Real Estate A.I. – What’s the Future for CRMs & Websites
Artificial Intelligence. There’s a lot of excitement around the possibilities. And there’s a lot of concerns too. In the past few years, humanity has made significant breakthroughs with A.I. or “deep learning” technology. With recent successes (and some flops, like Microsoft’s Tay), the question has shifted from “Will artificial intelligence come to fruition?” to “How far away will we see cognitive machines?”
Now, the more interesting question: What’s the future hold for real estate + artificial intelligence? Forget the images of Terminator or iRobot. What we’re discussing is a machine’s intelligence to handle inquiries from homebuyers and to suggest “hot” lead opportunities to real estate agents.
Most real estate businesses already use a CRM (or lead management system), plus a website to showcase properties. Depending on what you use, you may already see a touch of analytical thinking … i.e. the CRM running algorithms to suggest best-fit leads, to match buyers to properties they will like, or sending out drip email communication to contacts. Most of it is automated.
For real estate websites, it wasn’t too long ago, where homebuyers had to rely on agents to see what homes were on the market. Now, they have full view of properties and listings. If cognitive interfaces like Apple’s Siri and even lesser known bots like howdy.ai can suggest places to eat, places to go — how hard would it be for a bot to suggest what properties to look at?
Artificial intelligence isn’t as far away as we thought. So, the discussion turns to what are the opportunities, how will it impact real estate, and how long before we start seeing it? Let’s begin …
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Today’s Artificial Intelligence
Before we dive into the possibilities for real estate, it’s important to analyze what already exists (in terms of “intelligent software”) and how other companies are looking to leverage artificial intelligence, if they aren’t already.
Device Personal Assistants — Siri, Cortana, Alexa
These intelligent “personal assistants” are probably the most prominent A.I.s you’ve encountered. Apple’s Siri has been around for a few years, progressively getting smarter. New to the field is Microsoft’s Cortana and Amazon’s Alexa (on Echo). You can ask them almost any question and get an immediate response, like “What’s the weather like today, Siri?”
These cognitive engines can respond, alert, and carry out tasks based on your behavior. Think of them as your personal Google (i.e. search engine). Instead of typing a search query, you’re asking “someone.” Future applications could make them your literal personal assistant.
New Personal Assistants — howdy.ai, x.ai, Coversica, Facebook M, Amelia
Following the “personal assistant” track, upcomers x.ai, howdy.ai, Conversica, Amelia, and Facebook M are leading the charge with purpose-driven uses, such as for handling meeting requests or answering sales inquiries. They’re showing a glimpse of what artificial intelligence can do when built and directed to a core set of tasks versus the “assistant” for everything and anything.
Cognitive Engines — IBM Watson and Google DeepMind
IBM Watson first attracted attention with its quest to dominate Jeopardy. Google’s DeepMind project gained infamy when it bested top Go master, Lee Se-dol, 4-1. Each of these A.I.s has shown an ability to evaluate a situation, adapt, and find the best solution (or path to winning).
Now, technologies such as Watson and DeepMind are being explored for alternative uses in various industries. Both are being looked at for their abilities to handle mass amounts of data and sift them into insights/knowledge — such as weather predictions and medical diagnosis. Imagine if we took all the user data + behavior from Google searches and gathered insights into humanity.
Bots — Skype bots, Slack bot, Dominos, Video Game bots
Not quite hitting the mark of artificial intelligence, bots are still good examples of what technology can achieve for the real estate industry. Held in a long-time position, video games have been leading the way in terms of automated avatars. Programed to act and behave in specific manners, they react to what you do within the game.
Slack made a simple virtual assistant for onboarding new users. It helped humanize the company’s communication, but it also provided a tool users could rely on for help. Dominos gathered a lot of press around it’s pizza-emoji ordering. All you have to do is text a pizza emoji, and voila, pizza is ordered.
