AMH - March 2023

AMH’s Philip Irby on AI use in the home

AMH’s Philip Irby on AI use in the home

WRITTEN BY: HELEN ADAMS

AMH rents homes & builds them. Chief Technology Officer Philip Irby discusses AI & building a resident experience-focused platform

AMH is one of the leading builders in the United States, which rents homes and builds homes to rent.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, AMH takes employee satisfaction very seriously. The company has won the Great Place to Work® accreditation, has been recognised for its sustainability initiatives, and is rated as one of America's Most Responsible Companies 2022 by Newsweek and Statista, as well as a Top ESG Regional Performer by Sustainalytics.

Philip Irby is the Chief Technology Officer for AMH. His role is to lead the transformation of its technology stack into a modern, flexible, resident experiencefocused platform.

“I've taken lessons learned throughout my career and applied them in a transformational platform for an emerging industry, in which there's not really a modern tech stack available,” says Irby. “I have the opportunity to pioneer and build something that hasn't been built.”

Irby’s job is to improve the resident experience through technology, to make it seamless and non-intrusive.

“My job is to effectively allow our residents to focus on what really matters to them, not paying the rent or having to figure out the platform so that they can get a maintenance request in, or something like that. It needs to be seamless and just very intuitive for them.”

Chief Technology Officer Philip Irby

Digital transformation and sustainability

At AMH, digital transformation is in flight. The company is building a truly modern platform, with domain-driven design, true microservices and event-based architectures, from the ground up.

“What this gives us is the ability to build a modular, transformative system that allows us to adapt and change as we evolve as a company,” explains Irby. “The term ‘digital transformation’ can be overused, as it means different things to different people. But for us, digital transformation means transforming the way a company works and focusing on the company ten years from now, not just the problems that we have today.”

“I knew that AMH had an opportunity to build from the ground up, so I brought gravity9 over as well”

PHILIP IRBY CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, AMH

Irby sees this as a transformation of how AMH works, whether it's through efficiency, streamlining or automation.

“Digital transformation changes who we are and adapts who we're going to become.”

AMH was recently recognised as one of the top ESG regional performers by Sustainalytics, which was deeply satisfying for the team.

“Our technology has been intertwined with the sustainability function from its inception,” says Irby. “We feel that technology really drives sustainability. There's a lot that we can do on the technology front that will improve our posture in the ESG areas.”

PHILIP IRBY

TITLE: CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER

LOCATION: LAS VEGAS

EXECUTIVE BIO

Philip Irby is the Chief Technology Officer at AMH. Philip spearheads the company’s IT division, guiding the program’s future platform development as well as supporting the company’s revenue-generating and corporate departments. Leading a team of IT personnel, Philip is responsible for the management of core systems, infrastructure, networking, collaborative environments, reporting, and custom platform development, all the while structuring the organisation to drive business results in the most efficient way possible. Irby has a 26-year record of success designing, building, and completing innovative business and technology solutions with an acute focus on user experience. Prior to joining the executive team at AMH, Philip was the Chief Information Officer at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Vice President of Global Applications at Arthur J. Gallagher and Co, and Chief Information Officer at Pacesetter Energy, and has held integral roles in companies such as Pragmatx, Digital Pilot, and Multimedia Learning, Inc.

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At gravity9, a combination of art and science brings a product together, taking clients like AMH closer towards their digital journey.

Noel Ady started gravity9 five years ago, with a view to bring together amazing people to create amazing things. “My background is as a software engineer, a solution architect and enterprise architect. I’ve been lucky to work as a consultant in many different cultures. “We have the full capability to put together a product” says Ady. “At gravity9, we have the ability to understand why a product should exist”.

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gravity9 will often work with large organisations or enterprises that want to build a number of products to support their digital journey.

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“The individuals involved are not just skilled; the key is imagination and hard work. Those things combined help us generate that momentum with our clients.”

“There’s a combination of art and science that brings a product together.”

ESG is a key part of AMH’s strategy and technology is intrinsically intertwined with it.

“We are already in tune with all of the systems used to monitor that, and we're remediating issues,” says Irby. “We're at the top of our capability on the cybersecurity front. We're also working extensively to understand our energy usage through AI and analytics, gathering information from our communities or our portfolio homes.”

AMH has also built relationships with leading companies like Elevate, which help AMH to get better visibility into its energy consumption.

The way Irby sees it, technology drives sustainability, but AMH is using ESG to transform its technology. The company has established a sustainability group and its technology evolves in accordance with that.

