Commercial real estate has survived every major technology wave of the past three decades largely unchanged, with brokers still juggling five or six disconnected systems before making a single phone call despite digitization efforts. Dan Mosher, Co-Founder and CEO of DealGround, explains that the industry's relationship-based nature created a culture where data became a strategic weapon, leading to hoarding and fragmented adoption of point solutions like CRMs, comp databases, and property management systems that don't communicate with each other.
Mosher describes what he calls the "Five-System Problem" where advanced brokers navigate remarkably detailed yet cumbersome workflows, starting in one system, pulling data into another, sometimes using ChatGPT, dropping results into Google My Maps with color-coded pins, switching to different systems for contact information, and checking CRMs for previous interactions. The core issue wasn't a lack of technology but rather that each tool performed one function well, forcing brokers to serve as connective tissue between all systems.
The current transformation differs from previous technology waves because commercial real estate's unstructured data—including offering memorandums, Excel spreadsheets, lease documents, surveys, due diligence materials, property notes, and contact information—represents exactly what AI was designed to handle. According to Mosher, "The industry has been sitting on a mountain of messy, siloed, unstructured data for decades. Large language models are extraordinarily good at synthesizing exactly that kind of information." The very characteristics that made CRE difficult to digitize now make it ideal for AI-powered transformation, with fragmentation becoming the problem modern AI tools are built to solve.
DealGround was designed around this insight, creating a single platform where brokers, investors, and analysts can centralize private data, access public property and title records, and query everything through an AI-powered interface. Rather than adding AI features to existing workflows, this third wave of CRE transformation aims to collapse the entire technology stack into one system that knows everything a broker knows, surfaces insights at the right time, and frees professionals to focus on relationship-building and deal-closing. The platform serves as what Mosher calls "the database of records" tracking everything happening with properties including new tenants, lease expirations, rent increases, and loan maturity dates in one place.
The ultimate goal is giving brokers what Mosher describes as "an unfair advantage" by reducing administrative legwork and enabling more time for relationships. The system handles research, flags upcoming lease expirations or loan maturities, and provides brokers with relevant, well-informed propositions for property owners. After decades of industry lag, conditions for real transformation now exist with available data, ready AI tools, and increasing broker interest in better approaches. For more information about the platform, visit https://www.dealground.com.
