According to a survey of 250 estate and letting agents by Alto – two thirds (67%) of agents use AI to write property descriptions – the CRM used by over a third of estate agents nationwide. Almost seven in ten (69%) use AI regularly or every day, and 85% use it for four jobs or fewer, and they’re the same four everywhere – writing property descriptions (67%), emails (53%), admin (37%) and marketing and social media (35%).
Just one in ten agents use AI to prepare a valuation, and one in 20 use AI for anti-money laundering and compliance checks. Only 4%, one agent in 25, use it for sales progression, the months of chasing solicitors, surveys and mortgage offers between an offer being accepted and the keys changing hands – a stage where sales fall through – AI is being used to make the advert sound better, and almost never to get the sale done.
“Most estate agents have discovered AI the same way the rest of us did; tidying up emails and marketing copy.
“There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s the same tool doing the same job for every agent on the high street, so nobody gets ahead with it, and it’s not going to help you sell your home faster.
“The fifth who are pulling away have pointed it at the bits that actually decide whether your sale goes through – answering enquiries at 9:00pm, chasing solicitors, keeping the paperwork and compliance in order.
“If you’re choosing an agent, that’s worth asking about. Not ‘do you use AI’, because they all do, but ‘what do you actually use it for.”
Riccardo Iannucci-Dawson, CEO, Alto
However, the most advanced 20% do use AI right across the business such as answering enquiries out of hours, spotting homeowners about to sell, keeping compliance paperwork in order and tracking how the agency is performing.
Each of them gets around five hours a week back, almost four times what agents using it for writing alone are saving. Agents aren’t blind to the risks of AI. Three quarters (76%) worry AI will cost them the personal touch with clients, and 64% worry about it making mistakes.
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