Key facts
- AI is being integrated into homebuilder operations, particularly in land acquisition.
- Century Communities leverages AI to support its lean, multi-market land acquisition teams.
- AI tools help assess property suitability, environmental constraints, and market data.
- Platforms like Acres, Prophetic, Copilot, and Claude are used for due diligence and market analysis.
- AI empowers teams to evaluate more potential development sites efficiently.
- Employee adoption of AI is critical, with internal champions driving training and acceptance.
Artificial intelligence is moving beyond theoretical discussions to practical applications in business, with a significant focus on its role in homebuilding operations. At HousingWire’s AI Homebuilder Summit, the conversation centered on how AI can best be implemented to improve efficiency.
For Century Communities, a top-ranked homebuilder, integrating AI into its land acquisition process is a necessity. The company operates with a lean, hub-and-spoke model, relying on small, local land acquisition teams across 45 markets in 16 states. Chris Coakley, corporate director of land for the affordable product division, explained that AI empowers these lightly staffed teams to better manage and vet potential development sites.
AI tools are already being used to enhance early-stage land due diligence. Platforms like Acres and Prophetic help identify environmental constraints and site characteristics, allowing teams to quickly assess a property's development viability before committing significant resources. Additionally, widely accessible AI tools such as Copilot and Claude can rapidly generate market knowledge, including comparable sales data, pricing, and demographic information, aiding in negotiations and decision-making.
Coakley emphasized that AI allows land teams to efficiently review a large volume of potential sites, ensuring a consistent lot pipeline. He noted that before engaging in formal contracting or engineering, AI can provide a strong indication of a land parcel's usability through multiple queries.
Implementing AI also requires securing employee buy-in. Coakley advocates for encouraging adoption, even in small steps, and leveraging top-performing employees as AI champions to educate and train their colleagues. He believes that individuals and companies not utilizing AI for land acquisition will quickly fall behind their competitors, as it enables more intelligent conversations and nimble decision-making.