Buildings 2.0 Library
Conversations on the future of the built environment
81 episodes of the Buildings 2.0 podcast, each bound as a short book: the ideas, the numbers and the lines worth keeping.
Season 2, Episode 31 /Jul 14, 2026
Why one AI platform can't run a real estate company
Andrew Zang, Bespoke AIR
Jul 14, 2026 /AI & Automation
Why one AI platform can't run a real estate company
Andrew Zang is the founder and CEO of Bespoke AIR, an AI company for commercial real estate, after thirteen years as a real estate attorney and leasing professional who worked on some $4 billion of Manhattan office deals. He argues for responsible AI in a business where a single lease can be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Andrew Zang, Founder, CEO, Bespoke AIR
In this conversation
Andrew's account of what landlords are actually asking about AI, from inside the room.
The offensive side of real estate, leasing and asset management, and why he chose to focus AI there.
Why public data is recycled and the proprietary truth lives inside an owner's four walls, including the super who keeps no records.
His first-step advice for a landlord: a starter pack, a budget, and a committee that knows the daily workflow.
If you think that someone's going to offer you a product that was built for HR and accounting that's gonna help you lease space, you're wrong.
Andrew Zang
Chapters
Responsible AI
What responsible AI means when a lease is worth nine figures.
What leasing should look like
What leasing should look like if you could wave a wand.
The first thing to do
The first thing Andrew asks a landlord to do.
The bottleneck to speed
Where deals get stuck, and how to speed them up.
By the numbers
Projected peak in U.S. office vacancy, early 2026
Andrew's whole business is filling buildings faster. Moody's expects the empty space to keep growing before it turns.
Source: Moody's Analytics research, via Scotsman Guide (2024) ↗At thirty dollars a month per user, some real estate organizations are running ten billion dollar organizations. You get what you pay for.
Andrew Zang
Takeaways
One platform cannot run a real estate company. Legal, HR, accounting and maintenance are defense; leasing and acquisitions make the revenue, and tools built for the back office do not fill buildings.
At $30 a month per user, some ten-billion-dollar organizations are running on tools priced for a dentist's office. You get what you pay for.
A human still redlines a ten-year lease. Responsible AI in real estate means a human in the loop with the ability to audit the machine's accuracy.
There needs to be people that are real estate first and tech second.
Andrew Zang