This article is written for CFOs, COOs, and senior finance and operations leaders in commercial real estate. It is especially relevant for private equity firms, developers, and owner-operators seeking to improve efficiency, manage risk with confidence, and scale decision-making through AI-powered underwriting, portfolio intelligence, and automated reporting.

The IMN COO & CFO Forum brought together the decision-makers who keep commercial real estate (CRE) organizations running: the finance and operations leaders who bear responsibility for growth, efficiency, and risk management in an increasingly volatile market.  

With over 30% of the audience made up of CFOs and COOs — and the remainder largely funds, owners/operators, and developers — this year’s sessions reflected a growing consensus: the future of CRE finance will be written with artificial intelligence (AI) at the center.

Across panels, one theme came up repeatedly: the need to move beyond incremental efficiencies toward structural transformation. The leaders who spoke were clear — AI-driven intelligence, automated underwriting, real-time portfolio monitoring, and decision-support tools are no longer optional. They are becoming the standard of competitive advantage.

AI across the CRE transaction lifecycle

Several executives reflected on how transaction cycles have become increasingly complex. As one put it:

“I’ve been in CRE nearly two decades, and the way deal flow is managed has barely changed. We emphasize technologically managing the transactional lifecycle for a more efficient and more agreeable future.”

Smart Capital Center streamlines every stage of the transaction lifecycle

For CFOs and COOs, the transaction lifecycle has traditionally been slowed by fragmented systems, siloed data, and manual reporting. Underwriting could take weeks, often relied on inconsistent inputs, and portfolio monitoring was reactive rather than predictive. These inefficiencies create bottlenecks at precisely the moments when speed and precision are most critical.

Smart Capital Center eliminates those frictions with an AI-powered platform that digitizes and connects the entire CRE investment lifecycle — from deal origination through underwriting, portfolio management, and divestiture.  

Instead of managing dozens of disconnected workflows, finance leaders can rely on one integrated system that brings every stage together in real-time.

• Origination and dealflow: The platform automatically screens opportunities, analyzes due diligence documents, and generates investment memos in minutes, giving leaders faster visibility into risk and return. This means fewer missed opportunities due to delayed data and slower processes

• Underwriting: Smart Capital Center extracts, structures, and analyzes financial data from rent rolls, leases, financial statements, and offering memorandums. AI-powered analysts surface anomalies, benchmark assumptions, and deliver deep insights in minutes, turning what once required manual data entry and spreadsheets into data-driven decisions at speed

• Portfolio management: With real-time monitoring, leaders gain a live view into asset performance, tenant risk, and debt obligations. Stress tests can be run instantly across thousands of scenarios to understand exposure to interest rates, vacancies, or refinancing cliffs.

• Investor and stakeholder reporting: Automated reporting eliminates version control issues and manual updates. From asset summary reports to covenant monitoring, CFOs and COOs can produce investor-ready documents instantly — keeping capital partners informed with accuracy and transparency.

Another participant emphasized the stakes:  

“Transaction lifecycles can feel like repeating the same process fifteen times. AI can expedite data collection, communication with investors and tenants, acquisitions, and divestitures — making CRE transactions easier, faster, and less costly.”

Q: How is AI changing the CRE transaction lifecycle?
Participant insight:

“AI allows us to expedite data collection, streamline communications with tenants and investors, and simplify acquisitions and divestitures. It makes transactions easier and faster.”

Another perspective:

“We’re already using AI agents in underwriting and asset management. They generate valuations, support financing conversations, and ensure we meet criteria faster. AI helps us make decisions with greater confidence.”

From static data to live intelligence

During discussions on operations, one contributor put it plainly:  

“We’ve used AI agents for our underwriting and asset managers by providing information, generating automated valuations, and assisting in conversations about financing. This is bringing much more confidence into decision-making.”

In other words, AI is helping financial leaders move from static, after-the-fact reporting toward live intelligence — tools that don’t just describe what happened but illuminate what is happening now.

Smart Capital Center enables live intelligence for CFOs and COOs

Static, after-the-fact reporting leaves leaders reacting too late to act with confidence. Smart Capital Center delivers always-on, live intelligence by integrating 1B+ market signals and 120M+ property records into one connected platform.

