Slop is Bad For the Bottom Line.

"Slop" was 2025's word of the year, declared by both Merriam-Webster and The Economist. You can probably sniff it, and you've definitely interacted with it.

Lots of slop is low stakes. But slop in one of life's most important decisions—where you choose to live—is not. Rent is most people's largest expense. And, as one of our customers put it: "Leasing an apartment is the most intimate decision you'll make all year because you're going to connect with that home—you're going to have experiences in that home."

It turns out that slop in leasing doesn't just ruin customer experience. It kills revenue.

At Grotto, our team of graduate-level statisticians from Stanford and Carnegie Mellon analyzed millions of leasing interactions and found that the single greatest predictor of whether a lead converted to a signed lease wasn't product knowledge, wasn't following the perfect script, wasn't even asking for the tour.

It was laughter!

Agents who initiated laughter were 48% more likely to convert.
Those who showed genuine curiosity were 35% more likely.

In an industry where vacancy loss erases over half a trillion dollars in asset value, a 48% lift isn't incremental—it's one of the biggest levers that exists for owners' balance sheets.

And yet the prevailing story in multifamily has been full automation. The "humanless" property. It sounds cutting-edge in the boardroom, but it's not what the data says will actually move the needle. Have you ever heard an AI try to laugh? It's just… creepy.

We're building something different: AI that supercharges leasing teams instead of replacing them. Guidance, our flagship product, steers agents through conversational best practices while handling the grunt work that distracts from what actually drives conversion—building a relationship with the prospect.

Toby Bozzuto, CEO of Bozzuto, recently said: "As we harness the power of technology, let's remember what makes us truly human—our empathy, creativity, and critical thinking. AI should enhance the human experience, not replace it."

This is the world we're building. In a landscape of homogenized slop destroying half a trillion dollars of value, there's no choice but to enlist humans for what only they can do: laugh, make others feel heard, and lead with genuine curiosity.

2025 was the year of replacing humans. 2026 is about unlocking what only they can do.