Why should I care about AI?

Artificial intelligence. It’s all you hear about these days.

Much of what you hear seems scary, and, honestly, used for the wrong reasons, it certainly can be. But you can say that about just about any new invention or technology in history that people did not fully comprehend.

Putting aside the fear, let’s focus on the potential in real estate and why you, at the very least, should be exploring the multiple use cases that are already here:

• Information management.????There are tools out there using AI to help keep you organized. These platforms scan your emails, social posts, etc. to help you manage your database.
• Sales and sales training.????Others use AI to scan voice recordings to pick up things you say, and/or, the customer says, in order to stay on point with your message and look for buying signals.
• Consumer activity prediction.????These are tools that predict when a consumer might be in the market for real estate based on actions they are taking.

None of these tools are designed to replace a real estate agent.

They are all productivity tools designed to not only save agents time by automating things they now do manually, but to help them attain insights and intelligence that make them better at what they do.

While I am somewhat familiar with the tools mentioned above, I am much more familiar with another type of AI tool that uses photography to dramatically improve agent productivity and consumer experience.

You have heard of facial recognition and are already using it. If you have the setting turned on on your smartphone, you don’t have to type a password to unlock your phone, you just put your face up to it and you are in.

Similarly, there is technology called computer vision that identifies and understands objects inside images. When you apply this to real estate images, there are a number of ways it can be used to make agents more productive and improve consumer interaction and experiences:

• Imagine not having to pore over dozens and dozens of MLS photographs to determine property condition when you are looking for comparables on a subject property you are working on;
• Imagine being able to compare non-renovated real estate photos to renovated real estate photos to help a consumer determine what improvements would have the most impact on their home value.
• Imagine being able to search for a home based on property condition determined by scanned MLS photographs;
• Imagine a consumer being able to upload photos of their newly renovated home to help determine how much their home is worth before they put it on the market; and,
• Imagine taking a photograph of a home or room in a home you like, and using it to find a similar home versus the legacy search experience.

All of this is possible TODAY!

There are real estate agents and brokers embracing these trends, but too many, are still skeptical and pushing back. The real estate technology landscape is crowded and noisy so I get it.

Here is the thing you have to ask yourself, “How much of my technology spend actually makes me more productive and has ROI I can measure?”

I ask this question a lot and I don’t often get a good answer.

My goal is to help brokers and their agents be as productive as possible. I also want to put tools in their hands that I know, and they will eventually realize, will bring measurable ROI.

When I look at the time saved by using tools like the ones I mention here and start quantifying the time savings, I know, if folks are honest with themselves, they will see it too.

So don’t fight new things like AI, embrace them and what they can do to help you be more productive, provide a better service to your clients, and differentiate yourself from the competition.