Agents are being urged to use AI selectively and carefully, in ways that strengthen the human connection central to agencies’ success.

PropTech supplier Reapit’s – which has published a white paper called “Human-centric AI in real estate” – says AI is already helping agencies move faster and operate at a larger scale by automating tasks like lead generation, property recommendations and tenant communications. 

Generative AI can also analyse vast amounts of property data, create marketing materials and even help with lease negotiations. 

But the supplier says this progress has been achieved using first-generation public AI platforms. The next generation is AI that reclaims the human side of property.

It says human-centric AI is designed to inject human oversight and closely integrate with business flows, creating AI interactions enriched with past knowledge of client engagements.

Left unchecked, agents using generic AI could face similar situations to Virgin Money, where an AI chatbot attempted to censor customers from using the word “virgin”, showing how absurd things can get when carelessly implemented AI takes over.

“The agencies that win won’t be the ones with the flashiest AI,” the paper concludes. “They’ll be the ones using AI responsibly to scale, preserve trust, and retain the human connection.”

Reapit says it will be revealing more about building trusted AI for the property sector and showcasing its latest AI developments at Propertymark One on June 12.

You can read the white paper here.