May 21, 2026
It seems an appropriate time to share how RCLCO and RFA are embracing AI and also managing the risks, and what that means for our clients, partners, and the investment community.
An Important Moment, But a Bend in the Continuum
While this feels like a historically unique moment in technological change, our embrace of AI is part of a continuum and a concerted effort to stay at the forefront of technology adoption in the service of our clients.
RCLCO was founded and provided data-driven, insightful real estate market and financial analysis before even calculators were widespread. We eventually embraced personal computers and were an early adopter of Lotus Notes in the early 1990s, which allowed us to build quantitative models to forecast real estate demand and to better model project performance and other trends unimaginable just a few years prior. Subsequent years brought improved versions of Excel, the Internet, vastly improved real estate data sources, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and other technologies that dramatically changed the way we worked and added value to the real estate industry.
RCLCO launched a Business Intelligence unit in 2015 to put us ahead of the curve in data warehousing, template development, and early machine learning. Rebranded as RCLCO Innovation, Data, and Analytics (“IDA”), this early investment paved the way for effective deployment of “AI” as large language models became increasingly sophisticated. Today, a dedicated team of programmers, data engineers, and analysts work full-time to select, adapt, and build new tools for our consulting and investment teams.
Our approach to technology has remained consistent:
Thoughtfully adopt new tools to improve efficiency, maintain rigorous human oversight to ensure accuracy, and redirect time freed from mechanical tasks toward innovation and deeper, more creative analysis.
We monitor productivity gains and quality improvements carefully and are confident that while many tasks can now be completed more quickly, the more striking impact is the improvement in quality, depth, and creativity. Our experience to date with AI suggests that we will be able to accomplish some if not much of our existing work better, faster, and cheaper, and may be able to share some of these savings with our clients. Our primary goal, however, is to leverage these tools to innovate and drive more rigorous and impactful work. The bar is and should be much higher.
Embracing the AI Moment
The last 12 months have been particularly exciting, and we believe we are beginning to see the benefits of robust and thoughtful AI integration across the firm. Today’s generative AI capabilities represent the next meaningful step in our analytical evolution. We are actively integrating AI into select workflows where it can meaningfully support our teams, including research synthesis, drafting support, data organization, internal knowledge management, and process automation. In many cases, these capabilities are being layered into existing methodologies, templates, and analytical frameworks that have been refined over many years.
Critically, we do not in any way view AI as a replacement for professional expertise or judgment, in fact the opposite. Real estate remains an inherently nuanced and highly contextual business. Market dynamics, entitlement environments, investment strategies, client objectives, and the simple fact that every property is inherently unique all require experienced interpretation and strategic thinking that AI cannot (yet) replicate.
Our approach is therefore centered on augmentation rather than substitution: reducing repetitive tasks, improving access to information, and allowing professionals to spend more time on higher-value analysis and client strategy. We are seeing in real time that the quality and the depth of analytics we can perform is growing quickly, and along with it is the need for judgement, quality control, and senior team member oversight.
The Problem of Information
Another trend that is not new but requires as much care as ever is the problem of bad data, which real estate struggles with more than other industries. Over the last 20 years data has become much easier to acquire from third-party sources, but it’s not necessarily cheaper or better. Today we struggle with the need to continue to spend significant time checking, augmenting, even rebuilding critical data sets that are the basis of so much of our work. In the age of AI the risk of bad data populating elegant analytics is scary, which is why we remain committed to investing the time and rigor required to refine the data underlying our work rather than accepting compromised results.
Where We Go From Here
We are in the early stages of what will be a rapidly evolving journey. The firms that successfully combine deep domain expertise with advanced analytical capabilities will be better positioned to navigate increasingly complex markets and deliver more responsive, data-informed advice to clients. At RCLCO and RFA, we are continuing to invest in our IDA team, expand our AI toolset, and identify new areas where these capabilities can add meaningful value. We expect the pace of change to accelerate, and we intend to remain at the forefront of it.
RCLCO’s Commitment
We also recognize that responsible implementation matters and we have been very purposeful in documenting policies and practices, protecting client data, redesigning workflows, and strengthening the management discipline needed to address the challenges discussed above head on. Our commitment to our clients, partners and investors is that human review, quality control, and professional accountability remain essential components of every deliverable, and our approach is guided by internal review processes, established quality standards, and careful attention to client confidentiality and data security. Our clients can expect shorter turnaround times and more and better analytics, but also the same standard of care, judgment, and accountability that has defined RCLCO’s work for almost six decades — this is a continuation of that commitment, not a departure from it.
