LAS VEGAS—During our coverage of ICSC Las Vegas, GlobeSt.com caught up with Kean Thomas, vice president of finance & development at Vestar, who pointed to artificial intelligence as one of the most significant trends shaping the future of retail real estate operations and the potential to boost productivity.

Thomas said that the technology presents a major opportunity for owners, developers and operators of open-air retail centers to improve organizational efficiency, particularly in managing the large volume of operational data generated across the industry.

"The nature of our industry results in many data points and processes existing in a natural language environment," Thomas told GlobeSt.com, citing leases, operating agreements, tenant handbooks, email correspondence, municipality codes and other documentation.

According to Thomas, Vestar is currently evaluating how to best aggregate and query those materials with a high degree of accuracy so the information can integrate directly into accounting and operational software platforms.

The goal, he said, is to reduce manual data entry and streamline research-intensive tasks that traditionally require significant employee time and resources.

As AI adoption accelerates across commercial real estate, operators are increasingly exploring practical applications focused on back-office efficiency, document management and workflow automation rather than solely consumer-facing technology.

Check back with GlobeSt.com for more as we lead up to the event and check out the stories below you might have missed.

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