Amidst a lot of uncertain beliefs supporting or rejecting the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), one thing is certain, one cannot refrain from its effects. AI is changing the perspectives of living and witnessing the spring of 21st century. From ‘suggested friends’ on Facebook to ‘videos you might like’ on YouTube, AI is changing the consumption patterns amongst users. Since the real-estate sector happens to be one of the largest drivers for any particular economy, it is ideal to understand the role of AI, despite it is already being used or has futuristic potential to be exploited.

AI in real-estate opens up many unexplored avenues which the unorganised sector took for granted, especially in India. Still, we see issues like town-planning, sewage, availability of basic resources etc. been handled manually my government officials, where there is a high likeliness, bureaucracy and traditional corruption will appear to hobble the development. When this is just the start, one can imagine that on about multiple steps where getting accurate information or approvals get crucial, AI has a strong part to play.

Let us all imagine a scenario. We have a system to drop a pin on a set location on an online map, and there is a system which gives you a prima-facie information of the potential returns on investment, soil quality, future estimations et al. Furthermore, the government authorises the plan using an online platform, where a software would determine the conditions and would qualify the project thereafter. For a developer of today’s age, it might sound like a utopic world, the ‘tedious’ work of today would be a solvable matter of minutes. Yet, one can’t speculate government’s policies of using robots on construction sites, as an alternative to manual labour, as India is unimaginably labour intensive. Still, the manual labour sites could use robotics for an added accuracy and precision in architectural design.

Now, for the consumer, the benefits of AI are not less-of-a-bounty! The inclusion of AI would prevent fraudulent transactions, elongation of time-frame or even legal compliance by the developer. AI could help the buyers by offering a variety of different aspects and thus, making the market fairer and competitive in its actual meaning. The details like air-quality, communicable diseases, water-quality, noise-levels could be monitored on a regular basis and provide the first-hand information to the dwellers. AI will also be instrumental in providing socio-cultural dynamics of the locality, for e.g. religious beliefs, political alignment, the linguistic background of the immediate society etc. Virtual tours of the prospective homes and possible décor ideas are another simplistic feature which surely can woo the buyers by giving them a ‘real’ (virtual) feel.

The government of India has recently announced its intentions of boosting AI under its Digital India initiative. The authorities are pumping thousands of crore to foresee AI solving humanly complex matters. AI on a larger scale could help the government in understanding town planning, migration patterns, petty and deserted local infrastructure etc. because as a famous Danish architect, Bjark Ingels once said, “In the big picture, architecture is the art and science of making sure that our cities and buildings fit with the way we want to live our lives.” We can use AI to fix our big picture.