Eyeing Computer Vision's Place In Real Estate

How Computer Vision is Used Today

Computer vision, a type of artificial intelligence, allows computers to understand objects and humans so that the computer can "see" the world around it.The retail and manufacturing industries, early adopters of computer vision, use the technology for operations improvement:

Retailers use computer vision for things like detecting customer movement patterns, inventory management, and theft prevention

Manufacturers use computer vision for things like quality inspection, product sorting, and process automation

Fifth Wall POV: From Fifth Wall Investment Partner Sarah Liu

As artificial intelligence comes to the built world, I'm very interested in applications of computer vision beyond just physical security. For good reason, physical security may be the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of computer vision and real estate: cameras have been used for security in real estate for years, and there are definitely interesting applications to automate camera security as AI continues to evolve.

But physical security is just one of many potential use cases for computer vision in the real estate industry...Computer vision can help flag when a trash bin is full, when a common area needs to be cleaned, and even detect tenant/employee/guest misbehavior. Leveraging this technology in real estate operations can help address labor shortage issues many industries across the built world have for on-site staff, and ultimately drive cost savings. (While there are some privacy concerns around surveillance, I’m confident that personal information and facial recognition can be limited while still leveraging camera and sensor data to improve operational efficiency.)

I’ve seen just a few companies building around this space so far, and I hope to see more in the future, as tools like Archetype AI (who just raised a $13 million seed round) make getting started easier.