“When ChatGPT hit, it felt like a tidal wave,” David Walker told Lauren Walker at the top of their conversation, describing the moment AI sprinted from novelty to necessity.
David is the founder of Coworking Consulting, and Lauren is the CMO of Coworks space management software. Though of like minds, they are not related.
David remembered tech leaders who sent open letters, begging OpenAI to slow down while founders scrambled to keep products current. “It put us in two states at once: constant overwhelm and infinite possibility.”
Lauren agreed. “Our operators feel exactly that,” she said. “They are already running lean teams. The last thing they need is another tidal wave.”
That tension—fear versus forward motion—frames the entire conversation around AI in coworking. But both Walkers hope that even the most AI‑averse operator can see a path from knee‑deep nerves to confident strokes.
David rattled off the headlines: new models every quarter, plugins today, agents tomorrow, GPT‑5 rumors next week. “Possibilities feel limitless, so choosing feels risky,” he says. Yet ignoring the trend is riskier.
Lauren kicked off the AI conversation with, “So where does an operator even begin?”
David answered with a grin: “Pick one pain point. Automate that. Then decide on the next.”
Before consulting, David ran three Austin coworking locations for six‑and‑a‑half years. Those days taught him where margins hide and how community breathes.
“Back then the model was pure community,” he said. “No one talked about revenue per square foot.”
Competition and fit‑out costs ballooned. Now his job is to hand operators a modern toolbox.
He pivoted to consulting, helping builders crunch pro formas and owners tune operations. When AI arrived, his service adapted again. “You can’t just be a human with your client anymore,” he noted. “You have to be a human augmented with innovative tools.”
Coworks CEO DeShawn Brown and David Walker of Coworking Consulting held a hands-on working session, using ChatGPT for events.
Lauren asked the big question: “What problems do your custom GPT actually solve for a coworking operator?” And David gave real examples.
One client wondered if selling off‑hour access could boost revenue. David typed a single line—What about a nights and weekends membership?—and his GPT scraped twenty flex‑space sites. “Four seconds later it showed pricing models and real‑world examples,” he recalls.
Another owner pondered a rival across town. David had the GPT map every comparable space within five miles, pul public pricing, and flag empty niches, such as no kid‑friendly cowork area, no podcast studio package. The data fueled a new product launch.
A third operator had solid occupancy but plateaued revenue. “They just launched a basic membership plan and got stuck,” David said. His GPT compared tiered pricing at high‑performing peers, then suggested a corporate satellite bundle that can lift monthly revenue.
Operators come to David with a predictable list of queries:
David’s answer rarely changes: load the data, let the bot crunch, then apply human judgment. He offers consulting calls that are fact finding missions, often ending somewhere the client did not expect.
Lauren pushed the conversation higher: “What do you see when you zoom out to the future of work?”
David imagined smart buildings that greet members by name, dim lights for some, pump music for others. “A space will reflect the needs of its users,” he says. “Right now we just have a chat bot. Even that is overwhelming. But the romanticism of coworking will never die because every space is a reflection of the owner’s mission.”
David’s swim‑lesson framework keeps things simple:
Day 1: Upload one document. Ask the GPT to highlight risks or quick wins.
Day 7: Automate one task. Let the GPT draft your next newsletter; you remain editor‑in‑chief
Day 14: Model one scenario. “If I convert 200 sq ft to phone booths, when do I break even?”
By day 30, most owners have freed eight to ten hours a week—time they reinvest in member programming, partnerships, or simply breathing.
Your members care about connection, not kernel versions. Let AI handle the math, the market scans, the midnight SOP searches. You handle the smiles at the coffee bar.
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