The possibilities of AI are endless. But only if you have the right structure in place. BH, Greystar, and ZRS weigh in on what it takes to go truly agentic.

SCOTTSDALE, AZ — AI adoption in every industry, including multifamily moved quicker than ever over the past few years.  

But for many operators, the conversation has shifted from using AI solely as a communication tool toward something bigger: how AI can move beyond answering questions and begin taking action inside real operational workflows.

At Forum, leaders from BH, Greystar, and ZRS, three of the largest operators in the country, discussed what it really takes to move from reactive AI to agentic systems, and the success it unlocks when agentic AI is implemented across centralized systems.

Moderated by CJ Donio, Director of Product Management, the conversation brought together:

Poll: Are you investing in AI to replace teams or to assist them?

97% AI + Humans is the future!
3% Fully autonomous property management is coming…

BH: Where AI meets The Mint Experience

BH joined the conversation fresh off a historic moment for multifamily by partnering with Funnel to facilitate the world’s first rent payment in ChatGPT. 

Historic, yes. But certainly not the first time BH has dipped its toe into agentic AI workflows to improve what they have branded “The Mint Experience”, to deliver wildly awesome experiences at scale.

BH operates a national platform that spans both ownership and third-party management, ranked No. 11 on the NMHC Top Managers list and No. 30 on the NMHC Top Owners list with more than 93,000 units spanning 42 states. 

As one of the largest third-party managers in the country, BH established a strategy to scale not just their footprint, but their experience as well. Born as The Mint Experience, the BH team invested in technology focused on improving the resident and employee experience. 

“The sky’s the limit [for agentic AI],” said Melody King, President of BH. “So when you’re talking about the benefits of the ChatGPT payment, how does that impact our world? What we recognize is that people are already operating in those digital platforms. They’re already using AI assistance, and that’s just kind of a go-to for them. So how do we connect that experience and use that as an opportunity to then say, what could we also use this for?”

“The sky’s the limit [for agentic AI].” — Melody King, President of BH

At the end of the day, King said, technology should adapt alongside renters and add value for their teams. 

After implementing Funnel’s agentic Voice AI solution, routing all incoming calls that would normally go to the BH call center. BH saw a +200% increase in containment rate YOY, creating more opportunity for the contact center, BH’s “front door” to The Mint Experience, to focus on tasks that require more nuance than, “What time does the fitness center open.” 

Leveraging AI and the latest technology, and moving to a centralized model were core components of BH’s Mint Experience, but as third-party managers, gaining buy-in from various owner groups for a new operating model presents a unique challenge for operators. 

“Centralizing in a third-party platform has been the most challenging and the most rewarding thing that we’ve done,” King said. “It’s sometimes hard to explain or prove [the value] out to a client, it’s a very hard thing, but it’s rewarding because we learn a lot and that allows us to take that insight and apply it to every asset across the board.”

King said the secret weapon in presenting true value is in the data, showing that Funnel’s Voice AI saves an average of 41 hours per day for the BH contact center, answering an average of 492 calls per day avoided or handled by AI without the assistance of a human. 

Greystar: Scaling AI requires the right infrastructure

Greystar operates at a scale unmatched in multifamily, managing roughly 950,000 units and owning more than 122,000 communities worldwide.

As the No. 1 operator on both the NMHC Top Owners and Managers lists, Mel Reid, Managing Director of Property Systems Engagement, is focused on one core challenge: ensuring the systems Greystar deploys can actually scale across an enormous platform.

For Greystar, the shift to agentic AI started with infrastructure, not automation.

After testing other bolt-on solutions, they found that AI only delivers real value when it is embedded directly into the system of record, not bolted on around it.

“AI native to CRM has been really, I think, a key lesson learned for us,” Reid said. “It’s really how they apply the LLMs to the technology to become truly agentic that again I think is going to be the needle mover.”

“AI native to CRM has been really, I think, a key lesson learned for us.” — Mel Reid, Managing Director of Property Systems Engagement at Greystar

That lesson became even clearer when looking at how data flows across systems. When information lives in silos, AI loses the context it needs to be effective.

“More is not better with AI. Less is much better towards different disparate technology systems because what makes AI smarter is data in context,” Reid said. “Clean data equals smarter AI. So when you have a lot of disparate systems they’re all defining things differently or it’s really hard to understand.”

With Funnel’s AI and renter-centric® CRM in place, Greystar restructured how leasing workflows operate around a single source of truth. AI now handles first contact, follow-up, and scheduling, creating space for onsite teams to focus where they add the most value: conversion and experience.

And at Greystar’s scale, that shift shows up quickly. Across their portfolio in 2025, AI has supported:

“I mean, the three and a half million messages sent, to me, what this number represents is not just a volume gain, but it’s the value. It’s presenting back to our assets. This is three and a half million times someone didn’t drop the ball,” Reid said. 

That consistency extends beyond automation alone.

