AI is completely changing the multi-family real estate decision-making process, says Yardi’s head for Canada.

Multi-family investors, developers and operators can no longer base their decisions by using the conventional method of reviewing results from the past five to 10 years and applying them to the next five to 10 years, said Peter Altobelli during Connect’s 2026 CRE Canada conference in Toronto.

Companies and other organizations think that they can apply AI to what they have done previously or look at the same light while deploying the technology, but they can’t, he said during a fireside chat with Connect Co-founder and Executive Vice-president Sarah Quinn.

Point solutions versus non-point solutions, integrated solutions versus non-integrated solutions, best of breed versus non-best of breed style solutions will be affected, starting immediately.

“All of that and all of that decision-making will change in the future,” said Altobelli. “The rules in which you made those decisions by up until today are not the same rules that you will be thinking about in the future. And, AI is driving that change.”

The misconception surrounding AI relates to the “thinking piece” rather than the “technology piece.”

Contrary to popular perception, he said, multi-family and other commercial real estate firms will not have to reduce staff as they implement AI solutions. Instead, companies will need to redeploy their employees to maximize the operational efficiencies and other benefits tied to implementing AI.

“The way you operate your business 12 to 18 months from now will be different than today if you embrace AI,” he said. “If you don’t embrace AI, you will get caught. You’re going to get caught by people wanting to join companies that embrace new technologies. Operating it will make massive change.”

Multi-family rental real estate operations will be affected all the way from original leases to occupancy to renewals and property maintenance, among other areas, he said. Apartment-condominium managers will also be affected in several ways.

Yardi’s lease-audit software can detect lease data-entry errors made several years ago, either manually or electronically, in just a matter of moments.

Large institutional players are driving the massive change occurring in conjunction with AI adoption. Yardi clients like Starlight Investments and QuadReal Property Group are using AI to drive change in their organizations.

While being “bullish” about AI, the two firms are also being “conservative” by testing changes instead of implementing them right away.

The multi-family sector versus other conventional real estate is “leading the charge” when it comes to using AI to drive change. But Canada is six to eight months behind the U.S. when it comes to embracing new AI solutions, because Canadian firms are more conservative in nature and take more of a wait-and-see approach than their American counterparts.

“I’ve always seen our [Canadian] clients in the industry react in that way where they’re more conservative in the sense of making a change and pacing that change into their business a little bit differently than in the U.S.,” said Altobelli. “In the U.S., they will dive in 100%, get into it, do it. If it fails, they’ll figure it out and continue.

“Canadians like to take a little bit of a more cautious approach on that. And, that’s cultural. It’s the way it is in this country and the way it’s been since I’ve ever been involved.”

Altobelli urged conference attendees to ensure that their data can be stored cleanly in a large database and deployed properly in multiple ways. “Clean” data is data that contains basic information, such as lease start and end dates, rental rates and parking charges.

“These are all defined fields,” he said. “Clean data means it’s defined. It also means that the AI engine understands what it is and then how to use that data.”

Altobelli noted that he used simple examples. But with multi-family real estate and other conventional assets, clean data gets “really wide and really deep.”

Companies’ AI needs will vary according to each organization’s size. He urged conference attendees not to get caught up by the latest AI “fancy trinket” and warned that 98% of new technology companies offering AI solutions will probably fail, or be acquired by large companies like Yardi, because “the product that they’re selling on its own looks really cool but doesn’t do enough.”

When it comes to recruiting young talent in the new AI-driven multi-family environment going forward, companies will need to seek analytics-minded post-secondary graduates who can communicate effectively to use AI properly, concluded Altobelli.

Pictured: Peter Altobelli, head of Yardi’s Canadian business (right), answers questions from Connect Co-founder and Executive Vice-president Sarah Quinn during Connect’s 2026 CRE Canada conference in Toronto.

Photo: Connect Media