Should property investors be scared of the future?
Technology has made a great impact on property investment over past decades, but will it continue to contribute to its improvement or is it well on its way to falling apart?
While the media has surrounded the idea of the future with negativity, Salesforce’s director of strategy and technology Jonathan Miranda believes that its success lies simply in using one’s creativity to come up with something “brand new”.
According to him: “People have a really easy time to think about how things go wrong and not how something brand new is going to come about.”
“That's why the whole start-up world and venture capital world exists because thinking about that new next thing is really hard to do. What [should] think about all of the changes in technology and how it improves our lives,” he added.
Years ago, many people believed that the entire banking industry will completely deteriorate. However, while many things have changed, the industry remained—there are a lot more jobs and a whole new set of tasks to be accomplished with the help of artificial intelligence and other technological advancements.
Right now, the goal is to create “more human-focused, more experience-focused” services that for customers.
“The industries have always gone up, but what you do at your job has changed … [It’s become] more [about] figuring out how to have [give] good experience [to the] customer and [minimise] busy work [like] the boring stuff of entering … and looking at data,” Jonathan said.
Many things in the vast field of property investment have been changing rapidly over the last few years, including the dynamic between investor and professionals and the whole buying experience. One of these significant changes is the rise of artificial intelligence which has helped companies and customers gather and process information in faster and more efficient ways.
How exactly does it work? Contrary to what big movie franchises make you think, artificial intelligence will not be taking away jobs from actual human beings.
The strategy and technology expert said: “It's making such a big splash because of machine learning—the ability to take in a lot of data and make a question or a small task off of that vast amount of information.”
“I can give you 5,000 pictures of a cat, and then I can hang you another picture, and you can tell me if it's a cat or not … That's machine learning. That is what we call narrow AI—taking a small task … and making it easy and replicable,” Jonathan explained further.
Essentially, what artificial intelligence actually replaces are repetitive tasks like data collection and processing of information. However, “unpredictable tasks: that require conversations and different types of management and physical work will never be going away.
According to Jonathan: “A lot of transportation jobs are going to change fundamentally with autonomous vehicles, but the plumber is never going to change because that job is different every single time.”
“Somebody can't tell you what's wrong with their sink, [so] you have to have a human conversation … You pull open the cabinet, and it's completely different every single time. Those unpredictable pieces will always have a human touch,” he added.
His advice to property investors: Don’t fear the future—embrace it.
“The future is here today and I'm seeing it firsthand, and it is a very bright and beautiful future,” Jonathan concluded.
Tune in to Jonathan Miranda’s episode on The Smart Property Investment Show to know more about the importance of the transparent use of data, the impact of artificial intelligence on the average person’s daily life and how it can make investors more productive.