If you’ve been to Retcon 2025—or followed the PropTech buzz—you know AI is making waves in commercial real estate (CRE). Tenant screening, resident apps, and predictive maintenance are all the rage, especially in multifamily. But here’s the twist: while the industry obsesses over these crowded, tenant-facing waters, two vast “blue oceans”—uncharted markets brimming with opportunity—lie just beneath the surface. One is in multifamily enterprise, but not where you’d expect: the back office, far from tenants. The other? Non-multifamily asset classes like office, retail, and industrial, where AI has barely scratched the surface. Here’s why these two areas are wide-open, untapped frontiers—and why they’re screaming for innovation.
Blue Ocean #1: Multifamily Enterprise—Back-Office Edition
The Crowded Red Ocean:
Walk the halls of Retcon, and multifamily AI is everywhere. Trigo’s nailing tenant verifications. BetterBot’s chatting up residents. RealPage’s predicting tenant needs. These tools are slick, resident-focused, and locked in a fierce “red ocean”—a competitive bloodbath where everyone’s fighting for the same slice of pie: tenant experience and operational efficiency at the front end.
The Untapped Blue Ocean:
But flip the script to the back office—think enterprise-level portfolio management, financial modeling, or compliance—and it’s eerily quiet. Multifamily operators manage thousands of units, juggling complex datasets across acquisitions, dispositions, and capital allocation. Yet, the AI spotlight rarely shines here. Conversations with leaders at Retcon revealed a hunger for solutions that don’t just serve tenants but streamline the business of multifamily at scale.
Why It’s Wide Open:
- Tenant Bias Leaves a Gap: Most AI tools target resident-facing tasks—leasing, maintenance, satisfaction—because that’s where data’s abundant and wins are visible. Back-office functions like underwriting, risk assessment, or portfolio optimization? They’re data-heavy, complex, and underserved.
- Scale Brings Complexity: A 10-unit property is one thing; a 10,000-unit portfolio is another. Current tools falter with enterprise-scale datasets, hallucinating or choking on the nuances of submarket trends and capital stacks.
- Manual Pain Persists: Leaders griped about spreadsheets and legacy systems still ruling the roost for back-office tasks. “Our AI can screen tenants, but it can’t tell me which asset to sell,” one exec said. That’s a blue ocean begging for a paddle.
The Opportunity:
Imagine an AI platform that crunches enterprise-level multifamily data—modeling cash flows, predicting market shifts, or optimizing CapEx across a portfolio—without ever touching a tenant. It’s not about replacing the resident apps; it’s about empowering the C-suite and analysts with precision tools. This isn’t a crowded market—it’s a blank canvas.
Blue Ocean #2: Non-Multifamily Asset Classes
The Crowded Red Ocean:
Multifamily’s dominance at Retcon 2025 was undeniable. It’s the PropTech incubator—high transaction volumes, data richness, and tech-savvy renters make it a natural AI playground. The propagation path is clear: innovations like predictive analytics or access control start here and slowly trickle to other sectors. But that trickle? It’s more like a drip.
The Untapped Blue Ocean:
Step outside multifamily, and the AI landscape for office, retail, and industrial CRE feels like a ghost town. Office leasing execs want tools to model tenant demand or capital structures. Retail managers crave supply chain insights tied to e-commerce giants like Amazon. Industrial operators dream of AI that maps logistics hubs like Tracy or Nashville. Yet, Retcon’s sessions barely whispered about these asset classes. It’s a blue ocean of unmet needs—and untapped potential.
Why It’s Wide Open:
- Multifamily Monopoly: PropTech’s laser focus on multifamily has left office, retail, and industrial in the dust. Tools honed for apartments don’t translate—office tenant dynamics, retail foot traffic, and warehouse logistics demand bespoke AI, not hand-me-downs.
- Unique Pain Points Ignored: Each asset class has its quirks. Office needs deal-making horsepower—think underwriting with 50+ workflows. Retail wrestles with hybrid online-offline trends. Industrial craves supply chain smarts. Generic AI isn’t cutting it, and tailored solutions are scarce.
- Data Disparity: Multifamily’s data abundance fuels its AI edge, but other sectors lag with fragmented, siloed info. No one’s cracked the code to unify and leverage this mess—yet.
The Opportunity:
Picture an AI agent that dissects office lease negotiations, predicts retail occupancy based on e-commerce shifts, or maps industrial investment potential in mid-tier markets. These aren’t multifamily retreads—they’re purpose-built for asset classes crying out for innovation. It’s not a race to catch up; it’s a chance to leap ahead.
Why These Blue Oceans Matter
These aren’t just gaps—they’re goldmines. Here’s why:
- First-Mover Advantage: The red oceans of tenant-facing multifamily AI are crowded with sharks—Trigo, RealPage, SITE. But back-office multifamily and non-multifamily AI? Barely a ripple. Early players can own these spaces.
- High Stakes, High Rewards: The back office drives strategic decisions—where to buy, sell, or invest. Non-multifamily AI unlocks new markets and asset classes. These aren’t small wins; they’re game-changers.
- Customization Is King: Off-the-shelf tools hit a wall with complexity (that pesky 20% we’ve heard about). Tailored, enterprise-grade AI—whether for a multifamily portfolio’s back end or an industrial warehouse’s logistics—meets real needs, not generic hype.
The CRE Implications
For the CRE industry, these blue oceans signal a shift:
- Multifamily Isn’t the Whole Story: It’s the proving ground, sure, but the future lies in diversifying AI’s reach—both within multifamily’s back office and beyond its walls.
- Complexity Demands Innovation: Simple tasks are covered. The next wave is about tackling the tough stuff—enterprise-scale analytics, asset-specific workflows, and messy data.
- Opportunity Knocks: Companies like xAI, with an eye on robust, customized solutions, can lead the charge. Think underwriting super-agents for office or supply chain predictors for industrial—tools that don’t just adapt but define the market.
Charting the Course
Retcon 2025 showed us AI’s power in CRE—but it also showed us where it’s not. Multifamily’s back-office engine and the sprawling non-multifamily frontier are blue oceans waiting for explorers. They’re not crowded, not commoditized, and not trivial. They’re where the next big wins hide—untouched, unclaimed, and ripe for the taking.
So, CRE leaders and innovators, here’s the challenge: don’t just swim in the red ocean of tenant apps and multifamily hacks. Set sail for these blue waters. Build the tools that power the back office and conquer new asset classes. Because in these uncharted seas, the future of CRE isn’t just found—it’s made.