“It's about AI and what we can leverage in terms of our energy usage, especially in HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning)”

PHILIP IRBY CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, AMH

AMH’s Philip Irby on AI use in the home

“It's about AI and what we can leverage in terms of our energy usage, especially in HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning).”

Take this situation: there's a time when there's no one in the HMR home - somebody moves out and then somebody moves in, how are HMR going to make sure that the house is not overusing energy? Currently, somebody comes in during a showing and turns the thermostat down, then it might stay that way until somebody else comes in to change it. This is where automation, smart home technology and IoT come in.

75% of the traffic that AMH receives is from mobile devices, as users are out looking at houses in person

different initiatives involving water usage and energy usage. Then, with cybersecurity being a part of ESG, we're at the forefront of that, too. In this industry, we won't compare ourselves to other businesses, but we're doing our best to meet the requirements of the cybersecurity components or questions, and initiatives within ESG.”

“We're working on a technology right now that will give us the ability to modify the interior HVAC thermostat during the turn,” explains Irby. “We've got a number of

75% of the traffic that AMH receives is from mobile devices, because prospective residents are looking at houses in person, away from their computers. AMH has an online platform that will allow renters to log on and take control of their home search.

“The platform is completely responsive,” explains Irby. “Everything we build is mobile-first, and it starts from the shopping

experience, with people trying to locate a home or take a tour of one of our homes and then go through to leasing. All of this can be done from a mobile device in a simple way.”

Prospective buyers go through leasing and underwriting. They can interact with AMH property management and maintenance people as a resident.

“The purpose-built communities have amenity centres with pools, gyms and community hubs. Now, we can grant them access to all of those facilities without requiring them to check in with a property manager or get a fob - they can just use their phone.”

AI and automation

Close to 90% of US households have some form of air conditioning. AMH uses AI to keep track of them.

“As an example, if we are monitoring the usage of HVAC and also the behaviour of that HVAC, we can develop an algorithm that tells us when this HVAC unit is about to failimagine the difference this will make to the resident experience.”

For a family that lives in a hotter climate, if their HVAC fails it could be three days before it is fixed. But, if AMH knows that the unit is exhibiting a pattern of behaviour to suggest it’s failing, AMH can contact the residents ahead of time and arrange a servicing of the HVAC before it fails.

“That's a proactive use of technology to improve the experience for residents, so that they don't experience three days of unbearable heat, wondering when someone is going to show up and fix it so they can get on with their lives. Instead, we're showing up ahead of time.”

At AMH, automation and streamlining can both improve the customer and employee experience.

Whether it's through automation and dynamic scheduling, or the different components that streamline and make AMH employees’ jobs easier, this comes through in their communication with residents.

“We make the job easier for our employees and happy employees make happy customers,” says Irby sincerely.

AMH goes through field services and dynamic scheduling, with their field technician going from one spot to the next. Even when new simple requests pop up, being able to service that resident dynamically changes the resident experience, and this also changes the employee's experience, because now it's a lot less about bureaucracy and ticking the box.

“It's all about improving the lives and experience of our customers,” says Irby.

“Digital transformation changes who we are and adapts who we're going to become”

PHILIP IRBY CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, AMH

Partnership with gravity9

gravity9 is an IT consulting company that unites art and science in building the consumer’s digital journey. Irby partnered with gravity9 seven years ago, when he worked at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. gravity9 helped Irby transform the hotel’s identity and their rewards programme.

“I knew that they shared my vision for abstraction and domain-driven design and microservices,” says Irby. “I knew that AMH had an opportunity to build from the ground up, so I brought gravity9 over as well.”

Their shared vision, previous experience and longevity have made for a great partnership.

“The key to our partnership is, gravity9 has an exact understanding of our strategy and vision for the platform, and that comes through in the work that they do, and also in the work that my team does with them.

“I've worked with lots of vendors and there are people that will tell you what they want you to hear or what you want to hear - and people that will tell you the truth. Telling the truth in a partnership usually results in more respect and greater capability to work together. I think in the relationships that I've had that have been successful, that's one of the core foundations - being able to speak openly about differences or things that we need to be working towards.”

The next 12 months will be transformational at AMH. The company is adding a number of components to the platform, enhancing some that they already have and focusing on building the platform further. Irby is determined that that has got to be the focus.

“If you lose focus on trying to create that platform that is flexible, adaptable and capable of change, then you start to become a monolith. You move down the path towards brittle, unsustainable infrastructure and applications.”

Every 12 months holds that for AMH. Irby and his team will stay focused on the future and on flexibility.

“I have the opportunity to pioneer and build something that hasn't been built”

PHILIP IRBY CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, AMH

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