HistoryMaker Homes’ crawl-walk-run approach to AI adoption

Although homebuilders have not always fully developed AI strategies yet, the homebuilding industry at large is quickly recognizing and embracing it as a business game-changer. Builders that fail to adapt risk falling behind, with the pressure particularly acute for private builders competing against larger public operators with greater scale and resources. This is one of the main takeaways from Tuesday’s HousingWire AI Summit and pre-Summit AI homebuilder roundtable on Monday in Dallas. During a Tuesday session at the AI Summit, HistoryMaker Homes CEO Zac Thompson candidly shared his company’s experience implementing AI. As a regional homebuilder, HistoryMaker Homes doesn’t have millions of dollars to pour into AI initiatives or the ability to take on everything all at once. As a result, the builder is taking a gradual approach to adopting AI. “We subscribe to a crawl-walk-run strategy with this. We may be standing up for the first time over the last couple of months, getting into our walk phase,” Thompson said during the session. Differentiating amid heightened competition The 77-year-old private homebuilding firm, based in Dallas-Fort Worth, operates a core homebuilding business,...