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Evaluating the Adoption of AI with HOA and Property Managers
AI is no longer a future concept in community management but a present-day tool that teams are actively implementing. Recent feedback from industry professionals highlights a clear and practical strategy for its adoption. A poll of over 100 HOA and property management professionals, along with a similar survey of CAI CEO-MC retreat attendees, revealed a consistent takeaway: AI delivers the most immediate value when applied to high-volume, repetitive tasks governed by clear rules. This approach ensures that the benefits are tangible and easily demonstrated to both residents and board members, making it the ideal starting point for proving AI's worth.
STAN AI Survey Results
Who Responded
The group of respondents was far from narrow, encompassing everything from single-association operators to large firms managing 3,500 associations. This significant range (with a median of 74 associations) is important because it challenges the misconception that AI is only viable for major industry players. Ultimately, the core issues faced by management companies are consistent regardless of size; the difference is one of scale, not substance.
Adoption Snapshot
The data confirms that AI adoption is well underway. Only 5% of professionals surveyed report having no plans to use AI. In contrast, 31% use it regularly and 36% are testing it or using it occasionally. When combined with the 28% who are planning to implement it, a staggering 95% of the industry is actively engaged with AI. The conversation is no longer about whether to adopt the technology, but where to apply it first for the greatest impact.
Confidence Check
The high level of confidence in STAN is backed by strong user feedback. On a ten-point satisfaction scale, respondents gave the AI an average rating of 7.5 and a median of 8, with scores clustering at the high end of the spectrum. This pattern aligns with our direct observations. As soon as AI becomes part of the actual workflow for tasks like drafting, policy alignment, and routing, its perceived value shifts from being a novel tool to an indispensable teammate.
What Managers Want AI To Do First
When asked what they would have an AI agent do for them, managers provided clear, practical answers that point to a consistent theme: they want AI to handle high-volume, rule-based tasks first. The top priorities reveal a focus on freeing up time from repetitive work to focus on strategic decisions and resident satisfaction.
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1. Resident Communications (25% of mentions)
This was the top request, driven by the challenge of managing a relentless inbox where response times are critical and policy alignment is non-negotiable.
- The Goal: Managers want quicker first responses, fewer back-and-forths, and language that consistently respects governing documents.
- AI's Role: An AI agent earns trust by instantly acknowledging an issue, asking for any missing details, referencing the correct rule, and maintaining a steady, professional tone—all in seconds, not hours.
2. Meetings & Board Documents (17% of mentions)
Preparing agendas, minutes, and board packets follows a predictable rhythm each cycle. The work isn’t complex, but it's detailed and time-consuming.
- The Goal: Reduce the last-minute scrambles and time spent "scavenger hunting" for documents.
- AI's Role: AI can help gather inputs, insert standard policy language, and assemble packets in the format boards expect, allowing meetings to focus more on decisions than on document wrangling.
3. Budgets & AP Approvals (15% of mentions)
This area is a prime target for automation because it offers a fast, board-visible return on investment.
- The Goal: Speed up the approval cycle and provide clear visibility into financial processes.
- AI's Role: Automating invoice triage, routing to the correct approver, sending polite reminders, and tracking status eliminates manual nudging. The improvement is immediately obvious in reports that boards actually read.
4. Violations & Compliance (12% of mentions)
Consistency is the foundation of trust in compliance matters.
- The Goal: Ensure fairness, clarity, and a solid paper trail for all violation and compliance actions.
- AI's Role: AI keeps notice language professional and aligned to governing documents, maintains a clean log of actions, and eliminates the "did we send that yet?" uncertainty that frustrates everyone involved.
5. Maintenance & Work Orders (11% of mentions)
Managers want to shorten the time it takes to get from a reported issue to a resolved one.
- The Goal: Improve the maintenance experience for residents, managers, and vendors through better communication and efficiency.
- AI's Role: By handling triage, scheduling, and confirmations, AI ensures vendors get clear instructions the first time and residents receive automatic updates, reducing the need for follow-up calls
The Underlying Pattern
Other themes like ARC requests (8%), software integrations (6%), and scheduling (6%) followed the same logic. Each of these is a handoff problem in disguise. They involve a predictable sequence of steps and a clear definition of completion, making them perfectly suited for an AI agent that understands the rules and keeps the process moving forward without interruption.
How This Aligns With CAI’s Survey
Our poll results directly align with the findings from the August 2025 CAI CEO-MC survey, painting a consistent picture of the industry's direction. The widespread enthusiasm is clear in both data sets: the CAI survey found that 88% of leaders hold a positive view of AI, mirroring the high confidence scores (average 7.5/10) in our poll. This optimism is grounded in practical value, with 69% of CAI respondents seeing a clear path to ROI, which corresponds to our poll's focus on tasks with visible returns like budgets and AP approvals. The priorities for implementation are also virtually identical. An overwhelming majority in the CAI survey emphasized automating homeowner communications—our poll's #1 category—with strong support for speeding up violations, work orders, and payment processing, which map directly to our other top-ranked tasks. Underscoring this consensus, not a single CAI respondent chose "none" when asked where AI could help. While the outlook is positive, the concerns are pragmatic, with leaders citing privacy/security (58%), accuracy (56%), and losing the personal touch (51%). This highlights a shared vision for AI not as a replacement, but as a secure and reliable teammate designed to handle repetitive work, freeing up managers to focus on the human elements of community management.
The Takeaway
The takeaway is simple: start where the volume of work is high and the rules are clear. Focus AI on the core tasks of resident communications, meeting preparation, AP approvals, violations, and maintenance. . Success is demonstrated by tracking improvements in key operational metrics, including response times, approval cycle durations, and backlogs. When these indicators move in the right direction, it confirms that AI is providing value precisely where it can deliver the most immediate and visible benefits to managers and their communities.
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