Expo Real 2019

•••2••• Innovationen New systems create new values A Berlin-based start-up offers interesting solutions for the real estate industry B y 2025, the amount of digital data is expected to increase to 175 zettabytes. But what about the data that has not yet been digitized? How can companies use this data for themselves if they are not even in digital form? So it is with floor plans. Most in- ventory holders are still unaware of the wealth of data in their cel- lars. Spellbound on paper or mi- crofilm, they are not economically viable. Not only does it take a long time for these plans to be pro- cessed, the error rate would be too high. To solve this problem, the supreme discipline of digital technologies lends itself to: artifi- cial intelligence. The Berlin-based PropTech star-tup Convaron has developed such an artificial intel- ligence (AI), which makes it pos- sible to obtain new insights into the condition of stocks, even in the case of extensive real estate portfolios. Special image recognition Artificial intelligence is a special form of algorithm that can de- velop similar capabilities to hu- man intelligence. At Convaron, this is a special image recognition algorithm that can quickly read thousands of floor plans. “The al- gorithms that we use fall into the category ‘Convolutional Neural Network’. This form of AI consists of countless layers. Embedded in these layers are filters that recog- nize certain features. In our case, for example, whether the floor plan shows a door or a window,” says Tim Meger-Guingamp, CEO and co-founder of Convaron. Housing in cities is becoming in- creasingly valuable. The change in climate and demography, com- bined with a lack of building land, increases the demands on the in- dustry. Real estate needs to be managed more sustainably, which also includes reducing energy consumption. To achieve this goal, reliable data is needed. “With the help of our AI, we can see for the first time what real estate is like,” says Meger-Gu- ingamp, who founded Convaron in 2015 with Alexander Dolokov. The AI is the result of Dolokov’s thesis at the TU Berlin: “The great ben- efit of our application is that we can make data-driven decisions along the entire real estate life cycle.” For example in the case of modernization, when windows or doors need to be replaced. To date, Convaron has digitized and evaluated over 70,000 floor plans. The data is processed in a customer portal in such a way that property managers, as- set, facility and project manag- ers can access it at any time or transfer it into their own ERP system. Creating new values and making better use of what already exists are the high goals that Convaron sets itself. “In my opinion, the opportunities of digitization are not fully ex- ploited,” says Meger-Guingamp. “Convaron sees itself as an ena- bler and strong partner in the in- dustry, making a significant con- tribution to the digitalization of real estate.” Making sales better and faster Digitalization and AI can also im- prove negotations between bro- ker and client. To sell efficiently, a broker needs to offer clients real estate that suits their tastes and desires. The entire process of getting to know the tastes and needs of customers is long and sometimes difficult. Often the entire sales/purchase process takes a few weeks. This is where AI comes in handy as it provides results tailored to the needs of its customers, due to its fast learn- ing ability. For example, bots (based on AI) can learn from past interactions with other interested buyers and compare the tastes of customers for the most accurate results. These bespoke solutions are created in seconds. The use of bots often causes skeptical reactions, but their effi- ciency and availability around the clock make them a strong selling component. In spite of the many opportunities and benefits offered by artifi- cial intelligence, many wonder if their jobs will be replaced in a few years by machines and artificial in- telligence. This fear should be tak- en once and for all. Rather, there is a simultaneity and cooperation between the two worlds. Inves- tors, asset managers and owners who are closing themselves to the world of artificial intelligence inevitably take a back seat in the marketplace. AI creates bespoke solutions in seconds Photo: Austin Distel Artificial intelligence helps to generate reliable data. Photo: Helloquence