Which Property Managers Will Join The National Mission?

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What does America’s next industrial revolution have to do with property management? More than you think.  Maybe everything.

Last week, I almost dismissed an event called “Winning the AI Race” as just another political talk. But I’m glad I looked closer, because it turned out to be the public kickoff of a national mission: a modern-day moon-shot designed to ensure America's "unquestioned, unchallenged technological dominance" through what’s been called a "national security imperative".

And as I listened to the business leaders, I had a second realization, and this is the one that made me write this for you: This wasn't about the economy. This was about American sovereignty. That means our government and business leaders see our ability to build an AI-first economy as a make or break moment in our ability to keep America’s place in the world’s pecking order.

Then I thought about Peter Lohmann describing property management as a form of manufacturing, and it all clicked.

The center of the conversation didn’t revolve around programmers and coders. It revolved around manufacturing. An AI-First manufacturing sector was painted as the biggest priority, essential to not conceding on looming conflicts with China, and the foundation of the new American economy.

After that, I couldn’t stop thinking: if manufacturing is the battlefield, then property management belongs in the fight..

AI-Native Property Management = Next-Gen Manufacturing…

Property managers don’t just maintain things—they assemble them.
A home. A tenant. A vendor network. Capital.
All configured to deliver a cash-flowing, scalable experience.
That’s not caretaking.

That’s manufacturing.

That’s the core of Peter Lohmann’s insight

Chris Power painted a bleak picture of the state of our manufacturing sector.  I knew we’ve offshored a lot of manufacturing, but I didn’t connect the dots to how crucial manufacturing had been to winning WWII.

Turns out, the fact that we rely on international manufacturing makes us extremely vulnerable in the face of a global conflict

But the message wasn’t that we already lost.  The message was about a unique window we have to  not just catch up, but jump ahead for the next generation.  The U.S. is pursuing this for national self-determination.

Just as national security now depends on rethinking how we build, your business’s future depends on the same principle.  Just like the country, as the world leader, is rebuilding its industrial base from scratch, you have the chance to rebuild how your business operates- faster, smarter, and stronger.

This is about your own self-determination.  Rarely does a shift come along so powerful that renders previous rankings irrelevant.  It’s happening on the world stage the same way it’ll happen in your local market.

The best news? The window of opportunity the national mission is aiming for, is yours for the taking too.

The Do-Over Is The Window: AI-Native For The Win

Chris Power, CEO of Hadrian, called it a national “do-over,” saying:

“Every great nation gets built by having the best industrial power first… We won WWII with factories; AI gives us a do-over.”

Not only does Chris believe tomorrow’s AI first factories will make current manufacturing look antiquated.  He said that an AI-first approach to build them will shatter today’s timelines.

That doesn’t only apply to infrastructure. It’s a guide for you. You are part of this mission with a chance to apply the principles of AI-first manufacturing to your own factory. If our country can turn a national weakness into a global advantage, you can do the same for your operation.

This combination of unprecedented speed and drastic change in outcome is how:

• A start-up PMC that embraces AI-first manufacturing principles becomes a new kind of operation: lean, automated, and infinitely scalable.
• An incumbent tied to legacy tooling becomes yesterday’s assembly line: slower, costlier, and unable to compete.

In the AI-first era, the winner won’t be the biggest. It’ll be the one who reimagines fastest.

You’re standing at a fork in the road.

One path: AI-native, lean, and scalable.

The other: stuck in legacy tools and shrinking margins.

What kind of company are you really building for your team to grow in?

Because in this new era, you’re not just a property manager. You're on the front line of the national mission to reimagine American manufacturing.  That means you get the chance to build the workforce of the future too..

The “New-Collar” Boom Is Already Here and AI is the Great Equalizer

This nation’s worker-first AI agenda’  is more than just technology. It’s a plan to unlock careers that never required an Ivy League badge to begin with.

Palantir’s Shyam Sankar nailed it when he said,

'AI is the bicycle for every blue-collar mind'.

This is already happening in property management.

Meet Bill Davey.

No property management background. Was working at Lowe’s last Christmas.  Now runs an AI-first maintenance program.

The technology didn’t just make him faster; it transformed his role entirely. When I visited Bill, this is what I saw him do:

• Review what his AI agents have done, and give them feedback like he would an employee
• Work on a revenue producing partnership with a new vendor
• Look into and justify an expensive quote for one of his owners to make him feel like he was making a good decision
• Come to a 2-hr NARPM meeting and watch me speak
• Share a delicious bar-b-q lunch with his boss and me

What I didn't see him doing was rushing to get back to calls to troubleshoot and work orders to process.  The AI was doing that. Instead, he’s working on things that really move the needle, building his network, and continuing to educate himself.

Bill didn’t just change jobs—he stepped into the future of work. He went from retail to a command center. That’s not just a personal story—it’s proof that the AI-first model is already working.  He’s embraced his role so much that he doesn’t refer to himself as the maintenance manager anymore.  He calls himself Happy Homes’s “AI Czar.”

Chris Power at Hadrian said, “100 % of our workforce came from non-factory backgrounds- trained in 30 days to run 10 machines at once”.

These workers, like Bill, are what the new national administrator of the Small Business Administration, Kelly Loeffler, called the  “new-collar boom”.  They represent something the U.S. could really use right now- a vibrant new sector of the American labor force.  These new-collar jobs are providing meaningful careers to people looking for a change in career, and don’t require an expensive college degree to succeed.

When you add up the idea that you can bring people in to go be number 1, while offering them a path to a better career, it starts to feel like something to sink your teeth into for everyone involved..

This Can Be Your Do-Over Moment AND Your Rallying Cry

The scale of this shift is historic. As NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang  said it best:

'We’re only a few hundred billion dollars into what will be a multi-trillion-dollar AI-infrastructure build-out per year'."

That tells me this is a wave I want to ride. If I were a property manager, I’d rally my team around this wave.  Not just operationally, but emotionally.

I’d paint a vision to my team about joining a national mission. Challenge to become number 1 in your market.  Get them pumped about their future career as AI first manufacturers.

Because if there is anything I’ve learned over the last 10 years of really following a personal mission-

Adding meaning to work unlocks people’s superpowers.

It’s the reason great leaders “start with why” and invest so much in core values and mission statements.  There aren’t many why’s bigger than controlling your destiny.  There aren’t many missions bigger than a national moon shot.

So why not wrap your company in that mission? Imagine selling this to your team: "Hey, we're part of this manufacturing boom. You're part of this 'new-collar' revolution." With an AI-first approach, we can build (or rebuild) faster, achieve better results quicker than ever, and find real meaning in what we’re doing.

If you’re ready for that, that’s what we’re here for at Vendoroo.  We were the first to commit to AI-first property management, so we know how to help you build your AI-first “factory”.

So the question stands- which property managers will join this national mission?  Is it you?

—

Pablo Gonzalez,

Chief Evangelist at Vendoroo

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