Written by Sarah Wheeler
Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler sat down with Scot Rose, CIO at Class Valuation, to talk about innovation in the appraisal space and how the technology being deployed for appraisal modernization can actually protect appraisers. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Sarah Wheeler: You’re the chief innovation officer at an appraisal firm, and the appraisal space has not always been known for tech innovation. What’s changing there?
Scot Rose: Technology has been a bit slow going in our space, but it’s really ramped up over the last three to four years. And for some, it’s scary because they don’t like change, but I think not embracing it is where the true risk comes into play — for both an organization and the profession overall.
I had a conversation last week with a colleague who’s been in the technology space for over three decades and he mentioned that when first started in the profession people would ask him: “Help us understand where technology is going to be in the next five to 10 years” And his comment to me was, if you think you can think five to 10 years in advance today, you’re completely lying — it’s impossible. It’s moving so much faster than ever before. And generative AI is probably the best example of that.
Another example is the LIDAR that’s now available on iPhones, which adds a whole other dynamic to developing point cloud technology to gather measurements and spatial information about anything that you’re scanning.
