Voyager Suite
Breeze
Virtuoso
Investment Suite
RentCafe Suite
REACH by RentCafe
CommercialCafe Suite
Elevate Suite
Procure to Pay Suite 
Energy Suite
Aspire
RightSource
Care Suite
Matrix
Yardi Kube Suite
ScreeningWorks Pro 
Yardi Corom
Artificial intelligence is reshaping how multifamily operators run their organization. But for many owners and operators, the path to implementation isn’t always clear. Multifamily AI readiness looks different for every portfolio and knowing where to begin makes all the difference. Where do you start? What do you build first? How do you involve your teams?
Cindy Fisher, president of KETTLER, asked those same questions. With roughly 30,000 units under management and on track for 35,000 by year’s end, KETTLER has consistently looked for ways to do more for their teams and their residents. As an early participant in Yardi’s agentic AI program, Cindy developed a practical, people-first approach to deploying AI that other operators can learn from.
Start with your process, not your technology
Before KETTLER deployed a single AI agent, Cindy and her team did something simple: They mapped their workflows.
“You have to know your workflows. You have to know your process. You have to talk to the people who are executing the work every day,” Cindy said. “You have to ask teams where they see the most friction and the biggest pain points in their day-to-day work.”
The approach is methodical. KETTLER brings the right people into a room, finance, accounting, site team members, central office staff and leadership. Then, they go through each process together.
“It’s so organic for people to identify their pain points,” Cindy said. “In less than an eight-hour day, we ran through the process, identified everything, prioritized it and got everybody aligned.”
Once a workflow is understood and documented, it becomes a candidate for agentic deployment. Cindy uses a simple but effective mental model: swim lanes. “Think of swim lanes. When you map out a workflow, you put in your roles, and you keep them in their swim lane. We’re simply adding another role and calling it the agent.”
This framing makes all the difference. AI agents won’t replace people. They will join the process.
Involve your team from the beginning
Change management is one of the biggest barriers to AI adoption, and Cindy addresses it early. By bringing people in from the process mapping stage from day one, KETTLER turns potential skeptics into advocates.
“Now I have a group that’s engaged and ready to embrace this,” she said. “When people are part of the process from the beginning, change management becomes a whole lot easier.”
The goal isn’t efficiency for its own sake. It’s giving people their time back. Cindy is direct about this: Every hour a team member spends compiling data at a computer is an hour they’re not spending on a property with residents or helping lease apartments.
“This is a huge opportunity to give back to the people who I think are the heroes in multifamily,” she said. “Bring balance back to their jobs and make them excited to be in this industry.”
Make sure your data is ready
AI is only as good as the data behind it. For Cindy, a consolidated data foundation is a technical and strategic requirement.
“Data is huge to me. I measure everything. We measure everything, and we monitor everything,” she said. “Being able to have a consolidated data view and data structure helps us move to the next generation of analytics and use data to improve performance.”
Operators who work across disconnected systems will find AI harder to deploy effectively. One single, connected platform gives AI agents the clean, reliable data they need to perform. It also gives leadership the visibility to measure results.
“It’s time that we have to show our work,” Cindy said. “We have to show that technology is actually going to help the asset perform.”
Choose a partner, not just a product
Perhaps the most important factor in KETTLER’s AI journey isn’t the technology itself. It’s the partnership behind it.
When Cindy began to lay out KETTLER’s AI vision, she turned to Yardi first. “I leaned into Yardi and said, ‘Here’s what I’m thinking. How am I going to make this come to life?’”
A collaborative approach, grounded in a long-standing strategic relationship, made the decision easy. “It really came down to a simple decision. The strategic partnership was the foundation. Yardi took the time to understand our strategy and vision, then showed us a roadmap to get there.”
The right technology partner doesn’t sell you a solution. They help you build one that fits your operation and your goals. For operators evaluating AI, that distinction is worth considering.
“We’re not just buying a product. We’re building agents,” Cindy said. “Yardi is allowing us to figure out what agents we need to build, how we optimize our process and how we build our workflows.”
Where to begin
AI readiness doesn’t require a complete overhaul. It requires clarity in your workflows, your data and your partner. Start by talking to your teams. Map your processes. Identify friction and pain points. Then evaluate technology partners and find one who will meet you where you are and help you reach your goals.
KETTLER is doing exactly that, and the results are already taking shape. Hear directly from Cindy as she presents Agents of Change: How AI Is Redefining Rental Housing Performance at NAA Apartmentalize 2026. Add the session to your conference planner.
Ready to explore what AI can do for your portfolio? Learn more about Virtuoso Enterprise and connect with our team.
