May 14, 2026

ICSC is still a deal show. The floor runs on relationships, retailer expansion plans, and market intel. Not technology keynotes. But something has shifted over the last year: the brokers and developers closing deals fastest aren't grinding harder. They're getting better information and getting it faster. AI is why.

The signal is visible in how ICSC itself is organized this year. For the first time, ICSC+PROPTECH runs as a full co-located conference alongside the main event, not as a side track or breakout room. For years, PropTech had its own separate circuit: different conference, different crowd, different conversation. Developers and brokers did deals while tech people built tools, and the two groups mostly nodded at each other from across a hallway. That separation is ending.

The Gap Between Piloting AI and Actually Using It

The numbers explain why this matters now. According to JLL's 2025 Global Real Estate Technology Survey, nearly 90% of CRE firms have piloted artificial intelligence, but only 5% say they've achieved all of their AI goals. Deloitte's 2026 Commercial Real Estate Outlook found that executives reporting a "transformative impact" from AI dropped from roughly 12% to just 1% year over year.

The problem isn't the technology. It's that most firms bought tools and never changed their workflows. The professionals winning deals at ICSC this week aren't the ones who ran the best pilot. They're the ones who made AI part of how they actually work.

Where AI Is Delivering Real Value in Commercial Development

The clearest proof points are in due diligence and early-stage site analysis: the work that eats the most time and produces the most mistakes.

Work that used to take a senior analyst days — pulling zoning summaries, running entitlement comps, building a preliminary pro forma — is now being compressed into hours. When you're racing to get an LOI out on a site that three other groups are eyeing, the difference between hours and days is the deal.

CRE brokers are feeling this most directly on the deal side. Retail tenants and landlords expect faster, more precise reporting: trade area analysis, co-tenancy comparables, site scoring. The broker who can produce that research in hours rather than days isn't just more efficient. They're easier to trust.

Developers are seeing value even earlier in the process. Whether you're underwriting a ground-up mixed-use project or evaluating a dead anchor box for adaptive reuse, AI can pull zoning summaries, entitlement timelines, fee schedules, and comparable project data before a deal ever reaches the pro forma stage. Sites that once required weeks of early investigation can now be screened in a fraction of the time.

JLL's 2025 Global Real Estate Technology Survey found that 88% of investors have already started piloting AI — meaning it's no longer a differentiator, it's table stakes. The owner who can't answer "what AI are you using?" in a lender or investor meeting is increasingly on the back foot.

What This Means If You're at ICSC This Week

A few questions worth asking yourself, or the people you're meeting with on the floor:

• For brokers: Can you deliver trade area analysis and site reporting with AI-assisted research in under a day? If your competitors can, you need to be able to as well.
• For developers: Are you using AI to screen retail and mixed-use sites before you assign staff time to early investigation? If not, you're spending human hours on deals that a quick AI analysis would have filtered out.
• For owners: When lenders or equity partners ask how you're managing underwriting efficiency across your retail portfolio, do you have a real answer?

From Pilot to Practice

McKinsey estimates that AI could unlock $110 billion to $180 billion in value for the real estate industry. Most of that value is sitting unclaimed, waiting for whoever moves past the pilot.

The firms stuck in that 95% mostly share the same problem: they bought horizontal AI tools and applied them to vertical workflows. The ones breaking through are using tools built specifically for how CRE actually works.

ChatAEC is purpose-built for AEC and commercial real estate professionals who are ready to do exactly that: site analysis, zoning and entitlement research, fee assessment, and due diligence reporting. Not a general-purpose AI tool retrofitted for the industry. A working tool built specifically for this workflow.

If you're ready to put it to work, start here →
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Sources

JLL 2025 Global Real Estate Technology Survey: https://www.jll.com/en-us/newsroom/real-estates-ai-reality-check-companies-piloting-only-achieved-all-ai-goals

Deloitte 2026 Commercial Real Estate Outlook: https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/financial-services/commercial-real-estate-outlook.html

McKinsey & Company, Generative AI and Real Estate Value Estimate: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/real-estate/our-insights/generative-ai-can-change-real-estate-but-the-industry-must-change-to-reap-the-benefits

BusinessWire: ICSC Las Vegas 2026 announces ICSC+PROPTECH co-location: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260505012143/en/ICSC-LAS-VEGAS-2026-Returns-with-Two-New-Co-located-Events-ICSCPROPTECH-and-ICSCWOMEN-IN-CR

Commercial Observer: Agentic AI's Impact on Commercial Real Estate: https://commercialobserver.com/2026/05/agentic-ai-commercial-real-estate-advantages/