Every few years, the real estate industry is spooked by some new technology that will disrupt and change the real estate brokerage’s role in a property transaction. Some of you may recall the “lion over the hill” concerns about Microsoft’s HomeAdvisor, the new brokerage models like eRealty and ZipRealty (now part of Realogy — if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em) or non-industry competitive threats coming from portals. Some may consider artificial intelligence applications, or AI, a new lion coming over the hill and they may be wondering “will AI replace real estate brokerages?” And there have been some eye-opening productivity achieved by AI. According to one report, a factory in China replaced 90% of their workers with robotic manufacturing; production rose 250%, and defects fell 80%. Late last year, McKinsey published a report saying by 2030, 15% of all hours worked and 75 million jobs could be replaced by automation. We’ve been talking about real estate chatbots and real estate chatbot consultants since last year.
But Will AI Replace Real Estate Brokerages?
Now for some good news
Those figures above can paint a bleak picture, but a deeper dive suggests good things for the real estate industry. The McKinsey report further dissects their numbers by industry and country. If you’re in the predictable physical work category (which include jobs like dishwashers, cleaning-equipment operators, food-preparation workers, and general mechanics) in the U.S., there’s an estimated 31% loss of jobs due to automation. However, those in customer interaction roles, like sales, hotel/travel workers, and food service workers, are expected to have only a 1% drop in jobs due to automation, and that’s virtually no change at all. Jobs with high human touch require a lot of intuition and emotional intelligence that AI cannot replicate.
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How To Survive in the Age of AI
Develop Your Emotional Intelligence
While an AI bot can tell you the price and features of a home, they cannot read you, and understand that this home is perfect for you because it’s near the park, has bright light, and it’s a great place to raise a family (which is something a real estate agent can do well within a few minutes of meeting a buyer). Nor can AI easily detect the preferred method and style of communication your clients prefer. Quickly discovering if your clients like information verbally, via email, visually or by text, and how much detail they want are ways to sharpen your emotional IQ. Visual learners will appreciate communications like Property Suggestions, which shares properties consumers may like based on their browsing history, or Saved Search Alerts. I’ve found that calling some people will never result in a response, but a text message gets answers right away. Learn what communication style your customer is more comfortable with, rather than relying on what you’re more comfortable with.
Master Cold Calling
Like Jacob Silj, Will Ferrell’s SNL character than only speaks in a loud monotone (see video clip above), AI lacks the ability to modulate pitch, speed and volume of speech to communicate effectively. Closing sales requires you to have established rapport and built trust, which AI is incapable of doing. Sensing a caller’s tone, temperament and interest require emotional intelligence that’s difficult for AI to match. Your one on one skills are necessary to effectively close deals.
Use AI to your advantage
AI does have its benefits, too, in the sales cycle. Pre-qualifying potential clients is possible with some bots. Are they buying, selling, renting? Where are they looking? When do they want to transact? Questions like these, and administrative tasks like scheduling calls or meetings are well suited for AI in real estate. Brokerages are using services like TRIBUS integration partner roof.ai to help advance website visitors into the sales cycle. They can start a chat dialogue to ask preliminary questions, so, by the time they’re ready to talk in person, you have quite a bit of information before the first interaction.
So will AI replace real estate brokerages? No – it’s not the great disrupter that many fear it may become in the real estate industry. It simply presents real estate brokerages and agents with a reason to sharpen their emotional intelligence, and leverage AI to their benefit.
