Let’s Talk About the Robot in the Room

AI is the hottest intern of 2025: fast, confident, occasionally helpful, and very prone to hallucination.

In recruitment, it’s made headlines for rewriting CVs, ranking candidates, and even conducting “initial interviews.” But in real estate ops? That’s where things get murky.

Because when you run a high-footfall, high-stakes asset, and your day includes tenants, team drama, broken air con, and a request from head office to “do something community-facing this week,” you don’t care if ChatGPT can write your job ad.

You care about whether the next person on your team can actually carry their weight.

So we asked:

Can AI actually help us hire the people who keep these places running?

1. Can AI Hire a Site Manager?

Only if the site is in The Sims.

A great Center Manager juggles budgets, tenants, vendors, footfall, events, local issues, and on-the-ground ops, all while keeping their GM smiling and their foot traffic steady.

AI can scan for retail experience. But it can’t tell who’ll keep calm when the escalator stops and the community group cancels their pop-up with two hours’ notice.

2. Will AI Replace Recruiters Like You?

Hopefully the lazy ones, yes. Not us.

AI is fast, sure. But it’s also tone-deaf. You know what AI doesn’t get?

That a candidate can be “perfect on paper” and still be a nightmare on-site.
That “flexible communicator” might mean “talks too much.”
That you, as a site manager or ops lead, care more about support, standards, and real leadership than job title inflation.

We get that. Because we’ve placed people like you. And we talk to your hiring managers every week.

3. Can AI Tell If a Candidate Will Last More Than 6 Months?

Nope. And frankly, that’s the hardest part of our job too.

Retention isn’t in the résumé, it’s in the conversation. It’s in what candidates say when we ask:

“What’s your definition of a bad shift?”
“When your team’s under-resourced and you’re asked to still hit KPIs, what do you do?”

Whether you're running facilities, tenant engagement, or an entire center, you know success doesn’t come from ticking boxes. And we know the candidates who get that.

4. Can AI Help Landlords Choose Between Two Finalists?

Technically? Maybe. But AI doesn’t know your area, your board, your problem tenants, or that you’re secretly hoping for someone who won’t hate doing weekly reporting.

Hiring decisions in this niche are personal. You don’t want a “maybe.” You want someone who’ll take ownership of the site and be liked by the team.

5. Can AI Spot a Great Regional Ops Candidate?

Not unless someone fed it the footage from 1,000 area team huddles and 50 emergency call logs.

Multi-site leaders are glue. They cover gaps, enforce standards, train juniors, and handle chaos without passing the stress down. The ones we place have often worked their way up and can still jump in on the ground if needed.

AI doesn't know how to screen for that. We do.

6. Will AI Help Refit Work Faster?

Yes, and it already does.

We use AI to make our process smoother:

• Smarter sourcing

• Quicker outreach

• Cleaner comms

• Research and insights

But when it comes to choosing who to put in front of a landlord, REIT, or operator? That’s our judgment call. Every time.

7. Can AI Understand Cultural Fit on Site?

Absolutely not.

Culture in a center isn’t beanbags and buzzwords. It’s:

• How your facilities lead speaks to tenants

• Whether your ops manager keeps comms clean across teams

• Who brings calm to busy periods, and who adds chaos

AI can’t read between those lines. But we can. It’s why the teams we place settle fast, stay longer, and fit the rhythm of your site.

The Bottom Line

AI’s not your enemy. But it’s not your hiring partner either.

At Refit, we use tech to work smart, not to skip the human part.
We listen to what makes your site or team different. We vet people like your job actually matters, because it does. We know what red flags to catch. And we make sure every profile we send is someone we’d trust on our own team.

Because when you’re hiring for operations, leadership, and tenant-facing roles, it’s not about volume. It’s about who actually fits.

👋 Want to see what that kind of recruitment looks like?
Check out our process at www.refitrecruitment.com
Sharp hires. No fluff. Just fit.