Zawya opinion piece: What the rise of AI really means for real estate

Simon Baker recently spoke exclusively to business newswire Zawya about the impact of artificial intelligence on the property sector.

A quick scan of the news these days and it can feel like we’re moving into a brave new world where the robots are getting ready to take over – yes, Artificial Intelligence has arrived with a bang.

The rapid adoption of ChatGPT and other generative AI tech has led to major investment and the halo effect has spread from tech stocks to crypto.

As so, as this futuristic technology becomes increasingly prevalent across a range of sectors, I’m starting to be asked how AI is going to shape real estate – and of course I also get asked whether AI will ‘replace’ real estate agents.

Let’s start there; the answer to that one is an easy – no.

I’ve been in the business for a long time and have seen big global players come and go with new high-tech, advanced ideas that were going to upend the industry.

I remember at one point back in the UK, Amazon was discussing selling a person’s property for a fee of GBP 999 – British supermarket giant Tesco was talking about doing something similar. Then – as usual – Facebook tried to obliterate everyone else by enticing people to sell via adverts on their platform.

None of them succeeded, which I think tells you something about the unshakeable importance of humans on the ground. Clients want to deal with actual real estate professionals; people who have been there and done that.

To read the full opinion piece on Zawya, click here.