Ahead of the launch of HQN’s new AI Hub, our head of networks Lewis Kinch explains the role we will be taking in helping organisations navigate the sometimes “complex, confusing and curious” options available.

Actually, it’s been here a long time. The difference now is that we’re admitting it, and admittance is the first step to recovery. In the few short months that I’ve been asking practitioners about their AI use, the tone has changed. At the beginning of this year my questions were met with cautious denial or reserved optimism – an unknown entity that might either eat our children or ascend us to a golden utopia, viewed nervously over the parapet.

Fast forward a couple of months and the zeitgeist has moved faster than ChatGPT could summarise the Renters’ Rights Bill. The mood has shifted to febrile excitement, with practitioners keen to share the amount of time that co-pilot agents are saving on complex responses or the ability to add resident friendly tone of voice to technical communications at the touch of a button. On the Rogers Curve of innovation adoption, we’ve breached The Chasm and are firmly into Early Majority territory.

But as with any advancement, the capitalists are circling. AI solutions are plentiful, perhaps superseding the problem they might solve. It’s difficult at the best of times to distinguish the snake oil salesman from the innovator, and the speed of advancement in AI technology makes this all the more difficult.

HQN has always been about supporting the realities of the day-to-day work of housing professionals, which is why we’re launching a new AI Hub as part of our HQN network offer to help professionals navigate the complex, the confusing and the curious options available.

We don’t want to go on this journey without your input, so please take five minutes to complete our survey of attitudes to AI. Your feedback will help us shape our support, content and training offer.

The hub kicks off with a series of podcasts throughout June 2026, unpicking how AI is already being used to tackle capacity challenges and skills gaps, what good leadership in AI looks like, and what the future holds for a sector embracing AI to help deliver better, more efficient services for our residents.

Not content with just sharing existing practice, HQN will be facilitating a rapid test and learn process together with organisations across the country that will accelerate AI capability, refine best practice, and provide staff with the tools and confidence they need to adopt AI into their daily lives.