Justin Jones

Director of Industry Strategy, SmartRent

Justin Jones is the Director of Industry Strategy at SmartRent, where he focuses on building a more connected, intelligent, and inclusive future for multifamily. With over a decade of proptech leadership at Hyly.AI, Realtor.com, Zumper, and RadPad, he is recognized for turning AI, automation, and IoT into practical strategies that drive results. He co-created The AI XChange and hosts This Just In, a series that translates complex proptech developments into clear and actionable insights. A frequent speaker at major conferences including OPTECH, Apartmentalize, and AIM, Justin delivers sharp perspectives on how technology and innovation are reshaping leasing, marketing, and operations. In 2022, he founded Multifamily Q Space, the first affinity group for LGBTQ+ professionals in rental real estate. Blending technical expertise with cultural perspective, Justin helps the industry anticipate what’s next—while reminding leaders that technology matters most when it elevates people.

2:45 - 3:30 PM

Thursday Day 2-March 19

The AI Playbook for Marketers: How to Win Trust and Drive Change

In multifamily, marketers often find themselves caught between executive vision at the top and on-site realities at the bottom. You may not control the budget, but you carry the brand, the campaigns, and the resident experience on your shoulders. Which raises the question: how do you push through layers of approval and bureaucracy to pilot AI, build trust, and champion real transformation? In this session, Kristi Fickert and Justin Jones, joined by Liv Gabrielsen of Pegasus Residential, share the playbook for turning small starts into meaningful momentum. You'll see how pilots become proof, how trust is earned with both leaders and site teams, and how early wins grow into lasting adoption. Built on the five principles of working with AI intentionally, this is your journey as a marketer: creating space to test, amplifying results, and building momentum until transformation is no longer an option but an expectation. Takeaways:

Pick the Right Starting Point: Discover which parts of your marketing are the best candidates for AI pilots - the low-risk, high-visibility areas where results can be measured and momentum can build quickly.
Treat Data as the Foundation: Understand how to build adoption strategies that respect compliance, protect sensitive information, and still surface the right data points to show measurable marketing progress today.
Make Work More Human: Discover how to redirect time and energy away from traditional and repetitive tasks to instead create more capacity for marketers and their teams when it comes to creative thinking, people-leading and by using pilot results as proof to act now, not later.