AI on the estate: what is real now, and where it is heading
Much of what is said about AI and robotics is talk rather than practice. Estates are already using some of this technology, quietly and on the grounds, and I think it is worth being clear about what that looks like. On this page I set out what is real now, and then, separately, where I believe it is heading.
Part A
Already on the estate
On the grounds, robotics is not a forecast. Golf courses already use GPS-guided robot mowers that follow a mapped pattern and can mow daily, including at night. The same technology now cuts open lawns, and it works while the rest of the estate is asleep.
Robots are best suited to open, regular areas. Edges, bunker banks, steep slopes and greens still need people and conventional or remote-controlled machines, so a robot mower is not a complete replacement for a grounds team. It is one more tool, and it needs someone who understands it.
In my experience, robot mowers reduce the hours a grounds team spends on routine cutting, which frees people for the work machines cannot yet do. One golf course reports that mowing 19 hectares of semi-rough went from two full-time staff to one person half-time after switching to robots.
My view
Where I believe it is heading
This is my view, not a firm prediction.
Humanoid robots are already doing narrow jobs in some warehouses and factories, such as moving totes and loading parts. Nobody yet sells one that uses tools around a home or an estate.
Next to that, many smart-home features look like gimmicks: a fridge that orders its own milk, shutters that rise and fall on a timer. I expect them to become obsolete. In the same way, advanced AI that can write and rewrite software may make individual software products far less decisive. In my view, the defining factor for an estate will be humanoid robotics.
Once humanoids can take on manual tasks and use the same tools people use, I believe the effect on how a household runs will be immense. The question for an estate will not be which app controls the shutters, but who teaches the robot to do the job well.
How the estate manager’s role changes
I expect advanced AI and humanoid robots to change the estate manager’s role step by step rather than overnight. I see three parts to it.
The first is working with AI agents. AI agents are already in use on estates for many tasks. The estate manager needs to know what they do well, where their work needs checking, and how to put them to effective use.
The second is the team. New tools only help if people know how to use them, so part of my job is making sure the team is trained and adapts as the work changes, rather than having change imposed on it.
The third is humanoid robots. I expect mass-market humanoid robots within about five years, at a point where most households and estates can use them. When that happens, I expect a large part of the estate manager’s job to become training, supervising and maintaining them. Robots can already learn some tasks from people demonstrating them. I believe the next step will be specialists teaching them directly: a consultant chef, for example, showing a robot how to prepare a particular dish exactly the way the family likes it. That is my expectation rather than something available today.
What matters is not the machine but the standard behind it. The quality of a household has always depended on how well people are trained, and I expect the same to hold when some of those hands are robotic.
What this means for a family
For a family, the practical change is in what the estate manager spends their time on: less directing of routine work, more training and supervising of a team in which people and robots work side by side. The things that make a household feel right, such as continuity, discretion and judgement, stay with people. My role is to make sure any new tool serves those standards rather than the other way round. The technology will change; the job of keeping a home running exactly as the family wants it will not. Estates valued at several hundred million dollars are my specialism.