The staggering inefficiency within the housing and healthcare sectors, which together consume nearly half of household spending and represent 40% of the U.S. GDP, presents a colossal opportunity for AI-driven transformation. In a recent a16z podcast, Erik Torenberg, General Partner at a16z, engaged with a16z Growth Partner Alex Immerman and EliseAI cofounders Minna Song and Tony Stoyanov to unveil their ambitious vision for leveraging artificial intelligence to fundamentally reshape these critical, yet historically stagnant, industries.
Minna Song articulated the core problem: "Housing and healthcare are the biggest expenses that people have. They eat up about 42% of what a typical household makes." This significant financial drain, coupled with systemic inefficiencies, spurred EliseAI to tackle what they see as an "accepted tax that we all pay." Alex Immerman further underscored this by highlighting a recurring chart from a16z partner Marc Andreessen, illustrating how sectors untouched by technology, like healthcare and housing, experience relentless price increases, while tech-integrated industries see costs plummet.
A primary focus for EliseAI is housing affordability, which hinges on supply. The U.S. faces a deficit of approximately 5 million housing units, with current construction rates insufficient even to prevent the shortage from worsening. However, AI offers an immediate avenue to unlock existing capacity. Song pointed out a striking inefficiency: "Almost half of inquiries that go to a rental apartment building never get responded to." This represents a massive pool of underutilized units.
If AI manages this demand, vacant apartments can be turned into occupied ones much faster. EliseAI’s data confirms this, with buildings utilizing their AI achieving 2% higher occupancy rates compared to the market.
This increased efficiency directly translates to higher returns for investors, attracting more capital to housing construction. Minna Song emphasized, "We're actually enabling housing to achieve higher returns because we're creating these 10x better housing operators that return higher profits to investors." This virtuous cycle could drive much-needed supply into the market.
The long-term vision extends to "fully autonomous buildings," where core operations require no human intervention. This shift redefines human roles, moving them from mundane administrative tasks—like endlessly answering the same 50 questions about a property—to higher-value functions such as building community and managing complex issues. Tony Stoyanov noted that cities like Minneapolis, which ended single-family zoning in 2019, saw housing supply grow three times faster than the national average, with rents remaining flat. While regulatory changes are crucial, AI can also optimize existing processes.
The parallels between housing and healthcare are striking. Both suffer from immense administrative burdens and communication bottlenecks. EliseAI's expansion into healthcare aims to address patient scheduling, billing, and compliance with similar AI-driven automation. By automating repetitive tasks, healthcare providers can reduce no-shows and improve patient engagement, ultimately elevating the quality of care.
The current state of real estate's technological adoption is notably low, with the industry spending the least on R&D compared to other sectors. This presents a unique opportunity for AI to drive unprecedented gains. By tackling complex planning problems, orchestrating resources, and managing unstructured interactions, AI can transform industries that were previously too complex for traditional software to optimize. This isn't just about cutting costs; it's about fundamentally improving the quality of life and accessibility of essential services for everyone.
