Andrew Zang: Building Accurate AI for Real Estate

Andrew Zang (00:00)
There’s a lot of noise and there’s a lot of attention.

towards companies spending money in wasteful manners with regards to artificial intelligence. what that is, it’s really buying what’s called lemon products, right? It’s buying a car that really looks good and sounds good, but it breaks on you as soon as you start using it.

And if anyone walks in here into a room and says that they have something that’s going to deliver you overnight success, they’re selling you a lemon.

Michelle Kesil (01:59)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Investor Fuel podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. Today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with, Andrew Zang, who’s been making serious moves in the real estate and the AI space. So really glad to have you here with us today, Andrew. I think the listeners are going to take something away from how you’re approaching integrating AI into real estate. So let’s dive in.

Andrew Zang (02:25)
Let’s do it. Thank you so much for having me and looking forward to a great conversation.

Michelle Kesil (02:31)
Absolutely. So first off, for people who may not be familiar with you and your world, give us the short version of what’s your main focus these days.

Andrew Zang (02:42)
My main focus these days are working with landlords and real estate organizations to help deploy artificial intelligence into their workforce. ⁓ The ability to actually have a solution to challenges that landlords are facing today. And it really at times does not start with a product. It really starts with sitting down and understanding

⁓ what their needs are and because we really want to ensure adoption of artificial intelligence, ⁓ not just shopping for it.

Michelle Kesil (03:23)
Absolutely. Can you expand on the ways that you use AI to support these people?

Andrew Zang (03:29)
Certainly, starts with, so artificial intelligence needs to have information for it to work. So the information right now that’s available out there at times is pulled from various sources. And that really isn’t the information that specific landlords need on a day-to-day basis. Because as you know and as listeners know, real estate is unique in the sense that

if you’re reading about it, it’s already too late. So we want to have ⁓ information available to us so that we can create that magic, create those transactions. So within artificial intelligence, the first step is curating and collecting the data that you want and understanding where we’re going to go get it from.

Andrew Zang (04:21)
ability that artificial intelligence has right now really enables us to retrieve information so fast. And that’s something that we never had before. Right? So the ability to do that, we just want to sit down and understand what it is we want to collect. at times, more than at times, you know, what we find is that business owners and landlords and real estate companies, they have all the data.

they spend a lot of time collecting and curating this information and they really don’t care what their competitors are delivering

their workforce or to potential clients because they have their own benchmarks that they need to hit. So it’s a unique conversation with every landlord and the biggest part is

understanding how we’re going to get those complex office leases and those complex industrial leases, how we’re going to get them to be able to be retrieved accurately through these AI systems.

Michelle Kesil (06:23)
Amazing, yeah, that seems like such a valuable tool. So what are some of the practical functions of this tool?

Andrew Zang (06:34)
So, well, the practical functions at times with artificial intelligence and retrieving information is systematically the same, right? The difference is that we are doing human review, we’re ensuring accuracy, and we’re doing the fine tuning and testing before your workforce is going to be utilizing the artificial intelligence system. So what that means is that

If you have an office lease that could be 100 pages long, and you’re able to ask 100 questions per that office lease that’s going to help you either do a renewal with your tenant or be able to provide a better service to them by having access to what’s going on and what their situation is, or if for any reason there might be a challenge throughout the time of a lease, the ability to have access 24-7 instantly

of information of your entire portfolio would be amazing. But the challenge is making sure that the information is being accurate, that’s being sent in the response system. So today, it might be 90 % right, the competitors of, you know, ⁓ Gemini or a Llama or a ChatGPT, if you, you know, upload one lease or two leases and ask it to compare and contrast, right?

But the reality is these systems were not built to have 100 page documents, right? They were not built to have 100 page documents that say the word tenant 600 times, right? So now if you’re gonna be uploading 300 of these documents

once and wanna be able to ask a question pertaining to any of them at any time, it really needs to be fine tuned and trained specifically.

for how the user is going to ask the question. So we created Portfolio Pulse, which is a product that we deploy to landlords, which in check all of the information that we sit down and we curate together and collect and determine what’s going to be part of your AI solution for your company. And then we have ⁓ subject matter experts, those that have been in the industry.

whether it be in the real estate legal industry field or be as a real estate analyst who go, at least administrator, who go and test the product. And you will, of course, understand that there are many, many challenges within these

Andrew Zang (09:13)
So our goal with our product portfolio pulse is to ensure accuracy and provide testing to the AI system on behalf of our clients and the landlords so that before they’re deploying the product to their workforce, we know that they’re going to be receiving accurate information to make decisions from.

