AI vs. Maintenance Chaos: The New Coordinator Role

Pete Neubig: Good morning, or good afternoon, depending on where you are. Everybody, thanks so much for joining us.

Pete Neubig: We're gonna give everybody one more minute as we let people gather in. I see some good names here. My buddy Robert—I'll see you later for a cigar. Bill, Allison, welcome everybody.

Pete Neubig: We have David Normand, Chief PM with Vendoroo here today. We know that AI is a big talking point, and who better than Vendoroo—the leader in AI when it comes to maintenance. David, welcome. I’m gonna let you take it away.

David Normand: Pete, appreciate you having us on here today. It’s always great to speak with others in the industry. I’ve been in property management for about 20 years, and it’s an exciting time with all these new tools.

David Normand: There’s a lot of noise out there, so I hope to help answer some questions today. We’ll talk about the new role of the VA and what Vendoroo is doing.

Pete Neubig: As David shares, feel free to drop questions in the chat or Q&A. I’ll be monitoring both. Let’s get into it.

David Normand: I’ll start with a quick background on Vendoroo. We’ve been around a few years and were early adopters testing whether AI could actually deliver value in property management.

David Normand: What we’re seeing now is clear—AI allows property managers to pull together all the scattered information: texts, emails, spreadsheets, and even knowledge in people’s heads, into a centralized structure.

David Normand: That visibility helps identify where maintenance workflows break and improve them. A couple of key data points:

David Normand: Human-led maintenance departments average about 17% of units with open work orders at any time. With AI, we’ve seen that drop to 9.8%.

David Normand: Another big one—100% of labor costs cover 9–5 operations, yet 40–78% of work orders come in after hours. AI enables true 24/7 operations, improving response times and resident satisfaction.

Pete Neubig: Let’s say I’m listening and thinking—how do I even start? How do I prepare my company for AI?

David Normand: Great question. AI isn’t plug-and-play like Hollywood suggests. That’s why we created an AI Readiness Report.

David Normand: You provide access to your PMS or datasets, and we analyze gaps in policies, vendors, and workflows, then benchmark you against successful companies.

David Normand: Preparation today requires 85% less effort than a year ago because we’ve streamlined the process.

Pete Neubig: For those attending NARPM Broker Owner, Vendoroo will be doing these assessments live. Definitely check them out.

Pete Neubig: Based on your experience, what are the top 2–3 things companies need to fix before implementing AI?

David Normand: The biggest one is policies. Most are too vague.

David Normand: For example: “tenant responsible for light bulbs.” That’s not actionable. AI needs conversational, decision-based policies—what would you actually ask a resident?

David Normand: Improving policies reduces unnecessary work orders and improves resident education.

Pete Neubig: Do you help clients with that?

David Normand: Yes. The readiness report identifies gaps, and our AI Adoption Advisors coach you through building and improving policies.

Pete Neubig: Even outside AI, tightening policies improves your business overall.

David Normand: Exactly. Another key point—your operations don’t actually live in your PMS. They live in people’s heads, emails, texts, and spreadsheets.

David Normand: We centralize all of that, including vendor and resident communications, giving visibility into issues like vendor failures—which occur in 41% of work orders.

David Normand: With visibility, workflows improve continuously.

David Normand: This also changes the role of the maintenance coordinator—from chasing updates to training the system.

David Normand: They now teach the AI:

• Which vendors are trusted
• What gets escalated
• How workflows should behave

David Normand: That shift turns one top performer into a force multiplier across the entire business.

Pete Neubig: So this person becomes the AI supervisor?

David Normand: Exactly. Your frontline maintenance coordinator becomes the most valuable person—training and improving the system.

David Normand: The biggest differentiator we’ve seen is training. Companies that succeed invest 2x more effort into training their AI.

David Normand: Bringing AI in is like hiring an employee—you get out what you put in.

Pete Neubig: Are people still dropping off AI, or is adoption improving?

David Normand: Huge improvement. Early on, adoption was rough—like building a plane mid-flight. Now we’re at about 94% adoption.

Pete Neubig: As a user, I’ve seen bots fail when they only provide generic answers. Better policies should reduce that, right?

David Normand: Exactly. When policies and workflows are dialed in, AI can handle much more complexity and reduce off-ramps.

David Normand: We’re seeing 94% resident satisfaction, faster response times, and better communication.

Pete Neubig: I’ve heard 80% systemized, 20% human. Has that changed?

David Normand: It’s closer to 88% automated now. But human-in-the-loop is still critical for edge cases.

David Normand: For example, home warranties or approvals still require humans.

David Normand: The goal is full outcome ownership, not partial automation.

Pete Neubig: So humans still handle escalations and training.

David Normand: Exactly. And when workflows break, our team reviews and suggests improvements.

David Normand: We’ve invested heavily in making onboarding simple so people don’t feel overwhelmed.

Pete Neubig: Let’s take a question… (interaction with attendee)

Pete Neubig: We’re wrapping up—any final thoughts?

David Normand: If you’re attending NARPM, get an AI Readiness Report.

David Normand: Centralize your data, improve workflows, and enhance resident and owner experiences.

Pete Neubig: We should also create a job description for this new AI maintenance coordinator role.

David Normand: We’re working on training programs so VAs can come in ready to manage AI systems.

Pete Neubig: We’ve got positive feedback from early adopters—great to see.

Pete Neubig: Final question—what are the biggest complaints?

David Normand: The biggest issue is mindset—people expect AI to work like SaaS.

David Normand: Once they understand it’s like training an employee, satisfaction improves significantly.

David Normand: AI isn’t perfect, but failures become opportunities to improve workflows.

Pete Neubig: Preparation is key—the more you invest upfront, the better results you’ll get.

David Normand: Exactly. Treat it like an employee, engage with it, and you’ll see strong results.

Pete Neubig: Alright everyone, thanks for joining. Have a great day.

David Normand: Appreciate it—see you next time.