You WILL Be Assimilated by Artificial Intelligence

Will there be a development industry the way we know it in two years?

Resistance is futile. And so, apparently, is pretending that the real estate and construction industry is going back to “normal.”

Look, I’ve been around long enough in Toronto development to remember when you could still buy plywood without sacrificing your first-born child. I’ve watched booms, busts, municipal elections, and so many OLT hearings that I’m pretty sure I’m on first-name terms with half the planners in the city.

But even I’m looking around right now and thinking:

Will there be a development industry the way we know it in two years?

The Collective is Coming For Your Job

If you rely on the real estate or new construction sector for your paycheque, you’ve got some questions to answer:

• Will you still be employed in two years?

• Will your job even exist, or will it be absorbed into the collective AI mind?

• Is there work for your company coming down the pipeline, or is it all wishful thinking on a spreadsheet?

• Even if there’s work under contract… is it actually going to move forward?

I’ve got a trades buddy whose pipeline looked rock solid in 2021. Two towers downtown. Big GC on board. Financing “guaranteed.” Last week, both projects were “paused indefinitely.” Now he’s looking at bidding on single-family renos and joking about learning to code. The assimilation begins.

The Big Shift Is Here

There’s a real conversation nobody wants to have: the market is changing and it’s not going back to the way it was.

• Interest rates are not dropping fast enough to save marginal deals.

• Construction costs are sticky as hell and keep creeping up.

• AI is threatening every white-collar job from law clerks to cost estimators.

• Municipal approvals are slower than ever despite the PR about “cutting red tape.”

• Buyers and investors are exhausted and skeptical.

Meanwhile, the Borg (i.e. AI) is scanning your workflows. Architects. Planners. Law clerks. Appraisers. Realtors. Lenders. Everyone’s data and documents are slowly being integrated into a hive mind that can underwrite deals, spit out pro formas, generate marketing renderings, and draft contracts before your coffee even cools.

My Personal Tale From The Collective

Let me tell you a personal story.

About two months ago, I’m on a Zoom call with my lawyer and my cost consultant, trying to finalize a budget for one of my mid-rise sites. Everyone’s tired. Numbers aren’t working. The lawyer’s billing $750/hour just to blink.

Out of frustration, I jokingly typed the budget question into an AI chat window. In ten seconds, it gave me:

• A rough cost breakdown by trade

• Hard vs soft costs

• Updated land value comps

• Cash flow timeline

• A snarky comment about Toronto council meetings

And it was… shockingly close to right.

My lawyer looked pale. My cost consultant stared at the screen like he’d just seen the first alien probe ship arriving over Nathan Phillips Square.

We will add your distinctiveness to our own.

Am I firing my consultants tomorrow? No. But will I need fewer hours of their time going forward? Absolutely.

And here’s the honest truth about me:

• If it weren’t for AI, I’d probably have to hire another employee just to keep up with the mountain of admin, emails, and research that piles up every day.

• My legal bills would be way bigger because I’d be asking lawyers to draft and review every document from scratch instead of getting solid first drafts out of a chatbot.

• My marketing budgets would be 100 times higher because I’d need expensive renderings, pitch decks, and endless agency help.

Instead, AI has basically become my unpaid intern. One who doesn’t sleep, doesn’t whine, and doesn’t demand benefits.

How To Resist — Or Assimilate

So here’s the deal. You can either stand there in denial until the Collective steamrolls your career…

Or you can learn how to become a useful drone in the hive mind.

Here’s how to prepare and protect your future:

Learn AI tools relevant to your field.
Are you in planning? Learn how to prompt AI for design briefs, massing studies, policy analysis.
In marketing? Learn AI image generation, copywriting, and video tools.
In finance? Start running pro formas through AI for sanity checks.

Shift from task-doer to problem-solver.
The Collective can write a memo, but it can’t handle politics at City Hall or broker a deal between warring partners. Your value lies in judgment, relationships, and creative solutions.

Keep your pipeline real.
Stop pretending every project in your “active deals” spreadsheet will move forward. Be honest about which deals pencil out at today’s costs and rates. Focus your time where there’s real certainty.

Cut overhead, not quality.
AI lets you do more with less. Use it. But keep your standards high — junk data and bad analysis are still junk, even if they’re delivered at warp speed.

Don’t wait until it’s too late.
The people who thrive in this new era are the ones experimenting now while others are scoffing.

Because if you assimilate, you can be more productive — and still have a purpose in the Collective.

What’s Your Plan?

So I ask again: What’s your plan for the next two years?

• Are you learning how to use the Collective, or pretending it won’t affect your job?

• Have you downsized already, or are you hoping the market bounces back like it did in 2015, or 2009, or… well, it’s not 2009 anymore.

• Are you honest with yourself about which deals will actually get built, and which are just filler in a broker’s pipeline update?

I’m adapting. Carefully. Cautiously. And with the mild terror of a guy who’s lived through losing everything once before.

Because resistance is futile. And real estate waits for no one.

So… are you ready to be assimilated?