Organizations can drive value from AI implementations in a variety of ways, but one of the more common scenarios is taking routine, mundane tasks and leveraging AI to remove those functions from the team.  From there, the two most common avenues for capturing an ROI is to reduce payroll or to reallocate those hours saved to different tasks that drive value for the organization.

As Jay Riley noted:

I think a key takeaway isn't just the time/dollars saved, but what the automation allows companies to invest in with that newfound time or revenue - in this example tenant retention.

In a recent Leadership Lab, Jonathan Buckelew shared a story about how his team was able to use an AI strategy to streamline data consolidation.  Every Monday morning, two of his team members would take 3 hours to compile Monday reports, including leasing information such as tours, applications, and work orders.  By investing $5,000 in AI tools, they were able to cut down that process to just 30 minutes, achieving a payback period of less than a year.

Importantly, Jonathan noted that they are not technically saving that money, in that they are still paying those team members for that time recovered.  Therefore, it is critical that they invest that time saved into other functions that drive income.

In Jonathan's case, they then dedicated that extra 5 hours per week to focused resident retention efforts, such as examining what work orders came through during the weekend, what renewals are coming up, and better processes to interact with residents to impact their decision to stay.

Prior to the change, on a 300 unit property they were experiencing a 40% turnover, and after this process, they were able to drive that down to 35%.That 5% represented a $15,000 cost savings, equating to a 150% ROI annually.

In this way, it was critical that those 5 saved hours didn't disappear, but rather were intentionally allocated to other endeavors which would create a positive ROI.

Watch Jonathan's rundown, and join us for our next Leadership Lab, Leadership in Constant Disruption.