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HOA Documents Talking Back? How GenAI and Azure AI Search Are Revolutionizing Real Estate Operations

Azure-AI-Search
3 min read

Client

A large national Single Family Rental and Property Management company.

Challenge

Our client managed thousands of lengthy and complex homeowners association (HOA) documents. These documents cover Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions (CC&Rs) and property usage within each community. Accessing and understanding specific rules within these documents, across thousands of communities, was time-consuming and inefficient for property managers and their tenants, often leading to frustration and potential disputes.

Approach

First Line Software proposed a Proof of Concept (PoC) for a GenAI-powered solution to address this challenge. The PoC focused on:

  • Data Ingestion: Ingesting a portion of CC&R documents to test and refine the data import process
  • Generative AI Enrichment: Utilizing Azure Document Intelligence to extract text from the PDFs and Azure Open AI to analyze and structure the extracted information
  • API Development: Creating a documented API for QA testing and future integration with the client’s website and internal systems

Solution

The PoC introduced our bespoke approach to agentic RAG: Agentic Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Organizations (ARGO). Grounded in client-specific, precise, and contextually accurate data, ARGO can:

  • Efficiently process and analyze CC&R documents: The GenAI solution successfully extracted key information and organized it for easy access.
  • Provide natural language-based search: Users could ask questions in plain English, such as “Can I build a fence in my backyard?” or “What are the rules for pet ownership?” and receive accurate answers based on the CC&Rs.
  • Address to HOA mapping: Before answering the question, the smart assistant asks the user their address, defines which HOA this address belongs to, and gives an answer based on the corresponding CC&R. That allows users to type their address into the chatbot if they don’t know their HOA’s name. The system will automatically figure out their HOA and give them the right information.
  • Offer scalability for future enhancements: The architecture allowed for future expansion to include additional data sources, improved GenAI models, and more sophisticated user interfaces.

Document Ingestion and Processing:

  • HOA PDF documents are uploaded and stored securely in Azure Blob storage
  • The OCR (Optical Character Recognition) module extracts text from the PDFs
  • The extracted text is split into smaller, manageable chunks
  • These chunks are converted to vector embeddings and stored in the Vector storage
  • The processed data is indexed in Azure AI Search for efficient retrieval

User Interaction Flow:

  • A user interacts with the Assistant UI
  • The UI sends the user’s query to the Assistant API Service via HTTP
  • The query is processed by the Semantic Kernel

Query Processing and Response Generation:

The Semantic Kernel provides storage and retrieval of the context of the user conversation after each response and coordinates GenAI agents to solve specialized tasks according to the context

The Semantic Kernel coordinates with three specialized agents:

  • The Address Agent verifies property addresses using an external Address validation API
  • The Search Agent queries Azure AI Search to find relevant information from the processed HOA documents
  • The Conversational Agent (LLM) leverages Azure Open AI to understand queries and generate natural language responses by adhering to a given behavior and using special protective prompt

Response Delivery:

  • The generated response is sent back to the Assistant UI
  • Information is shown to the user in a conversational format
  • The Microsoft AI Chat Protocol governs the entire interaction flow

This creates a seamless experience where users can ask natural language questions about HOA documents, and the system will validate their property address, search through processed documents, and deliver relevant, contextualized answers using AI capabilities.

Key Benefits

  • Improved efficiency and accuracy: Faster access to relevant information for both residents and HOA staff.
  • Reduced disputes and legal risks: A clearer understanding of community rules leads to better compliance.
  • Enhanced resident satisfaction: Easier access to information improves the overall living experience.
  • Future-proof solution: The scalable architecture allows the system to evolve with the client’s needs and advancements in GenAI technology.

To learn how Azure AI Search and ARGO can supercharge your time-consuming and clunky document management system, click here.

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