HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – As sustainability and artificial intelligence converge in the housing market, industry leaders are reimagining the future of home building.
At Green Builder Media’s 9th Annual Sustainability Symposium, speakers shared ideas and insights on today’s homebuyers and the road ahead for builders, developers, and other housing leaders.
Beazer Homes CEO Allan Merrill offered a look into a more technologically efficient real estate market—one where builders and homebuyers collaborate toward a more environmentally friendly future.
During a recent 30-minute webinar, Merrill expressed his belief in AI’s potential to transform how consumers search for homes.
“Honestly, my belief is, and I’m quite confident of this, that AI will create the capacity for consumers to have their lifestyle, their values, their beliefs reflected in their search,” he said. “Now I’m not confident that third parties are going to execute this at scale, but I think consumers taking control of their search process are going to be able to use smart agents to act on their behalf for a lot of things, including home search.”
Looking further ahead, Merrill said the industry should think beyond smart homes and begin envisioning truly intelligent ones.
“I think we are seeing language models and AI tools develop with very domain-specific applications,” he said. “So, the relevance of this is when I think about the home and I think about living in a home, I think what needs to happen, and I think what will happen, is there will be models that are trained on what’s in the home, that are trained on the lifestyle of the person who lives in the home.”
Merrill said that being able to interact with this kind of information could be a powerful tool for helping people enjoy—and, frankly, sustain—their homeownership.
“In a home that knows what’s in it, that knows what you need as you’re aging in place, for example, that is able to anticipate the way in which your lifestyle is going to change, making recommendations for the things that will extend your ability to stay in your home,” he said. “So, I think about it as an operating system. I don’t know exactly when it delivers, but I believe that is going to make the experience of homeownership more durable and more sustainable.”
In addition to embracing new technologies, Merrill emphasized the need for the real estate and homebuilding industries to focus more heavily on sustainability.
He noted that many first-time buyers today prioritize energy efficiency and affordability. For Beazer Homes, he said, the goal is to deliver homes that are high-quality, comfortable, and cost-effective.
To meet that goal, Merrill said, builders must improve how homes are sealed to better manage indoor air and temperature—enhancing both air quality and energy efficiency.
He also highlighted that Beazer Homes is incorporating fire-resistant materials and designing neighborhoods on elevated land to better protect against severe flooding. One of the largest home builders in the nation, Beazer is active in about 30 communities in the Houston area.
May 13, 2025 Realty News Report Copyright 2025
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File: Green Builder: AI, Sustainability are the Future, Beazer CEO Says Merrill Green Builder: AI, Sustainability are the Future, Beazer CEO Says