Your File Structure Is Your AI Strategy (and 4 Other CRE10x Takeaways)

Were you ever ready to slam your laptop OPEN on a Friday at 5pm?

That was me after the CRE10x AI conference last week sponsored by CREx! Most professional events live in hypotheticals, but this one flipped the script with real workflows, practical advice, and takeaways that were immediately actionable.

A few things I'm taking back to my desk:

1. 𝗜 𝗼𝘄𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸. Microsoft is notorious for shipping rough and fixing fast, so it's easy to write off. Think Teams' early reputation versus Slack. But Kash Ziaei made the case for Copilot Cowork: it runs on the same underlying models as OpenAI and Anthropic, and executes inside the app environment we all use every day at work. Schedule it to analyze your emails, organize project workflows, set up meetings, and be an extra set of eyes on your daily routine.

2. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗜 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲. We know staying organized matters, but it goes beyond the obvious of navigating to find stuff and sharing with colleagues. When organizations simplify, structure, and enforce folder policies, they also let AI work through those files using fewer tokens and less power to run its tasks. Avi Hacker, J.D. recommended using Obsidian to access plain folder systems on your own desktop, and Vimal Vachhani stressed that file and folder naming conventions have never mattered more to promote versioning history.

3. 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗔𝗜 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗔𝗜. LinkedIn-famous Jonathan Buckelew whole talk stressed building foundational skill files (.md) like voice.md and anti-ai.md so your drafts read like you, not the average of the internet and AI slop. He even points you to the Wikipedia list of AI writing tells as a starting point. As someone whose whole thing is voice, across both personal and corporate brand tones, this was a no-brainer I somehow hadn't thought of. There are other ways to get deeper into this by building out "second brain" .md files to ensure your preferred AI gets to know you, your workflows, and insights.

4. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝘄𝗶𝗰𝗲, 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹. The rule I keep repeating to myself since. Anything you repeat within Claude or Chat, automate. Build it once, save it as a reusable skill, and stop redoing the work by hand.

5. 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗜 𝗷𝗼𝗯 𝗮𝗽𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹𝘆𝗽𝘀𝗲: Scott Dunphy pushed back on the assumption that AI will make jobs obsolete, especially entry-level ones. Morgan Stanley pegs 37% of CRE tasks as automatable, but he flipped the doom read: AI doesn't make the analyst or entry-level coordinator obsolete. It promotes them earlier. First draft is the machine's. First review is yours. It frees them up for more human tasks, and the entire workforce is upskilled in the process. And the next wave of prompting is probing. "Analysts will challenge AI without hesitation, even when they'd almost never push back on a manager."
   

But one of the best parts wasn't on any slide. It was the room. Underwriters, brokers, owners, suppliers, all sitting together, openly trading what's working, what's not, and where they're at in their own AI journey. Everyone treating it like open source. I've never seen that in my decade-plus in real estate, where pros love to gatekeep and guard the secret sauce. Turns out the technology that's supposed to replace us is the thing finally getting us in a room together.

Thanks to Vimal Vachhani and CREx for running it, and all the great presentors for sharing real results instead of just ephemeral hype!