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Of All AI-Opened Work Orders Closed Same Day
Total AI-Created Work Orders
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The Michaels Organization is one of the nation’s premier owners, operators, and developers of multifamily housing. Their operational expertise spans a wide range of property types and asset classes, from public housing, to tax credit, workforce, attainable, student and high-end rental communities.
The Michaels Organization has been partnering with EliseAI since July 2023, using its Leasing and Maintenance Tools along with other AI functionality, first on its student/market-rate properties, and most recently throughout its privatized military housing. Now, based on the success with student/market and military, Michaels plans to roll out EliseAI solutions to its affordable properties, which accounts for the largest share of apartments in The Michaels’ portfolio.
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With over 75,000 units under management across the country—50,000 of which are affordable—The Michaels Organization is the largest private sector owner of affordable housing in the country. Their portfolio stretches across 39 states from coast-to-coast. They have been trusted for more than 50 years by cities, housing authorities, universities, the faith community and others to deliver high-quality, sustainable housing solutions, with management operations that serve residents’ specific needs.
Michaels has also been a private-sector partner of the Department of Defense since 2004 and manages the privatized housing on 12 military installations. Most recently, Michaels was selected by the Army to develop Fort Irwin Apartments, a first-of-its-kind community that will combine elements of military housing and student living to create a resort-style residential experience for single and junior-ranking service members. Michaels sees its partnership with the DOD as a unique opportunity to “house heroes and serve their families.” Communication and timely and accurate delivery of maintenance services is a key to resident satisfaction.
The partnership with EliseAI at Michaels Military Housing has improved operating efficiency and ensured that Michaels can deliver high quality service at scale. Like many prominent nationwide operators, The Michaels Organization is constantly under pressure to balance high quality service standards with the reality of operating at scale across 75,000+ units. Residential management means operating 24/7, providing a true sense of home that involves consistent and responsive maintenance communication.
Enforcing these quality standards across such a large portfolio is imperative to The Michaels Organization’s operating model, and legacy technology failed to meet the evolving needs of its residents. There is a focus on continuous improvement and innovation to improve tracking systems for work orders, eliminate small issues that could slip through the cracks, and reduce any resident frustrations. The Michaels Organization’s ability to resolve all work orders in their standard SLA is key, but at the same time, its onsite teams were already stretched, which made it a challenge to improve service quality with its existing systems and structures.
With that in mind, they turned to EliseAI for support in managing resident maintenance issues across their military housing portfolio.
The decision to roll out EliseAI’s Maintenance product across The Michaels Organization’s portfolio of military housing communities came as a natural extension of their existing partnership with EliseAI. They were already using EliseAI’s LeasingAI product across their market rate and student housing communities, so they were abundantly familiar with the capabilities of what EliseAI could deliver. As part of a larger initiative to consolidate their technology stack and create a consistent resident experience across all segments, they rolled off their existing maintenance call center for the EliseAI Maintenance product… and the impact was significant.
With EliseAI’s Maintenance product in place, residents can now report issues via text, call, or voice message around the clock, ensuring every request is processed in a rapid and professional manner. AI-powered triaging can assess the urgency of any maintenance issue and route it appropriately, ensuring emergency service is looped in only when it needs to be and that less pressing issues are handled in an appropriate but non-emergency timeline. Above all else, Michaels residents, including the men and women in uniform who call The Michaels Organization communities their homes, get much needed immediate acknowledgment and expected timeline communication from Maintenance, transforming a process that is frequently a black box into a transparent, streamlined workflow.
Smart categorization of maintenance requests, automatic escalation of genuine emergencies to on-call teams, and queueing non-urgent requests appropriately for business hours with zero human intervention has been a massive unlock for The Michaels Organization. Proactive communication about work order status, appointment confirmation and reminders, and post-resolution satisfaction checks ensure the maintenance process is as painless and clear as possible. Finally, Maintenance is capable of handling these issues in over 50 languages, ensuring residents can always communicate in their preferred language.
The results have been significant: almost 50% of AI-generated work orders are closed on the same day and almost 20% of all work orders across The Michaels Organization portfolio are created by AI. In practice, those time savings result in better living experiences for residents, as the “always-on” nature of AI nicely complements the community building and resident experience-focused approach The Michaels Organization’s onsite team members follow. This is the best case combination of humans and technology: agentic AI automating repetitive work so dedicated and attentive associates can focus on creating a sense of home for their residents.
The success with EliseAI Maintenance at their military housing assets represents just one piece of The Michaels Organization's broader AI transformation. With components of the full EliseAI product suite already deployed across a large portion of their student and market-rate properties (including LeasingAI, VoiceAI, ResidentAI, Lease Audits, and AI-Guided Tours), the organization is rapidly expanding opportunities to their affordable assets.
Further, The Michaels Organization’s leadership continues the forward-looking push towards enterprise-wide technology standardization, ensuring consistent resident experiences regardless of portfolio segment. The organization's approach reflects a commitment to tech consolidation—reducing platform sprawl through a strategic partnership with EliseAI that amplifies the capabilities of their onsite teams across all communities.
The partnership with EliseAI has evolved from initial pilots to a strategic, long-term commitment to using AI as an enabler of The Michaels Organization's core mission: creating communities that lift lives. Whether serving our brave service members and women as well as their families, student renters, or affordable housing residents, The Michaels Organization is well positioned to continue expanding their portfolio and delivering incredible experiences at scale, with a little help from EliseAI.
Dayra is a veteran property management professional with years of experience delivering operational improvements and strong outcomes. She joined Michaels in 2014 rising from AVP to Regional Vice President to SVP. As an Assistant VP, Dayra oversaw the first new construction mixed-income community in the city of Camden, NJ, and played a substantial role in Camden’s major redevelopment efforts. Before joining Michaels, Dayra worked in the conventional market in South Florida and San Francisco before transferring to military housing. She has over 14 years of operations and community management experience stretching a variety of property types including military, market-rate, and mixed-income. She is an active member of the National Apartment Association.
Brandon is a multifamily real estate executive with over 28 years of experience optimizing operations, improving financial performance, and enhancing resident satisfaction across diverse portfolios, including affordable, market-rate, student, and military housing. As Vice President of Optimization at The Michaels Organization, Brandon leads enterprise-wide property management initiatives designed to centralize operations, streamline workflows, and integrate innovative technologies that directly improve NOI, occupancy, and retention. He focuses on building scalable systems, aligning performance-based incentives to KPIs, and driving the successful adoption of tools such as LeasingAI, Delinquency, and compliance platforms. His work spans centralized collections, facilities management, AI implementation, and the development of Michaels’ centralized database infrastructure.
Michael Manfred is an experienced multifamily real estate professional, with a track record of spearheading impactful initiatives at large, publicly traded, owner/operator/developer companies. Michael has a proven track record of leading an effective marketing department, implementing digital strategies, delivering revenue growth, and leading teams during significant transformation. He prides himself on being a collaborative and positive leader who works well cross functionally and with all stakeholders, with a coaching and empowerment management style.
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