4 Ways AI is Shaping Real Estate

Featured article by James Neff, Independent Technology Author

According to Adobe’s most recent Digital Trends report, 15% of businesses are currently using artificial intelligence (AI), but 31% stated they planned to do so within the next 12 months. The report also notes that the top-performing organizations were more than twice as likely as their peers to be taking advantage of AI for marketing.

AI is one of the biggest game-changing technologies of the 21st century, the process by which computers are “trained” to have the ability to “think” like an intelligent human being. Virtually every business and industry can make use of this technology to improve the odds of success, including the real estate industry. While AI has been around for decades, it’s advancing rapidly and is already being used in many forms such as applications that interact with smartphones and other devices.

Real Estate Searches

Today, nearly all prospective home buyers being their searches for houses for sale in Charlotte, NC and all cities across the country on sites like Google and other search engines. Search engines themselves are using AI to help match the needs of these buyers and sellers. With the advancements being made, there will be even more improvements for higher quality matches that can reduce search time.

Virtual Tours and Query Answers

Virtual tours of home are already fairly common, but now the emergence of bots can help answer queries about things like square footage, leasing terms and much more. The more questions that are asked the more the machine learns, which brings a greater ability for the bots to answer more complex queries. Agents can use these AI-based bots to provide 24/7 coverage, “chatting” with potential customers even when the office is closed.

One AI-driven sales bot referred to as “Holmes” answers inquiries, but if it doesn’t have the answer, it can transfer the user to a human agent too.

Improved Lead Generation

Chat bots are expected to automate real estate outreach and lead generation, handling initial marketing outreach tasks so that real estate agents can focus on leads that have already been highly qualified.

Helping to Build Long-Term Relationships

People usually don’t hire a real estate agent just once in their lifetime, they’re likely to need real estate professionals at many different points throughout their lives.  AI-based customer relationship management (CRM) systems can be used to help agents look further into the future, instead of just the here and now, which has typically been the case, by helping to keep in touch with former customers. Eventually, those clients are likely to need to sell their properties, buy a new home, a second vacation home or perhaps purchase property as an investment.