• Real-time updates: Rent rolls, financials, and operating data refresh continuously, giving leaders a current view of their portfolios.

• AI research agents: Surface anomalies in financials, spot NOI optimization opportunities, and connect tenant performance with external market signals.

• Visual intelligence: Drill down instantly into property- or loan-level dashboards, generate visualizations on demand, and align teams on one version of the truth.

For CFOs and COOs, this eliminates blind spots between reporting cycles and replaces lagging data with actionable insight at the speed of the market.  

Stress testing and risk intelligence

When the conversation turned to portfolio management, many agreed that stress testing is now a top priority. One executive noted: “We’re finding enormous value in stress-testing portfolios with millions of scenarios. It gives leadership visibility into downside protection and shows us five or more ways to improve our portfolio’s quality.”

Q: What role does AI play in portfolio stress testing?

‍Perspective from the stage:

“The ability to run millions of scenarios quickly is a game-changer. We can measure downside risk, build in protections, and identify ways to improve portfolio quality after a stress test. It gives leadership more clarity around risk exposure.”

‍Complementary view:

“Technology is critical here. Managing the lifecycle of a portfolio requires tools that can handle the scale and complexity of today’s market. AI is what makes that future possible.”

Smart Capital Center delivers proactive portfolio and risk intelligence

Traditional stress testing and reporting rely on Excel models and static assumptions — far too slow for today’s volatility. Smart Capital Center replaces this with automated, AI-powered monitoring that gives CFOs and COOs a live, enterprise-wide view of portfolio health.

With Smart Capital, finance leaders move from lagging oversight to proactive intelligence through:

• Scenario modeling – Instantly run thousands of downside simulations to measure exposure to interest rate changes, vacancies, refinancing cliffs, and more.

• 24/7 monitoring and risk alerts – AI agents continuously scan tenant credit, lease rollovers, NOI pressure, and market volatility, surfacing early warnings before risks escalate.

• Debt and covenant management – Track DSCR/LTV compliance, loan health, and refinancing requirements in real time.

• Always-on AI analysts – A digital workforce reconciles financials and surfaces insights continuously, scaling analyst capacity without additional headcount.

• Enterprise connectivity – Data flows seamlessly across underwriting, asset management, and servicing, eliminating silos and ensuring leadership operates from one source of truth.

“The role of CRE finance leaders is shifting from reporting on what happened to anticipating what’s next — and AI is the engine making that shift possible.” – Laura Krashakova, CEO, Smart Capital Center

The result: risk management becomes risk intelligence, giving executives the clarity and confidence to act at the speed of the market.

Efficiency, capital deployment, and growth

Efficiency was another refrain that surfaced repeatedly. One executive admitted: “Efficiency is everything. If we can streamline processes, we can place more capital and do it faster. That’s the real value — reducing friction in operations so we can focus on growth.”

Q: Where do you see the biggest efficiency gains?

Leader insight:

“By streamlining processes, we can deploy more capital and do it faster. Efficiency translates directly into growth.”

‍Counterpoint:

“Efficiency isn’t just about speed. It’s also about quality. By combining stress testing with efficiency improvements, we ensure capital is being deployed in ways that are resilient under different market conditions.”

Smart Capital Center accelerates underwriting and capital allocation

Efficiency in CRE finance is about more than speed; it’s about precision and confidence in deploying capital. Smart Capital Center’s automation reduces cycle times from weeks to hours, freeing teams to focus on higher-value work.

• Automated data ingestion: Pull structured and unstructured data from PDFs, spreadsheets, rent rolls, leases, and OMs.

• AI-powered co-analysis: AI-Analysts embedded into the platform review financials, assumptions, and benchmarks to uncover risks traditional workflows miss.

• Investment memo generation: Draft high-quality memos in minutes, integrating financials and market data directly from the platform.

For CFOs and COOs, this means faster deployment of capital, fewer missed opportunities, and growth at scale without increasing headcount.  

The COO viewpoint: operational pain meets AI solutions

From the COO perspective, the daily grind remains heavy. As one participant explained, “The data struggle is constant. Every deal requires reconciling inputs from property managers, leasing teams, lenders, and investors. The real challenge is consolidating all that into insights we can actually use.”

