According to reporting from HousingWire's AI Summit, major homebuilders are moving past the question of whether to use artificial intelligence and focusing instead on where it delivers the most practical value. Chris Coakley, who leads land acquisition for Century Communities, shared how the company has integrated AI into its real estate operations. Century Communities operates lean acquisition teams across forty-five markets in sixteen states, which means a small number of people handle significant workloads that include site screening, due diligence, and underwriting all on their own.
The builder has found that AI tools help these lean teams move faster through the early stages of evaluating potential development sites. Platforms designed specifically for land evaluation help teams quickly assess whether a property has environmental or site constraints that would make development unfeasible, long before the company invests time and money into formal engineering or contracting. This early screening step allows teams to filter through many potential deals efficiently.
Beyond specialized land platforms, Century Communities also uses widely available AI tools like Copilot and Claude to analyze market data, comparable sales, pricing information, and other factors that inform negotiation strategy. These tools can generate detailed market reports and presentations within minutes, something that would have taken much longer to compile manually. By running several quick analyses on a property before bringing in engineers or lawyers, acquisition teams can make smarter decisions about which deals to pursue.
Coakley emphasized that the real competitive advantage comes from having motivated people who embrace these tools. He acknowledged that getting team members to adopt new technology can be challenging, but suggested that organizations should encourage adoption gradually and use respected performers within the company as champions to train their peers. According to Coakley's perspective, those who fail to leverage AI tools in land acquisition will increasingly fall behind as competitors move faster and make better-informed decisions.
What I am seeing locally here in the Bay Area and Fremont region is that smart operators are already recognizing this shift. The East Bay market moves fast, and land acquisition teams that can evaluate opportunities thoroughly while staying nimble will have real advantages. For sellers with development-suitable properties and for our buyers looking to acquire land for projects, this means more sophisticated analysis is happening behind the scenes during deal evaluation, which should ultimately lead to better market decisions for everyone involved.
