Arctic air sweeping into states unaccustomed to snow and ice has left many commercial real estate owners struggling with winter problems they rarely face — from burst pipes and roof damage to power outages and snow-choked parking lots. For some, this season's storms have brought an unwelcome crash course in cold-weather crisis management — and a reminder that technology, especially AI, can help them adapt faster than ever before.
"Having done this for over 14 years, I've seen a shift in the weather — how unpredictable it is and the extreme of it," Shannon Kenny, senior vice president of soft services at Lessen, tells GlobeSt.com. This year, the West has seen record-low snowfall, while states like Texas, Arkansas and Tennessee are grappling with infrastructure ill-suited to handle heavy snow or ice storms.
"There's not as much availability of labor and people who have snowplows in those areas," Kenny adds, although some landscapers have begun investing in equipment to meet the rising demand.
Kenny's national operations team manages 12,000 locations and artificial intelligence is helping them do so more efficiently. Lessen's software monitors local forecasts and incoming service requests, mapping them by latitude and longitude to validate needs. The system's predictive tools have generated about a 13% cost savings, according to Kenny.
If forecasts indicate less than two inches of snow — a modest amount by New England standards — Lessen can notify clients that services may not be necessary. But when an ice storm looms, the software prioritizes requests and flags urgent cases. The company also uses storm data to warn clients, helping them decide whether to close early, clear lots or prepare for road closures that could halt operations altogether.
Still, Kenny notes that even the smartest systems can't replace early human planning. Retailers that lock in snow-removal contracts before the first frost have a far smoother response when storms hit. Without those agreements in place, she says, "it may not matter what an AI system doesn't see."
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