Is AI real or is it a trap?

AI seems to be the big buzzword today.?With more real estate agents relying on AI to uncover leads, prescreen prospects, and leverage their time it’s important to know whether AI is all it’s cracked up to be.

The first thing to keep in mind is the expression “garbage in – garbage out”.? AI relies on accurate data and algorithms that are hopefully unbiased.?Let’s consider software that predicts likely movers.?If you are considering a product like this, keep in mind that your results will only be as good as the data used and the programming. ?With the government cracking down on data privacy issues, it may be harder to get good data in the future.?Be sure you are asking relevant questions before you commit.

There are lots of advancements in AI and there’s lots of misinformation in marketing about what’s being offered. ?Let’s take a term I’ve seen recently as it relates to real estate software. The term is Behavioral Analytics which relies on smart, event-based tracking?that?collects every action?a unique?user performed during his lifetime on a website or an app. ?If all your real estate software does is tell you that a prospect looked at listings more often, that’s not enough data to analyze.?On the other hand, if the system is gaining knowledge about a prospect's property preferences, visits to your website, and whether they are opening your email marketing, that is the start of enough data to create a behavioral profile. ?If the system could then send targeted messages or tweak their home search to improve the result, that would really be something!??

Don’t get me wrong, the features I’ve described in today’s real estate software are certainly helpful but in many cases, they are not always what we are expecting.