At Connect CRE Canada 2026, taking place June 25 in Toronto, attendees will glean insights into the conversations shaping Canadian real estate—and the fast-growing and quickly evolving role of technology in commercial real estate operations and decision-making. In the Fireside Chat session, Peter Altobelli, president of Yardi Canada, and Connect Executive Vice-president Sarah Quinn will discuss how technological advancements are shaping these conversations. Here, Altobelli sets the stage with a discussion of how natural language querying is playing an increasing role in commercial real estate.

Connect: Tell us a little about the evolution of natural-language querying. In particular, how did input from users such as Yardi Systems shape the development of interfaces?

Altobelli: Natural-language querying has come a long way, but the goal has always been simple: Help people get to the information they need faster.

For Yardi, that is a complex challenge. We have more than 40 years of product development behind us, and our platforms supports the full real estate lifecycle. So early on, one of the biggest hurdles was helping large language models understand how our data is structured and how clients actually use it day to day.

That real-world input is what makes the technology useful. Model Context Protocol, or MCP, has been a big step forward because it gives us a more structured way to connect data to AI interfaces. With Virtuoso, through Agents and Connectors, we can reduce a lot of the heavy data engineering work that used to be required and bring value to clients much faster.

Connect: What options does natural language querying open up for individual real estate executives and decision-makers, compared to earlier iterations that relied heavily on data analysts?

Altobelli: The biggest change is access.

In the past, if you needed a specific answer, you often had to wait for an analyst or a custom report. Natural language querying gives more people the ability to ask questions directly and get answers faster.

And it is not just executives. We are seeing value across property management, accounting, maintenance, leasing, operations and finance.

In accounts payable, for example, Yardi processes about 75 million invoices each year across our client base. Tools like Smart AP and agents like Smart Approval help reduce manual entry and move invoices through approval workflows more efficiently.

On the maintenance side, AI can help a technician identify the parts needed from a work order and move the purchase request forward without stopping to search manually.

For month-end accounting, larger portfolios can spend hundreds of hours on close processes. AI can help reduce that workload in a meaningful way. The same applies to leasing and acquisitions, where teams can upload complex documents and have key information extracted and connected back into the system in minutes.

That is where the value is. It is not about replacing people. It is about removing friction from work they are already doing.

Altobelli: How has Yardi Systems designed its Virtuoso platform to take advantage of natural language querying?

A: With Virtuoso, the focus was to make the platform open and practical.

Real estate organizations often work across a mix of systems, data sources and processes. AI needs to fit into that reality, not force companies to rebuild around it.

Virtuoso is designed to connect to Yardi data as well as non-Yardi systems. With Virtuoso Composer Agents, clients can connect to third-party tools and move data in both directions. They can use standard agents, build their own or work with a qualified partner.

With Virtuoso Connectors, clients can enable the MCP tool connections they need and use plain language prompts to work across connected datasets.

The goal is to help clients get more out of the systems and data they already rely on.

Connect: Is integration between AI tools easier today? What has made this feasible?

Altobelli: Yes, definitely.

Large language models have become much more reliable, and standards like Model Context Protocol have made it easier to connect tools and data in a structured way.

Before MCP, a lot of this work required custom integration. That meant more time, more maintenance and more complexity, especially around enterprise data, security and permissions.

MCP gives us a more consistent framework, but you still need the right foundation behind it. At Yardi, that includes secure authentication through YardiOne and OAuth, along with cloud hosting services that support the reliability and performance enterprise clients expect.

So what makes this practical today is the combination of newer AI standards and the infrastructure we have built over many years.

Canada’s commercial real estate market is evolving fast—be in the room where it all comes together. On June 25 in Toronto, Connect CRE Canada brings together the leaders actively shaping the market. Join an influential audience of 200 investors, developers, brokers, lenders, and owners for high-level networking and timely discussions on the trends impacting today’s market. Hear from leaders at TD Asset Management, Fiera Real Estate, Starlight, Woodbourne Capital Management, REMAX, Fengate Asset Management, Stonebridge Financial, Yardi, and more. Register today to stay ahead of the market and build valuable industry connections.