By Kevin Hawkins with Korey Hawkins | Vol. 3 Issue 5
REAL AI is a human-created weekly roundup of all things related to artificial intelligence in real estate and emerging AI innovations in other sectors likely to impact our industry. Note: This content will soon only be available via our free newsletter, delivered every Monday. Please subscribe here!
Delta AI Survey: Real estate is an AI leader
Real estate has been a notorious tech lagger for decades. Despite millions in VC funds pumped into the category, widespread adoption of new tech by real estate agents has always been elusive. In fact, tech agent adoption rates above 30% are considered exceptional. AI is proving to be the ultimate exception to that rule.
Last year, real estate brokerage leaders reported that a stunning 80% of their agents were using AI in their business. This year, that number is approaching 90%. At 87%, that’s a 7% jump in just 12 months – that kind of rapid adoption of new tech is practically unheard of in any industry.
Remember: even though ChatGPT reports some 300 million weekly active users worldwide, just 6.7% of the US population uses ChatGPT daily. In real estate, our usage is off the chart!
What’s driving this? The latest 2025 Delta Real Estate Leadership AI Survey sheds light on the growing role of AI in brokerage operations, the evolution of agent adoption, and why AI is moving from a marketing tool to table stakes technology.
From content to operations: AI’s evolving role
Real estate has long been slow to embrace change, but our industry leans in hard when something works. AI’s real estate takeover started with content creation: listing descriptions, blogs, social media, and emails. But the new Delta AI survey shows brokerages are expanding AI use into deeper operational functions:
- Client services and support
- Data analysis and reporting
- Administrative task automation
- Back office support
The numbers are smaller but growing, indicating a more mature, strategic approach to AI adoption. What started as a go-to marketing tool is beginning to transform brokerage operations, unlocking data and insights that could help increase the efficiency of brokerage operations.
At a time when broker margins are paper thin, leveraging AI to help leaders improve efficiency, scale processes, and better identify and navigate productivity issues and market challenges could be a game-changer.
One other shift to note: Moving from AI skepticism to confidence
The Delta Media survey also shows AI fears are fading. While risk and liability concerns remain, the survey shows a noticeable decline in high-level AI worries.
Last year, 50.4% of brokerage leaders expressed major concerns about AI’s risks. This year, that number dropped to 42.2%, suggesting a growing comfort level with AI’s role in business.
This means brokerages are not hesitating about using AI but looking for the best ways to use it.
According to the survey, the biggest AI adopters are medium to large brokerages with 101-500 agents and transaction volumes between $101M-$500M. These firms have the resources and scale to implement AI effectively with all the right gates and guardrails to ensure responsible AI.
But on the flip side, smaller brokerages (under 20 agents, <$50M in transactions) are adoption laggers. The biggest barrier? Limited resources, not skepticism. AI is becoming more accessible, but cost and implementation hurdles still slow adoption for smaller firms. The risk of using public AI tools like ChatGPT without gates and guardrails increases liability and privacy issues.
If there’s one thing the Delta AI survey makes clear: AI is here and is here to stay. (-Kevin)
What’s Next for AI in Real Estate?
One AI highlight for me at Inman Connect that’s worth sharing some highlights from was a panel moderated by Jonathan Klein, featuring Drew Fabrikant, Founder of Scout, Amy Gromowski, VP and Head of Data Science at CoreLogic, Gaétan Rougevin-Baville, CEO of ProperShot, Mikus Opelts, CEO of Giraffe360.
Drew has a great opening salvo: That AI has the ability to answer real estate’s toughest marketing questions: Who to target? What to say? When to say it? He notes that AI-powered outreach is helping real estate professionals personalize messaging at scale, reaching the right buyers and sellers at the right time.
However, Drew also stressed that transparency is critical: agents must be upfront about AI’s role in their communications and ensure they comply with evolving regulations around data usage.
At risk? Trust: the foundation of real estate. Drew noted that clear disclosure and accountability will set the best agents apart as AI becomes more embedded in marketing.
Amy at CoreLogic highlighted AI’s ability to remove the administrative burdens that slow agents down. Instead of manually researching comps or risk factors, AI can instantly generate hyper-specific market insights and will dramatically alter search.
AI search can get rid of the checked boxes and the pull-down filters as home search will instead use natural language queries:
“Show me homes in Chicago priced between $500K-$600K, with a low flood risk and a roof in great condition.”
To do this, Amy notes, AI must analyze spatial data, property valuations, climate risks, and even image-extracted details like roof quality, all in real time. Generative AI is helping to make these processes seamless, allowing agents to spend more time building relationships instead of manually inputting data.
Mikus of Giraffe360 sees AI driving the cost of producing visual content – floor plans, videos, virtual tours, and 3D model rendering – to nearly zero.
He’s talked about going well beyond the Matterport 3D “dollhouse” tours, with the next wave of AI-driven creating a more immersive experience, replacing the plethora of static images. He said buyers will be able to fully interact with digital property models, virtually planning renovations (see Revive Vision), rearranging spaces, and customizing homes before they buy.
The most significant impact of this more immersive and accessible tech, Mikus said, would be faster transactions, predicting days on market will drop by as much as 20% in the next two years.
Finally, Gaétan of Propershot talked about how AI staging is changing the game for real estate professionals, noting agents will be able to | generate multiple AI-powered staging variations instantly, helping buyers envision a property’s full potential.
One looming caution among all the speakers: as AI adoption skyrockets, the industry must tackle critical questions about data quality, gates, guardrails, and privacy. Amy pointed to CoreLogic’s AI Governance Council, which brings together legal, compliance, and data science leaders to address issues like data privacy, ethical AI use, and collaborating with organizations to establish AI best practices. (-Kevin)
AI Facts and Stats
- 87% of brokerage leaders said that their agents use AI for their business – Delta Media
- Listing descriptions are the number one use of AI by real estate agents – 26% – Delta Media
- 75% of brokerage leaders said their agents use AI for content creation – Delta Media
- 52% of brokerage leaders admit they plan to expand or adapt their use of AI in social media management for 2025 – Delta Media
- Only 16% of brokerage leaders said that their agents utilize AI for data analysis and reporting – Delta Media
Source: 2025 Delta Real Estate AI Survey (-Korey)
AI Headlines
Why AI succeeds where previous real estate ‘Disruptors’ failed | 1/30/25 Elite Agent
AI is enhancing rather than replacing the human touch in real estate.
Deepfake Deception: How AI Is Fueling Sophisticated Real Estate Scams | 1/30/25 Candy’s Dirt
Bad actors are upping their game using AI for real estate scams – here’s a list of red flags.
Is nuclear energy the answer to AI data centers’ power consumption? | 1/23/25 Goldman Sachs
Nuclear power has a big role to play in meeting the needs of AI data centers.
How AI in Real Estate is Catalyzing a Paradigm Shift – 16 Applications and Real-World Examples | 1/30/25 Appinventiv
Another look at how AI is influencing and transforming real estate.
CoreLogic adds aerial imagery partner for post-disaster AI analysis | 1/24/25 HousingWire
In the wake of the LA fires, data-king CoreLogic leverages a vast image library covering 90% of where the US population lives. (-Korey)
AI Quote of the Week
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