Kai Unveils Technology That Will Change the Renovation Industry Forever

New video-scanning capability compresses one of renovation's most manual steps by turning a single walkthrough into a purchase order within minutes 

Launch comes as volatile material costs and labor shortages put pressure on renovation budgets industry-wide, and real estate investors look to faster, more transparent renovation costs to protect returns

NEW YORK, Oct. 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kai, the operating system for property work, today announced a new video-scanning capability that fundamentally changes how renovation gets done. Kai has rebuilt the process through its new video-scanning capability that transforms a single walkthrough video into a complete, ready-to-execute scope of work, priced against live retail inventory, in minutes. This removes one of the biggest sources of avoidable delay from the renovation process by cutting manual scoping time by approximately 70%.

For both property operators and real estate investors, renovation is where a well-underwritten deal either holds up or falls apart. Existing homes remain one of the fastest paths to capital deployment and value creation, but only when renovation itself doesn't become the bottleneck. Before Kai, moving from a property walkthrough to a scope of work, cost estimate and procurement decision required hours of manual work spread across field teams, contractors and purchasing departments, with information that was inconsistent from property to property. Kai closes that gap, using upfront property intelligence, faster scoping and earlier procurement to cut cycle time, rework and surprises. By making renovation costs faster, more transparent and more predictable, Kai can improve the basis on every unit renovated across a portfolio.

Kai turns the property walkthrough into one connected workflow: see, source, run. Video and photo capture identify the work required, including labor, materials and quantities. LiDAR-enabled scanning adds precise measurements, floor plans and 3D models. Kai then converts that scope into product-level material lists with live pricing and availability, and carries the job through approvals, execution, change management and closeout- so operators can move from first walkthrough to completed project in one system.

“Property work has historically operated across antiquated systems - walkthroughs, spreadsheets, contractor estimates, purchasing systems and a lot of institutional knowledge sitting in people's heads,” said Or Agassi, co-founder and CEO of Kai. “With Kai’s technology, we're turning all of that into a single intelligent workflow. Our system will be able to see the property, scope it, source the materials needed, and execute. This is a new era of renovation.”

Kai is already embedded in the renovation workflows of more than 50 institutional operators and property managers, supporting more than 3,000 field users and 600 contractor accounts across 35 markets. The platform has processed more than 25,000 renovations to date, with material purchasing volume growing more than 30% month-over-month and now surpassing $750 million annually.

“Kai has brought greater efficiency, consistency, and transparency to our estimating process, while significantly reducing the time our teams spend building and managing estimates,” said Kai customer Justin Bruce, Head of Property Management at Adoor. “Its intuitive platform provides the visibility needed to make informed decisions faster and manage costs more effectively. Supported by a responsive and collaborative team, Kai has proven to be a valuable strategic partner to our organization.”

Kai’s AI-enabled capabilities are assistive and governed by human review. Users can validate, modify, reset or re-run any AI-generated output before it becomes part of an active workflow, keeping operators in control of the standards and decisions that govern their properties. The new video-scanning capability is available now to Kai’s institutional customers.

About Kai

Kai is the first institutional-grade AI renovation intelligence platform, built by multi-time founders Or Agassi and Tov Arneson. Kai builds templates that capture a customer's exact renovation standards down to market variation and tier requirements and deploys them across a portfolio, reverse-engineering scopes of work into material specs and cost estimates based on real-time pricing and availability.

To learn more about the company, technology solutions and career opportunities, visit us on LinkedIn or on our website at kai.pro.

Media Contact

Lucy Peng
Capital V Strategies
kai@capvstrategies.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c45c9de5-395e-49bb-97e4-c601a4d3adbd

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Credit: Kai