Energised Thinking: From Data to Dialogue. How AI is Redefining Commercial Real Estate Marketing
I recently hosted an Energised Thinking workshop for a major commercial real estate client.
The goal was simple: to step back from day-to-day activity and look at how marketing in our sector is evolving. What’s changing, what’s challenging, and where the new opportunities lie.
What struck me most was how much the conversation has shifted. Commercial real estate marketing is no longer about “space and specification”; it’s about purpose, connection and personalisation.
During the session, three key themes emerged:
Data + AI-Enabled Personalisation
Place-Based Storytelling & ESG Branding
Omnichannel & Hybrid Marketing.
Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing thoughts on each.
This first article focuses on the most transformative of the three: the role of data and AI in reshaping how we connect properties to people.
From Property-Centric to People-Centric
For years, CRE marketing was led by square footage, yield, and postcode. Now, it’s led by audience intelligence. We’re moving from property-centric to people-centric thinking, and AI is the catalyst.
With access to data on tenant behaviour, business growth patterns, and market sentiment, we can identify who’s most likely to engage, when they’re ready to act, and what truly motivates them.
It’s the difference between saying “We have 50,000 sq ft available” and saying “This environment supports your hybrid working model and aligns with your ESG ambitions.”
That subtle shift transforms a listing into a conversation.
Data + AI: The New Creative Partner
AI isn’t just a back-office tool — it’s fast becoming the creative ally of marketing teams. Generative platforms and automation systems (like HubSpot, SharpLaunch, or Buildout) can help produce tailored content at scale, but the magic still lies in human insight.
Smart marketers are using AI to:
Analyse enquiry and CRM data to identify “look-alike” prospects most likely to convert.
Generate adaptive content that adjusts tone and emphasis depending on audience type: investor, occupier, or agent.
Automate nurturing campaigns that respond dynamically to engagement and timing.
This doesn’t replace creativity; it amplifies it. It gives us the data clarity to tell more relevant stories and the time to think more strategically.
From Insight to Foresight
One of the most exciting developments is predictive marketing, which uses machine learning to move from insight to foresight. Imagine knowing which tenants are likely to renew, relocate, or expand months before they do. Or understanding which content, video tours, ESG case studies, or testimonials, will resonate most with specific sectors.
AI can already do this. It helps marketers launch campaigns ahead of demand, not in response to it. That’s a game-changer in a market where timing and relevance determine success.
Keeping It Human
But there’s an important caveat. Real estate is still, and will always be, a relationship business. AI can help us make smarter decisions, but it can’t replace trust, empathy, or understanding.
That’s why the best marketing leaders are building frameworks where AI informs creativity, not replaces it. They’re setting ethical standards, maintaining human oversight, and using data to guide authentic storytelling, not to automate it.
The Opportunity Ahead
The role of data and AI goes beyond just helping us sell space. It’s to help us understand what kind of spaces people need to thrive and to express that with clarity and conviction.
For forward-thinking real estate brands, this means re-engineering marketing from the inside out:
Structuring data so it supports intelligent automation.
Embedding ESG and wellbeing insights into messaging.
Combining human intuition with digital intelligence to create campaigns that speak directly to both the head and the heart.
In other words, turning data into dialogue and information into inspiration.
Next in this Energised Thinking series, I’ll explore Place-Based Storytelling and ESG Branding. How great property marketing is increasingly defined not by features, but by feeling: the sense of place, purpose, and community that makes people proud to belong.
