In 2023, fundamentals mattered again. Profits ruled. Bad unit economics didn’t. 2024 was chaotic—capital pulled back while experimentation ran hot. 2025 was the year AI stopped being optional.

Now it’s 2026. The machines didn’t just rise—they moved in.

This isn’t adoption. It’s saturation. AI is in every product roadmap, every board deck, every sales pitch, and every workflow—whether it belongs there or not. The noise is deafening, the pace is accelerating, and the line between signal and spectacle gets harder to see by the day.

This is AI Madness—not because AI is new, but because ignoring it is no longer an option.

Against that backdrop, these are the proptech trends GEMineers (aka GEM members) expect to define 2026—not the loudest ideas, but the ones that matter once the madness settles.

PROPTECH TRENDS

AI

AI APPLICATION LAYER SEPARATES FROM THE NOISE
Chris Kelly, Co-Founding GP, Stackpoint Ventures

As models get cheaper and fine-tuning becomes commoditized, the strategic advantage shifts away from owning the largest GPU clusters and toward embedding AI into structured, rule-based workflows that drive real business outcomes.

The infrastructure cycle (chips, frontier models, hyperscale training) will draw increased scrutiny as costs rise and early consolidation begins, but the application layer will continue advancing. Vertical, domain-specific AI that ties agents to real data and real operations will show the clearest signs of durable, defensible value creation.

In 2026, the market finally recognizes that the most transformational part of the AI ecosystem isn’t just the model layer—where only a handful of winners will emerge—but the vast landscape of vertical industries where applied AI creates defensibility, operational impact, and sustained long-term value for founders and investors.

REALITY WILL BE OPTIONAL
Dave Garland, Managing Partner, Second Century Ventures

Over half of all public-facing real estate assets (photos, videos, and descriptions) will be synthetic or significantly AI-altered by the end of 2026. It currently costs over $500 and takes days to stage a home with real furniture, but it costs only 27 cents and a few seconds to do it with AI. Because that cost difference is so dramatic, nearly every home listing you look at online will be digitally “enhanced” by default.

STARTUPS

FIRST NATIONAL AI-FIRST BROKERAGE WILL LAUNCH WITH $100M IN FUNDING
Mark Choey, Founder, Highnote

In 2026, a well-funded startup will announce the first national AI-first real estate brokerage, backed by top-tier VCs betting that autonomous agents can disrupt the $100 billion commission market. Building on early proof points—such as Homa’s recent Florida transactions, where buyers saved over $24,000 by self-representing with AI—this new player will launch simultaneously in 10+ states with licensed AI systems trained on state-specific laws, MLS integrations, and end-to-end transaction workflows.

The pitch is simple: a 1% total commission (versus the typical 5-6%) for commodity residential transactions, with AI handling roughly 90% of the workflow and human oversight reserved for exceptions and edge cases. By year-end, expect this startup to close 500+ deals, raise a Series B, and force traditional brokerages to finally articulate the value of human agents when software can execute the basics faster and cheaper.​

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