We have built our first AI strata robot. Not a chatbot. Not a tool that reads uploaded documents and answers questions. It’s a robot that does things, and makes decisions as a strata manager would do under delegated powers.
On advice from our AI partners, Actium AI, we started small. We’ve built what we think is the world’s first automated strata pet approval robot.
Owners or tenants answer five simple questions online. In less than a minute, they receive an approval letter with conditions on which the pet is to be kept, or a notice of rejection.
Labradors take just 45 seconds to approve. My application to keep a camel took 2 minutes and 11 seconds to be rejected. You can also expect some delays (and bad news) on red foxes and wombats.
Have we changed strata management for ever? Hardly. But we are on the way. And we’re getting better all the time. We are one operating procedure down with just 64 more to go.
We can safely say at this point that AI for strata takes more than time and money. It also takes more than the best AI engineers. It takes an in-depth knowledge of what happens in buildings and in a strata manager’s office. It takes focus. It takes precision.
Getting better incrementally is how you scale a business. And it’s something that has so far alluded us in strata. This week, at the SCA Victoria symposium, Tim Mackenzie from Macquarie Bank Limited proved the point. MBL numbers show that, regardless of business size, the lots managed per full-time equivalent staff remain roughly the same. Specifically,
· >10,000 lots – 402 lots per FTE
· 5,000 - 10,000 lots - 367 lots per FTE
· 2,500 - 5,000 lots - 379 lots per FTE
· 1,000 – 2,500 lots - 388 lots per FTE
On these numbers, and given the current pressure on strata managers to perform well in an average working week, and without abuse, our little pet application robot is worth celebrating. Congratulations to our team and to our partners in this venture, Actium AI.
As we expand our range of AI strata robots, we look forward to sharing them with our clients, and coaching them to do more with less. They will be the strata firms of the future.
Michael Teys advises strata management businesses on improving profitability through professionalisation and streamlined operating systems.
He has more than 30 years’ experience as a strata lawyer and academic and has owned 11 strata management agencies throughout Australia. He has a Master of Philosophy (Built Environment) and Bachelor of Laws. He lectures and writes widely about strata management issues in Australia and internationally.
