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According to Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI), the value of business acquisitions worldwide will rise to $9.6 trillion in the coming years. Like many other industries, the real estate industry is switching to a "data-driven" world and is creating use cases of artificial intelligence. 'Artificial Intelligence' (AI) is entering the real estate business from consumer buying and selling strategies to investing in the designing, and construction of large commercial, residential and mixed use projects.

Knight Frank 2022 report projects around 5 per cent capital value growth for the residential property segment in the country in 2022.

While AI describes technology that can draw logical conclusions and learn on its own, today's AI is actually closer to advanced Machine Learning (ML) with sophisticated algorithms that processes huge amount of predefined input or user behaviour to make accurate and near-term predictions.

The current global crisis due to Omicron and Covid cases are also pushing both, developers and customers, to go for online booking of retail and residential spaces. This would eventually compel the arrival of AI and ML in the Indian real-estate sector. As of now, Indian real-estate sector remains in the early stages of deploying AI or ML in retail as well as the residential sector.

Pankaj Bansal, Director M3M India is an aggressive new age real-estate developer in India. M3M India itself is the largest developer of retail space in North India by delivering over 4 million square feet of retail space and 20 million square feet of overall space in one of the most promising growth areas of Gurugram. M3M India is aggressively looking forward to the advent of AI and ML in realty in India, beginning 2022.

"Speaking from a developer point of view, we expect an extremely intelligent technology that addresses all the concerns and needs of developers and consumers. It should be able to suggest hundreds and thousands of designs and construction options. As a developer we would like to know sun light, vastu, wind direction, carpet area, etc., before we conceive or design a project for customers. Once the project is of the liking of customers, selling will never be an issue. We are also looking forward to a technology, whether it is AI or ML, which can do multiple micro checks in design and construction both. It should be able to analyze, evaluate and suggest doable solutions. And we see this without any human intervention.

"Few well known developers in some parts of the developed world have used AI to give an extremely unexpected look, feel and experience in select private houses. AI in these houses has virtually eliminated human intervention and has taken over the complete control of all the amenities and facilities." says Pankaj Bansal.

Research reports suggest that AI is also able to support the analysis by studying market preferences. A very important advantage that comes with the use of AI algorithms is that it can be adapted to reflect special market segments and it can also be automatically retrained and adjusted to include new information.

Pankaj says, "It is true. As M3M India is also expanding the business, we would want our customers and investors to have smart information about our projects and deeper knowledge of overall real-estate sector, and most importantly, how the assets they have purchased or likely to purchase, are expected to give returns in near future and in the long run."

Most of the individuals and institutions also take loans to buy an asset and timely possession becomes a critical factor. Pankaj says, "When you have history, reputation and structural information of the project developer at your access, and if you are convinced about the real-timeline of the delivery of the projects; you would certainly try to look into many easy loan repayment options," Pankaj added.

Looking at the real-estate developer perspective, 'AI' and 'ML' will become prominent tools for lead generation for a developer. 'AI'-enabled programs would capture consumer information for e-Commerce business development and in addition help improve leadership and marketing strategies through machine learning environments.

Adoption of 'AI' and 'ML' in the real-estate sector will also help Government housing projects, particularly the 100 smart city project across India.

When the real-estate sector is looking forward to contributing 13 per cent to India's GDP by 2025 and reach a market size of USD 1 trillion by 2030, how AI and ML will be aligned in this vision is yet to be seen.