On September 28, 2026, the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) and software provider AppFolio released the findings of a comprehensive joint industry study. Based on responses from 3,662 professionals across the US real estate sector, the report reveals that artificial intelligence has rapidly become an operational fixture in property management. However, this swift adoption in daily workflows is unfolding alongside a pronounced deficit in organizational governance and formal oversight.
According to the study, 58 percent of property managers now deploy AI on a regular basis to handle recurring operational duties. Key areas of implementation include answering tenant inquiries, auditing vendor invoices, and drafting marketing property listings. By automating these repetitive administrative burdens, management teams are shortening response times and streamlining standard interactions across residential and commercial portfolios.
The financial and operational benefits of these tools appear substantial across the surveyed companies. A full 85 percent of active AI users report measurable gains in staff productivity. Furthermore, 48 percent of respondents indicate that these efficiency gains have directly improved their Net Operating Income, demonstrating that algorithmic assistance is already influencing bottom-line performance.
Despite this widespread operational reliance, formal structural governance remains largely nonexistent. Only 8 percent of the surveyed property management firms have instituted written policies governing the acceptable use of artificial intelligence. In addition, only 26 percent of staff members have received formal training, meaning the vast majority of employees navigate these tools on an ad-hoc and unsupervised basis.
This institutional void mirrors the primary concerns voiced by management executives regarding deeper system integration. Survey respondents identified liability risks and reliability concerns, particularly regarding computation errors and flawed accounting calculations, as the greatest impediments to expanded automation. Until structured verification frameworks and clear compliance protocols are established, full automation across critical property workflows will likely face sustained industry resistance.