AI should make you want your real estate agent more

Real estate has been historically slow to modernize, but AI is changing that. The mixing of artificial intelligence is transforming how buyers and sellers interact with agents, fundamentally altering competitive dynamics within the industry. 

With AI reshaping every day operations of an actual estate agent’s business by automating tasks — from generating property listings to conducting neighborhood analyses — the agent’s focus in day-to-day activities will shift. 

Ryan Serhant, CEO of Serhant and reality TV star of “Owning Manhattan,” says AI is already making real estate less about access to information and more concerning the agent constructing deeper relationships. He predicts a mindset shift is on its way as agents leverage AI and at the identical time are forced to search out recent ways to distinguish themselves in an increasingly competitive market. “If we’re all using AI and have the identical level of experience, who wins? It is the game of attention,” said Serhant on the CNBC Evolve AI Opportunity Summit in Recent York City this past week. 

Buying a house is the one largest investment most Americans make of their lives, which makes real estate a business where greater success may be achieved with greater personal touch on the a part of the agent. Serhant says the massive advantage he sees in use of AI is having more time for the actual estate agent to offer personalized attention to their clients. 

“The product in sales isn’t any longer just the skill set,” Serhant said. “It’s the eye to the skill set.”

His own company, Serhant, has developed a service called “Easy” for sales automation to handle every day tasks in customer relationship management, which generally consumes over 60% of agents’ time. 

AI tools are getting used to streamline lead generation, automate marketing campaigns, and supply predictive analytics to discover opportunities, but that just isn’t replacing the critical role of the agent in providing top performance. Serhant says AI won’t virtualize relationships, but for the actual estate agents who embrace the AI revolution — which he says is a needed move to make — it would strengthen their relationships.

Making access to real-time market data and sales insights less onerous may allow agents from small boutique firms to compete on a more equal footing with larger real estate corporations. “There’s a trust consider sales. … It’s not about who’s the most important, but who’s essentially the most empowered,” Serhant said. 

That also stands to profit homebuyers and sellers, Serhant said, with a wider number of suitable agents with enhanced personalized services and greater deal with the client. 

The actual estate industry remains to be within the initial stages of adopting AI and understanding stays low amongst real estate professionals, however the interest is there. Generative AI was ranked among the many top three technologies expected to have the best impact on real estate over the following three years by investors, developers, and company occupiers, in response to JLL Technologies’ 2023 Global Real Estate Technology Survey. However the survey also finds that real estate professionals have very low understanding of AI in comparison with other technologies.

In keeping with Serhant, agents who understand how AI can empower their business are going to have huge opportunities over the following 20 years to take significant market share. 

No tech innovation comes without risks, and wire fraud stays a significant challenge for the actual estate industry, which can be exacerbated by AI. The FBI reported a giant year-over-year increase in wire fraud cybercrime losses in 2023, driven significantly by real estate transactions. Improved artificial intelligence technology is facilitating real estate scammers. 

Fraud cannot be ignored, said Serhant, but he believes real estate will adapt to the risks inherent in recent technology in the identical way the business has previously, similar to with digital listings. “With every advancement in technology, greater rules get put into place that may also help stop those fakes,” he said.