CREi Summit Takeaways: AI, Online Presence, and What’s Next for CRE

September 17, 2025

CREi Summit Takeaways: AI, Online Presence, and What’s Next for CRE

Welcome back to On The Ground, your bi-monthly CRE newsletter powered by DealGround.

Last week I made it out to Palm Desert for the CREi Summit. Five years in, this event has built a reputation for being where brokers and innovators get real about where our industry is heading.

Here are the four big takeaways I walked away with:

1. Your online presence is your brand.
It’s not optional anymore. Deals are happening because people find you on LinkedIn, X, or through an article or podcast. I’ve lived it myself - one of my blog posts back in 2010 directly led to a $200,000 fee. That’s the ROI of building your voice online.

2. Technology adoption is table stakes.
No one’s debating whether tech tools matter - only which ones are worth adopting and how fast you can implement them. The urgency was clear: if you’re not moving with tech, you’re falling behind.

3. AI will transform CRE.
This wasn’t hype. Conversations were grounded in real examples: underwriting, risk analysis, predictive analytics, and automations that free brokers from mundane admin tasks so they can focus on relationships.

4. Real connections still drive the business.
The most engaging content wasn’t the polished thought leadership - it was personal stories. CRE is still a relationship business, and people want to know the person behind the deal.

Where We’re Headed Next

Looking ahead, three things stood out:

  • AI will shift from nice-to-have to must-have.

  • Data integration will be expected - no more data siloed in multiple platforms.

  • User experience and speed will separate the tools brokers actually use from the ones they don’t.

That’s exactly why we’re building DealGround:

Data Collection + Accessibility
Capture the flood of deal info in your inbox and make it usable instantly.

Automation to Reclaim Time
No more manual data entry - instant data extraction, customizable reporting, and unified workflows.

Decision Support
Combine intuition and relationships with AI-driven insights to help you make more money.

If we didn’t cross paths at CREi, stop by Booth 1510 at ICSC Western Division in Palm Springs in two weeks. I’ll show you what we’re building at DealGround, and how we can help you streamline your process, save time, and make more money.

Hope to see you there.

LFG!

The DealGround Team