We’ve always done things a little differently at Milk Chocolate. From our full-service property purchase, management and construction offering to our engagement of more unconventional fields like economics, digital design and tech, our core philosophy has consistently centred on pushing the boundaries of traditional real estate. One of the key pillars of our expansive approach is our focus on machine learning.
In a nutshell, machine learning is a branch of AI that takes data, learns from it, and generates predicted outcomes. It may seem like newfangled technology, but machine learning has been around since before the 1950s. It’s only recently, though, that advances in computing have really allowed it to be used in practical applications.
Even in Milk Chocolate’s very early stages, we foresaw machine learning being a massive part of what we do. Eventually, we wanted it to streamline certain tasks and enrich the services we offer our clients. Fast-forward to now, and Milk Chocolate is set to lean heavily on the tools implemented by our resident machine learning engineer, Timothy Quill. Prior to coming on board with us, Tim worked with global AI company Platform.AI, where he developed fantastic insight into the real-world applications of machine learning. He brings this expertise to Milk Chocolate and is developing mechanisms that will revolutionise the way we do business.
Currently, we’re working on a platform that will generate an optimised property portfolio for our clients, which will simultaneously refine our economists’ decision-making process and free up a lot of their time. “This task is currently very manual and can take days to generate by one of our economists, however once finished it will be a near instantaneous procedure,” says Tim. Naturally, this will allow the business to scale exponentially and open up a lot more opportunities.
As data becomes king, there’s no denying that machine learning will be an increasingly integral part of other real estate companies around the world. Slowly but surely, the industry is cottoning on to the advantages of incorporating AI and machine learning into the traditional business model: using big data to analyse economic and property trends; automating once menial and labour-intensive tasks; and optimising property purchase, sale and renovation decisions to generate the very best result for buyers, sellers, owners, and agents alike.
Tim also mentions some very specific machine learning applications: “Real estate is a very data-driven industry, so there are many tasks ideal for machine learning,” he says. “We can simplify the rental application process by automating the applicant screening process. We can use computer vision techniques to appraise houses or generate floor plans. We can also communicate with clients, buyers and vendors using natural language processing models.
“In the past, we’ve relied heavily on human inference to identify and understand patterns in complex environments like the real estate market. Humans are pretty good at finding large trends in data, but we generally struggle to see smaller ones. Machine learning is much more ideal for these kinds of tasks, and I think machine learning techniques will become standard practice for interpreting the real estate market.”
All of this might sound as if we’re looking to replace the function of people, but we see it differently: the addition of machine learning isn’t designed to overtake the role of staff, but instead complement and enhance their abilities and allow them to focus on the more human aspects of their jobs – an objective that’s incredibly imperative given the intimate nature of real estate. The industry has always been characterised by close interpersonal communication, relationships and perceptive guidance, and that’s something that machine learning can’t replace. As well, a high proportion of tasks in our business are currently very labour intensive. Because of this, our machine learning tools are intended to increase our team’s capacity, allowing them to concentrate on creativity and utilising their core skill sets without the need to worry about manual tasks.
We take AI very seriously at Milk Chocolate and are developing a long-term strategy to ensure we maintain our competitive advantage in this rapidly evolving field. Further down the line, we’ll have a dedicated AI department that will actively train our staff to understand the technology and how it can create better business efficiencies. The benefits of AI, and our anticipated success with it, have us very excited for the future indeed.
If you’re interested in helping us take our tech to the next level, Milk Chocolate is currently on the look-out for experienced software engineers.
Get in touch with our Head of Design, Jonny Brian, at jonny@milkchoc.com.au to find out more.
Get in touch to find out how we can help you with your property journey.
If you like this post, we’d love it if you could share :)
Disclaimer: All data and information provided on this site are for informational purposes only. Milk Chocolate makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, recency, suitability, or validity of any information on this site and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis.
