It wasn't long ago that the commercial real estate industry was collectively wringing its hands about its slow adoption and meaningful implementation of technology. But what was once a technological void has ceded to an almost overwhelming wave of workflow solutions, management software, and virtual reality experiences. An industry often viewed as insulated and traditional is now experiencing an innovation arms race fueled by a mission to disrupt the ways in which we develop, configure, and manage our built environment.

The most revolutionary technology affecting the real estate industry today is something you're already very familiar with: The Internet. It may seem hackneyed to cite a resource as universal as the internet as a 'new' catalyst for change in the industry, but the myriad ways in which people are connected continues to have a subtle but profound impact on how humans interact with the built environment – which in turn has formed something of a paradigm shift in terms of who exhibits control within real estate. While the industry was, for so long, entirely driven by the designs and priorities of owners and developers, the internet has empowered consumers in a way that is changing that paradigm.

Earlier this year, at the annual CEO and Leadership Symposium in Philadelphia, leaders including David Cohen of Comcast, Carl Dranoff of Dranoff Properties, and Meryl Levitz of Visit Philadelphia spoke about the impact of connectivity on the various real estate sectors. Many of the key takeaways focused on remarkably similar themes:

• Hospitality: Hospitality has become much, much more than just providing premium cable TV and a place to rest one's head. Instead, the industry has become focused on providing unique, tailored experiences based on the visitor's personality, schedule, and travel purpose. Are you seeking an authentic, locally inspired micro-hotel? An extended-stay residence equipped with everything you need to work from 'home'? A luxury resort-style stay? Online services that allow visitors to scope out the local hotel market have revolutionized the guest experience, by enabling tourists and business travelers to curate their exact desired environment, pinpointing the aesthetic and experiential factor in which they will partake before ever setting foot in the city.
• Residential: The multifamily space is in the midst of what some have called an amenity arms race in which apartment and condo buildings are designed with their common areas top-of-mind. Perhaps the most ubiquitous feature in new apartment buildings is the communal resident lounge, lobby, and/or co-working space – centered around access to Wi-Fi, of course. These areas serve a dual function of a) providing a secondary place to work remotely, and b) offering a central gathering area for tenants to gather, meet, and hang out.
  Of course, much like the hospitality vertical, the Internet also allows prospective renters and buyers to quickly narrow down their home search based not only on these amenity offerings, but nearly every characteristic of their desired design components.
• Office: A connected world means that workers are no longer tethered to their desks. This has completely revolutionized the way in which we design our offices (and office buildings), as the industry is collectively opting for more collaborative space in place of segmented, traditional layouts. Even in the increasingly rare instance in which offices are not designed with an open floor plan or co-working model, the modern workspace still necessitates more communal areas which allow workers to float freely between different physical settings, all while staying connected.

The takeaway? The Internet has transferred power into the hands of the user – to select their favorite apartment features, curate their hotel experience, choose their own work environment – not the provider or developer. The entire process has been democratized for the layman, allowing anyone to make educated decisions about their home, workplace, or hotel through any number of transparent, user-friendly platforms. The result is that the industry is starting to build and design specifically to accommodate and harness this connectedness, and doing so in a more consumer-oriented way than ever before.