AI will be a gamechanger for social housing. And those associations that balance today’s needs with long-term goals will reap the benefits now and far into the future. The Dot Collective’s Rob Lawrence and Kate Stetsiuk look at how AI, together with the company’s signature ‘steel thread’ approach, can enable housing providers to deliver even better homes and communities.
We’ve all seen stories of how AI will transform our lives. But what exactly might it mean for a housing provider’s day-to-day operations? Let’s take a quick peek into the not-so-distant future for Alex, a maintenance engineer…
Alex reviews the daily schedule app. There’s a new alert; a dripping pipe in one of the houses. Only this time, the resident hasn’t even noticed that there’s a problem, let alone reported it. IoT sensors have detected the problem, alerting Alex to deal with the drip before it becomes a major leak. As the car navigated the city, Alex reflected how repairs were a thing of the past. Thanks to the vibration data collected by boiler sensors and instantly analysed by AI algorithms, everything was now about pre-emptive maintenance, ensuring worn items were replaced before they could even break.
As Alex heads back to the office, his tablet displayed a congratulatory message, “Today marks our 1,000th day without a damp or mould problem being reported by a resident.” Alex smiled, proud of his team and the network of IoT devices that had made such a milestone possible.
Alex thought about how they’d diverted the money saved from property maintenance over the past seven years to insulation upgrades. With Christmas just around the corner, it was heartwarming to know that people in their community would be warm and comfortable this winter.
Improving services & tenant experiences
This story is much closer to reality than you think and it only scratches the surface of what data and AI could mean for housing providers. You may already be using AI tools to support basic tasks, such as drafting documents or automating data entry. But truly unlocking AI’s potential is where the truly transformative opportunities lie.
Here are just a few of the ways AI could benefit every resident by enabling you to streamline your operations and improve service quality:
- Optimising workforce capacity – AI can analyse workforce data to predict peak times for repairs and match engineers’ skills to jobs to allocate resources better.
Practitioner’s tip – Machine-learning models, such as XGBoost and neural networks, can forecast workload fluctuations and optimisation algorithms can then allocate resources effectively. - Digitalising paperwork – This can transform paper-based records such as manuals and warranties into digital assets. Large language models (LLMs) can retrieve relevant information from thousands of files in seconds. Digitalised documents can support automated compliance checks, inventory tracking and asset lifecycle management.
Practitioner’s tip – Use OCR for digitisation and LLMs and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) algorithms for extracting relevant information. - Predictive maintenance – By using IoT sensors and maintenance logs, AI enables proactive maintenance of housing providers’ assets and helps to extend their lifespan by detecting malfunctioning equipment and predicting when it’s likely to fail.
Practitioner’s tip – Classical machine-learning algorithms or custom neural networks can analyse sensor data to detect patterns that indicate wear or malfunction. Your technology stack could include time-series modelling frameworks, such as ARIMA, for failure prediction, and integration with IoT platforms, such as AWS IoT or Azure IoT Hub, to manage real-time sensor data. - Tenant support and engagement – Conversational chatbots can provide 24/7 support for residents by answering common questions, processing maintenance requests and escalating complex problems. AI algorithms can help improve residents’ satisfaction by analysing feedback on community platforms and suggesting solutions to any problems.
Practitioner’s tip – Look into pre-trained LLMs, such as GPT, BERT or T5, for dialogue generation and understanding, with the option to leverage third-party APIs, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, for scalable, ready-to-use conversational solutions. - Safeguarding tenants – Applying AI to IoT sensor data will be a gamechanger when it comes to the safeguarding and wellbeing of tenants. AI models can spot unusual patterns that could indicate a health problem (e.g. the front door wasn’t opened for 48 hours) and quickly alert a support worker.
Practitioner’s tip – Machine-learning models that analyse daily behavioural patterns can provide sophisticated and personalised monitoring. - Energy management – By collecting real-time data from sensor and smart meters, machine-learning tools can analyse energy consumption in homes and forecast usage trends. Housing providers could then use the data to provide personalised energy-saving recommendations to residents and apply targeted solutions where anomalies are detected.
Practitioner’s tip – Machine-learning models, such as LSTMs, can identify consumption patterns and forecast usage trends, enabling personalised recommendations. Integration with IoT platforms, such as AWS IoT or Google Cloud IoT Core, allows real-time data collection and analysis.
Harnessing AI’s potential with a ‘steel thread’ approach
Unlocking all this potential is difficult. You need to find, retain and pay skilled professionals in a competitive market. Your existing systems might be outdated and unable to handle the large volumes of data needed to support advanced analytics. And you might need to integrate data from a variety of systems and formats, leaving you open to security and GDPR breaches.
At The Dot Collective, we use a ‘steel thread’ approach to address these challenges. We focus on delivering a working version of a system that makes sure each critical component works together cohesively. This provides a solid foundation that you can scale or enhance as your use of data and AI matures and grows.
Delivering results now and for the future
The first step is to identify critical and impactful areas where AI could be applied now, pinpointing what will deliver immediate tangible value. This often means targeting legacy systems that were never designed for modern data needs.
The first steel thread gives you a foundational infrastructure set-up you can then expand to handle additional data sources and use-cases. You can also use it to showcase the value you’ve unlocked and win support for investment in modern, cloud-native technologies that provide a flexible infrastructure that can grow with your organisation. And as your project gathers momentum, it will help drive a data-driven culture, helping to retain skilled staff and overcome resistance to change.
What’s certain is that housing providers that get their data foundations right today will be best positioned to deploy AI long into their futures, delivering operational efficiencies that significantly improve the day-to-day experiences of the thousands of residents in their communities.
The Dot Collective is a new-generation consultancy of data and cloud practitioners who create the springboards for momentous organisational leaps. We specialise in building bespoke, cloud-native, future-proofed data platforms that help you to make the most of the latest advances in modern technologies.
Contact me at rob.lawrence@thedotcollective.co.uk for a chat about how your organisations can make the most of data and AI, wherever you are on your journey.
Rob Lawrence is the chief revenue officer, and Kateryna Stetsiuk is the head of the AI practice at The Dot Collective.