Q: What are the biggest operational challenges for COOs today?

COO reflection:

“Data overwhelm is the biggest challenge. Every deal involves inputs from property managers, lenders, investors, and tenants. The real struggle is consolidating all of that into actionable insights we can trust — and doing it quickly enough to drive confident decisions.”

‍Colleague response:

“That’s where AI comes in. By aggregating information, generating valuations, and assisting with financing, AI provides the clarity we need to make confident decisions.”

Smart Capital Center eliminates the data struggle for operations leaders

The “data struggle” COOs described at the forum — consolidating inputs from property managers, tenants, lenders, and investors — is where Smart Capital Center provides relief

• Unified data layer: Consolidates financials, rent rolls, and operational reports into one system of record.

• Workflow automation: Replaces manual reconciliations and fragmented processes with synchronized, cross-team collaboration.

• AI assistants: Available 24/7 to answer questions, flag anomalies, perform Deep Research, and deliver insights instantly across properties, loans, and portfolios.

For operational leaders, this means turning hours of manual consolidation into minutes, and shifting focus from chasing data to driving strategy.  

Connectivity and the AI-enabled enterprise

Toward the close of the forum, participants spoke about the bigger vision: “Connectivity in transaction lifecycles, tenant experiences, and investor communications is what makes organizations easier and faster to run. AI is the glue that connects it all.”

AI is more than just a tool for automating one-off tasks. It is becoming the connective tissue of CRE organizations — linking tenants to owners, assets to portfolios, and data to strategy. For CFOs and COOs tasked with running these organizations at scale, the opportunity lies in harnessing AI not as a siloed application but as an enterprise-wide intelligence layer.

Smart Capital Center powers enterprise-wide connectivity

AI is not just a tool for siloed tasks — it’s the connective tissue of modern CRE organizations. Smart Capital Center enables that connectivity across the enterprise:

• Integration with core systems: Connect seamlessly with Yardi, SS&C Precision, Midland Enterprise, and other CRE accounting, servicing, and CRM platforms.

• Cross-lifecycle visibility: Ensure data from underwriting informs portfolio management, stress testing supports investor reporting, and origination insights flow through to asset management.

• Scalable infrastructure: As portfolios grow and diversify, the platform scales with them, eliminating bottlenecks and preserving speed to market.

For executives of CRE private equity firms, this means:

• Seamless flow of information across acquisitions, financing, portfolio management, and investor reporting.

• Enterprise visibility that allows leadership to make confident, data-backed decisions in real time.

• Reduced silos by connecting stakeholders at every stage of the CRE lifecycle, from tenants and property managers to lenders and capital partners.

By embedding AI and automation into every process, Smart Capital Center transforms disconnected functions into a unified, enterprise-wide intelligence network.

Smart Capital Center rises to the occasion of CRE finance today

The IMN COO & CFO Forum confirmed what many in the industry already suspect: the CRE market is entering a new phase where AI-enabled intelligence defines competitive advantage.

Smart Capital Center strengths highlighted at the forum

• AI in the CRE transaction lifecycle: From underwriting to portfolio management to divestiture, Smart Capital automates workflows that once consumed months of manual effort.

• Live intelligence: Real-time monitoring and automated insights give CFOs and COOs the clarity to act decisively.

• Risk intelligence: Portfolio stress testing and downside protection tools prepare organizations for volatility.

• AI agents and analysts: Embedded into workflows, AI agents work alongside teams to accelerate underwriting, enhance reporting, and drive operational efficiency.

As one participant summarized, “We emphasize technologically managing the transactional lifecycle for a more efficient future.” That future is already arriving, and Smart Capital Center is at the forefront of delivering it.

AI sets the new standard for CFOs and COOs in CRE  

The CFOs and COOs who gathered at IMN came with questions about risk, efficiency, and opportunity. They left with clarity: AI is no longer an experiment — it is the path forward for CRE organizations seeking resilience and growth.

For leaders tasked with stewarding billions in assets, the choice is simple. Continue wrestling with fragmented data and reactive decision-making, or embrace AI-driven intelligence that enables faster, smarter, more confident decisions.

At Smart Capital Center, we believe the future of CRE finance will belong to those who choose the latter.

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