Skype recently introduced bots to their platform, to provide a variety of services like Summarize, who can give an overview of a web page if you don’t have time to read the whole thing.
Real Estate Artificial Intelligence
If you’re a regular reader of Inman News, you’ve probably heard of the Broker vs Bot challenge. It’s one of the first examples where artificial intelligence could be entering real estate. The challenge was simple: a broker and computer bot would suggest homes to a buyer (based on their previous search). The end result? The homebuyer preferred listings suggested by the computer bot.
Now, take this simple program and consider the cognitive engines already built (or in progress), like Google’s DeepMind project. We can see where Siri can answer typical questions homebuyers ask. We can see where bots could provide resources based on what information a buyer is looking for. Take it another step, where deep learning begins, you can start to see where a machines could be fed massive amounts of listing data or market data — and then begin to translate them into insights for agents. Better yet, they could communicate to agents and tell them what to suggest to clients, such as when the best time to buy is.
Real Estate CRM + Artificial Intelligence
Right now, real estate CRMs use algorithms to suggest best-fit leads. What happens if that system starts interpreting behavior and gives you recommended action plans based on market statistics, inventory levels, the number of people moving in/out of the area, sales volume, price point, etc? The list goes on.
It’s not just matching the best property to the homebuyer. It’s suggesting which house is the best to buy at the moment and the one that will give them the most return on investment (ROI).
Real Estate Websites + Artificial Intelligence
Then, transpose those cognitive abilities to your real estate website. For example, websites provided by BoomTown allow users to set up an account, favorite houses, and save for later viewing. Take that data and watch cognitive engines begin showing houses that fit user tastes … without the user having to manually narrow their search.
A bot can quickly (and easily) process vast amounts of data to answer basic questions from homebuyers. It could lead to better customer service.
What if the popular “virtual assistant” chatbox on many real estate websites gets replaced by artificial intelligence? Suddenly, you have an avatar that can answer questions and negotiate contracts. It could manage showing times based on agent availability and confirm everything before it hits an actual real estate agent.
Learn what BoomTown’s CRM looks like today. Click Here.
Why I Think A.I. Starts with CRMs
Scroll back through time. Computers began as tools of business and research, designed to automate tasks such as math and information retrieval. Today, they’re tools for personal communication, connecting us with people across the globe and within a second’s notice.
Before “the new shiny object” gets popularized into the mass market and faces the public, it’s often tested within businesses and large organizations first. Look at IBM Watson, for example. Right now, it’s focused on industries like healthcare and big data — not really diving into mom & pop doctor offices yet or even being in reach for regular people to use those cognitive abilities. It’ll be monetized first, placed to assist the business, and then bleed into the public. It’s a prediction and I could be proven wrong, but if history follows the usual path, I have a feeling it’ll start there.
When Will Artificial Intelligence Reach Real Estate?
If we use Moore’s Law compounding over time (a formula heavily used in the software/hardware technology industries), we could estimate computers to have the same cognitive power as a human by 2025. (see graphic by Mother Jones below)
However, my guess is that it’ll come sooner than that. I’ve read reports on tech companies using Moore’s Law to properly set business strategy and production times, but I’ve also seen companies, like Nvidia, produce faster than Moore’s Law (by trimming down process and development even further).
The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Real Estate
Artificial intelligence — even the heavier use of bots — will bring a lot of changes to real estate, specifically on the role of the agent. There will be an appearance that A.I. and bots can do an agent’s job, but it doesn’t mean the industry is saying “goodbye.”
Roles will shift, duties will change, but again, we need to ask the right questions. What’s the purpose of building artificial intelligence that can shoulder more of our work (as humans)? Is it to allow us to work more hours for less pay? Or is it to enable us to choose how we work, and to give us greater knowledge so we can make better decisions?
To end the post, here’s something to think about … for the future. 10 years from now, jobs will be made for machines, but life — an easier, more enjoyable life — will be for people.
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