Michelle Kesil (09:38)
Amazing. So what has been the key to like this creation? Like how did you see this gap and go through the process of creating this new system?

Andrew Zang (09:51)
So these systems are pretty new to everybody, even the generic ones of call it Gemini and Chachi BT. And every single, you feel every single week or every

they’re coming out with new technology and new features and new updates. And what that does is it enables the creator and the entrepreneur to realize that there’s going to be consistently opportunity.

for you to enter these markets and develop new products and new solutions. So being that my entire career has always been within real estate, for me it made sense that there must be a tool, a solution that I can come up with now that technology is more available for those that don’t know how to use it or…

you know, terms of to create the ability today is better than ever. I, you know, before I started this journey, I was really, you know, reluctant to be the first one to try new products and, you know, to utilize technology because to be honest, I felt that user interface and the user experience for some of these products just wasn’t as easy as they could be. And when I sat back and I asked myself, you know, the true reason why

I never adopted some of these products that were out there to be used for real estate. was because it was too difficult. It was not as easy as it should be. And it really, you know, it was really a manual process for me to upload the information anyway to then have it retrieved. You know, it’s too many clicks. So ⁓ I never really adopted too much technology after trying.

Similarly to a lot of my, you know, senior professionals who are set in their ways who have been doing something for 30 or 40 years. So I asked my and those are the ones who are making decisions on, know, and writing the check on, you know, what they’re going to purchase. So I sat back and I asked myself, what is someone who’s been doing something the same way for 30 or 40 years need? And I’m going to focus on that. I’m not going to have the mindset of someone that’s going to try and create something new.

⁓ or something that a younger professional would like to cut corners per se, I said, I’m going to create something that is going to make the lives easier and easy to use for those that have been doing something for 20, 30, 40 years. And that’s what I did. I recognized that what do they need? They need accurate information, accessibly, quicker, wherever, whenever.

So knowing that, I recognize that that’s data. And data is the hardest thing for large language models, like the ones we discussed, the Gemini and a Chat GPT, for them to access. Because they are waiting for the information to basically be published, whether it be in the web, whether it be in an article, in a book, to then retrieve it. So…

understanding that I had two things going for me. I had data and I had the ability to retrieve information that’s going to be proprietary to companies. So when I realized that those were two obstacles that are going to be very difficult for the big brand names to overcome, I said that this is now an opportunity to go forward and try to build. On top of the fact that, you know,

you really need some handholding and TLC, tender loving care to these solutions when you’re dealing with complex documents and you’re dealing with documents that are valued in tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars when you’re in bigger markets like New York and Los Angeles. Many professionals don’t realize that although it’s a 100 page lease, these leases in big markets at times are worth…

sometimes a billion dollars, certain leases to large companies and law firms and tech companies. So the need for it to be reviewed ⁓ is very important. those three identifiers to me was what led me to believe to say, hey, these are the ingredients that need to be

within this recipe of a solution that if I can now ⁓

understand those better and be able to integrate them into a product, ⁓ it’s going to be revolutionary for individuals to finally have access to information. And in real estate, as we all know, information is our currency.

Michelle Kesil (16:05)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you really saw that gap in the market and found a solution to fill it. So that’s always so valuable. So why are you like most focused on scaling next in your business?

Andrew Zang (16:24)
So, you know, many times you don’t want to have a first meeting

a potential client and right then and there expect to, you know, start working or expect to, you know, push something, you know, towards them that they may not be ready for. Whenever you have to do that in any business, it really means that the client themselves was a kind of a little late to the game and they’re trying to, you know, move quickly as they can.

⁓ to be as close as they can to what their competitors and colleagues are doing within a space. So right now, the reality is it’s really the scale comes from education. The ability to first be educating these real estate companies and these landlords what artificial intelligence capabilities are.

