Microsoft, l’intelligenza artificiale nell’immobiliare: Mario Di Giulio (PeA)

What we are currently facing is the challenge of artificial intelligence applied across the most diverse sectors. This conference focuses on the finance aspect and on the real estate aspect in particular. We could have expanded it to many other applications, such as agrifood and everything that technology in agriculture can offer, even extending to the medical sector. Obviously we had to concentrate the aspects. We chose real estate and finance specifically because they have many points of connection, at least from the investment side.

The choice of speakers was linked to the great expertise that exists at Microsoft, which together with Pavia e Ansaldo is truly helping us a great deal in an outreach activity that goes beyond simply organizing conferences. It also includes in-depth analyses through video clips or written contributions explaining how reality is influenced by artificial intelligence, and what the differences are, because often terms like 'artificial intelligence' are used interchangeably. Even understanding what artificial intelligence is is not a given. The definition of artificial intelligence is constantly evolving.

Starting from the definitions by Turin, then gradually it changed, and even at this moment we are talking about something that is in some way intangible. This is not irrelevant from a legal perspective, because when discussing responsibilities linked to a phenomenon, if the phenomenon cannot be circumscribed, there is no possibility of understanding the consequences.

So the choice, as I said before, started with Microsoft engineers, then involved professors from the Politecnico di Milano and the ABC department, which is the department linked to real estate. Then a core of lawyers was formed, mostly from Pavia e Ansaldo, but also including lawyer Giuseppina D'Auria who works at another firm, because these are cross-functional lawyers with cross-cutting expertise who try to deduce the consequences of technology application. This includes the impact on data processing, but also contract execution — what formalities contracts should have when the parties themselves are supported by artificial intelligence.

An important theme is that the phenomenon we are witnessing is linked to the fact that while artificial intelligence in the financial sector is nothing new, in the real estate sector it is of more recent application. As Dr. Rover stated at the opening of the conference, regarding finance, if we want to draw a line — though not easily done as cleanly as with a knife — the intangibility of what AI is can be said to relate to financial sector activity which fundamentally is based on two macro areas: on one side, customer profiling to understand what product can be proposed, and on the other, predictive analysis, including all the robotics that is increasingly replacing the traditional trader.

The robot essentially predicts human behaviors. What is happening instead on the real estate side is considering exogenous phenomena that can influence real estate investment. There are studies right now that even evaluate rainfall patterns in specific areas where, for example, there are certain types of shops selling specific products. Let me give you a silly example: following products focused on Mother's Day, and I know that in two days, in shops selling Mother's Day products, there will be heavy rains. If I hold a clearance sale ten days before, in that location I can achieve results — obviously not the best, but at least I don't end up with unsold inventory. Now you might say this concerns retail more than real estate, but in fact it's linked to the property where the sale takes place.

AI applied by real estate companies has a very significant application regarding IoT — the Internet of Things — where on one side there are devices that capture external phenomena, and then artificial intelligence processes them, leading to predictive capabilities. But again, the predictiveness is not linked to the human factor but rather to external environmental factors. Another area where AI is having strong influence, also linked to real estate, is in maintenance activity — which can be better monitored, interventions can be anticipated, and perfectly calibrated so there's no risk of performing less maintenance than needed.

We've had episodes, even recent ones, where we've seen the consequences. But also not overdoing maintenance where it's not necessary. So if you will, this is a topic very dear to me — artificial intelligence, technology, and sustainable development, because in some way they enable resources to be used only for what is strictly necessary, avoiding waste. So technology and ESG — Environmental, Social, and Governance — are truly supported by technology. And so we have ample space, especially in real estate, where it takes on fundamental importance.