The team also saw a 60% adoption rate of AI-suggested responses. By pulling in guest card data, communication history, and renter preferences, Funnel’s AI generates personalized messages that leasing teams can review and send.

In just 10 months, Greystar teams sent more than 500,000 of those AI-assisted responses, blending speed with context instead of sacrificing one for the other.

“If we’re doing our jobs right, the AI just walks up and puts the ball on the tee, and then your team walks up and hits it home,” Reid said.

Greystar is also seeing real impact from agentic AI tour scheduling, which covers a pivotal moment in the funnel, and increasing conversions. In 2025, Funnel’s AI scheduled 94,000 tours across 1,400 Greystar properties. 

“A lot of statistics say if a person comes to tour, they’re 50% more likely to lease,” Reid said. “Leveraging AI to get those tours scheduled more consistently is huge, and it’s driving more foot traffic to our properties. 

Prospects are being nurtured consistently, and more personalized responses are going to our prospects and that’s driving more engagement. It’s been really beneficial… and I’m not even sure all of our teams would have accomplished all of that manually on their own in the past.”

“Prospects are being nurtured consistently, and more personalized responses are going to our prospects and that’s driving more engagement.” — Mel Reid, Managing Director of Property Systems Engagement at Greystar 

ZRS: Full reset, going all in on centralization + AI produces big results

ZRS Management is a third-party property management firm ranked No. 13 on the NMHC Top Managers list, overseeing approximately 92,000 units nationwide, and rolled out Funnel portfolio-wide in December.

As Chief Operating Officer, Jackie Impellitier is helping lead ZRS through a major operating shift, moving from legacy systems toward a more centralized, AI-enabled model.

While earlier in their journey compared to peers like BH and Greystar, ZRS is already seeing outsized results, not just from the technology itself, but from how it is being implemented.

For years, the team operated on a CRM that was deeply embedded in their day-to-day workflows. It was familiar. It was integrated. But it was missing the mark. 

“We hung on to an underperforming CRM for far too long,” Impellitier said. “It was like going from a flip phone to your first smartphone. Moving to Funnel wasn’t just a better version, it was like a completely different way to operate.”

“We hung on to an underperforming CRM for far too long. It was like going from a flip phone to your first smartphone. Moving to Funnel wasn’t just a better version, it was like a completely different way to operate.” — Jackie Impellitier, Chief Operating Officer at ZRS

Swapping out a system of record is not just a technology decision. It is a full operational reset, fully leaning into centralization and agentic AI. Which means workflows, ownership, training, and expectations all had to be redefined at once.

In partnership with the Funnel team, ZRS onboarded and implemented 280 properties in just five weeks.

And the results followed quickly with Funnel’s renter-centric® CRM and agentic AI platform:

As a third-party operator, ZRS must also balance the needs of ownership groups while trying to centralize operations across a diverse portfolio.

By standardizing agentic workflows and defining ownership upfront, ZRS built the structure needed for AI to actually deliver results. That foundation is now helping them close one of leasing’s biggest gaps, the “unsexy middle” where prospects often fall through after initial lead engagement.

With AI consistently following up, nurturing leads, and keeping prospects engaged, those gaps begin to close.

“Tools like the Prospect AI, Voice AI, and Insights, those were like game changers for us,” Impellitier said. “If you look at the customer journey today, with Prospect AI and Voice AI, it allows you to make that an airtight lock. So before prospects were going to periods where things sort of leak out… That “unsexy middle” part of the leasing funnel, where people start to trail off and get distracted. That’s where the AI comes in.

Insights, Funnel’s AI call scoring solution, Impellitier said, has provided the raw data that shows stakeholders improvement and opportunities across ownership groups. 

“[As fee managers] we’re constantly having to sell our centralized services to our owners and help them see value,” Impellitier said. “[Insights] gives us the data and facts that prove the centralized model is all it’s cracked up to be. We appreciate that added layer that proves our centralized services model with top performers, sentiment, and retention.”

“Tools like the Prospect AI, Voice AI, and Insights, those were like game changers for us.” — Jackie Impellitier, Chief Operating Officer at ZRS

“AI really tightens up… and it makes that sort of a foolproof cycle so nothing is getting missed,” Impellitier said. 

By covering the “unsexy middle,” Funnel’s AI improved ZRS’ tour completion rate by 26%, all the while cancellations and no-shots dropped by 50%.

Agentic AI turns workflows into outcomes

The beauty of Forum is that no two operators are in the same place.

Some are just getting started. Others are scaling across thousands of communities. Some are experimenting with AI at the bleeding edges of what is possible, while others are embedding it into the core of how their business runs.

But the throughline is the same: Agentic AI isn’t just about answering questions faster. It’s about building systems where work actually gets done, and truly giving your teams a hand. 

But that only happens when the foundation is there to turn AI from a communication tool into an operational engine.

And that’s the shift from reactive AI to something much more powerful.