There’s a lot of noise and there’s a lot of attention.

towards companies spending money in wasteful manners with regards to artificial intelligence. what that is, it’s really buying what’s called lemon products, right? It’s buying a car that really looks good and sounds good, but it breaks on you as soon as you start using it. And when the big companies, when their products are delivering these type of challenges, what do you think as more specialized, more boutique company who doesn’t have those type of resources?

is going to be able to do. So you want to be able to demo it and start small with these landlords and showcase the value ⁓ that you’re delivering because there’s ⁓ a gap within real estate in terms of asset classes and size and the ability and budget to spend on solutions. So you have to understand that and… ⁓

At times what you’re going to lose is you’re going to lose accuracy. You’re going to lose the guarantee of that accuracy depending on what you’re going to spend. You’re going to get what you pay for. And that is a tough conversation to have with any landlord because you almost have to say to yourself, well, am I OK with spending any money on an AI product that I know is not going to be accurate because

today, if you sign up for almost any of these AI products from even the biggest companies in the world, there is a disclaimer that says, do not make financial decisions based off of this information. And we are still a far away away from any. But yet, a lot of workforce does do that, which is scary in its own right. ⁓

They’re uploading at times information that probably I believe in some states and in the European Union today it’s already illegal to do. And I believe there’s going to be even further mandates to eliminate, call it the cowboys and cowgirls who are, although very ambitious, ⁓ are taking company data and company information and uploading it to their own systems just to help them get work done a little bit quicker.

You know, it’s the catch-22 of we’re happy that you’re getting the job done, but at the same time, ⁓ you know, we’re not ensuring that it’s accurate. So how do you know that it’s accurate and what information are you uploading? Because I know in real estate, many documents have peoples for personal addresses and personal contact information, at times even wire information for letters of credit. So there’s a lot of times, even in ⁓ residential, the photographs of a check.

Right? So a lot of times when you’re uploading this information ⁓ into a third party source and you’re not recognizing that there could be future ⁓ breaches pertaining to it, it’s something that these organizations have to sell for because they know that their employees, they need it. Right? Not that they’re doing it, they’re doing it because they need it.

So if your employee needs something, you should really go and address it. So back to the reality of the question, which is always ongoing scale and how you approach it. For me, it’s always been consulting. ⁓ And consulting is when you’re really educating and working with the client towards a goal, not so much as sales, just selling something for the sake of them buying into it. ⁓ So we’re really taking a…

a consultative approach and understanding that this is not going to be an overnight, ⁓ you know, and although artificial intelligence works fast, right, it’s not going to be an overnight success. And if anyone walks in here into a room and says that they have something that’s going to deliver you overnight success, they’re selling you a lemon.

Michelle Kesil (21:25)
Yeah, that’s so important to harness that difference and yeah, really like bring that consultative approach because people still need that human connection and authority and I think that’s such an important piece that you’re bringing in.

Andrew Zang (21:42)
Totally. ⁓ I always say, real estate is interesting, it’s the home space and the workplace. And at times, those are the two places you spend the most of your days, right? And ⁓ so it’s important that the ability to have access to solutions that make your life a little bit easier ⁓ should be on the docket of conversation and the agenda for companies.

especially in our own homes, if we can find something that helps us, that’s on top of the agenda to get done. at times it comes to cost. There’s no different in the workspace as well when you have an organization trying to understand how to do work better and how to make their employees’ lives a little bit easier.

Michelle Kesil (22:29)
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for bringing that discussion and yeah, that product into the world. So before we wrap up here, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect, collaborate, learn more, where is the best place for them to find you?

Andrew Zang (22:46)
⁓ I’m a big believer in social media, you know, coming from a large organization and, you know, looking at what technology has delivered all of us, the ability to build your own brand. ⁓ LinkedIn and Instagram are two ways where I’ve done business and I’ve met great connections and learn about new things. so ⁓ on Instagram, it’s responsibleai _ guy.

and you’ll get to learn a little bit more about me as a dad and as a passionate artificial intelligence advocate, but then also on LinkedIn, ⁓ Andrew Zang. And my website is bespokeair.ai. The AIR is artificial intelligence review, the review of AI. So it’s bespokeair.ai. ⁓

and you can learn all about what we’re working on and it’ll take you to where Portfolio Pulse is if you want to learn more.

Michelle Kesil (23:48)
I really appreciate your time, your story and perspective. We need more people in this space doing things in this right way, so thank you for being here.

Andrew Zang (23:58)
Thank you so much for having me.

Michelle Kesil (23:59)
Absolutely. And for those of you that are tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’ve subscribed. We have more conversations coming with operators just like Andrew, who are building real businesses. And we’ll see you all in the next episode.