been making life easier for tenants and staff. Lisa answers questions from people interested in renting while Hunter sends reminders to pay rent. 

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These bots, designed to be friendly, professional, or stern as needed, have freed the human staff to focus on other important tasks. The building’s property manager, Jason Busboom, says his staff is much happier now — “when someone took a vacation, it was very stressful,” he added.

Using AI in property management is becoming more common because it saves time and money. A report by McKinsey Global Institute suggests that these technologies could generate over $110 billion in value for the real estate industry. 

EliseAI, a software company from New York, is behind many of these virtual assistants. Their bots are used in almost 2.5 million apartments across the United States. Their bots can chat, text, email, and even talk with different accents. Minna Song, the CEO of EliseAI, says they aim to make their bots as human-like as possible.

The virtual assistants can ask follow-up questions, like checking which sink needs fixing if the tenant isn't home. They can even help tenants troubleshoot minor issues by sending them a video of how to fix them.

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The technology is so good at carrying on conversations that tenants often think they’re talking to a real person. “People come to the leasing office and ask for Elise by name,” Song said. Some tenants have even texted the bot to meet for coffee, suggested it deserves a raise, and left gift cards for it.

And that’s where the problem lies. No one informs tenants they’re talking to a chatbot. No wonder some tenants feel uneasy when they realize they’ve been talking to a machine instead of someone. Ray Weng, who was looking for an apartment in New York, says some of the apartment tours he took were self-guided. He also noticed that two leasing agents gave identical answers and used the same name. “I’d rather deal with a person,” he said. “If it's all automated, it feels like they don't care enough to have a real person talk to me.”

While these AI assistants are good at handling routine tasks, they still need human oversight for more complicated issues. For example, Marshal Davis, who manages an apartment complex in Houston, says his two office workers handle the 30 to 50 calls they get daily at a 160-apartment complex in Houston. 

The chatbot does well answering basic questions about rent payments and available apartments. However, it sometimes gives answers that aren’t quite right for more complicated issues. To keep things running smoothly, Davis records most calls and uses another AI tool to summarize them. He listens to any calls that seem problematic, such as when the AI notes that a customer is frustrated, to figure out how to improve the system.

Despite some frustrations, there are potential benefits to using AI in property management. As the technology continues to get better, it will be interesting to see how and if tenants and landlords adjust to this new way of doing things. 

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