TL;DR: Kirstin Dunn founded Semple Property Group from her dining room table in 2013, scaling it to more than $54 million through traditional relationship-building and exceptional service. But when AI emerged as a viable business tool, she approached it the same way she approached scaling her business: with strategic experimentation, transparent communication, and an unwavering focus on time optimisation. In this episode, discover how she saves 17+ hours weekly with just one AI tool, and understand how she successfully brought her entire team along for the AI transformation journey.
The real estate industry has always been about relationships, timing, and execution. When AI tools emerged, Kirstin saw an opportunity to amplify what was already working, and she approached it with the same methodical thinking that built her business in the first place.
For Kirstin, every business decision comes back to one fundamental principle: time optimisation.
“For me, my most valuable asset is my time, and anytime I can claw back within my day is a big win for me,” she explains. “I am not here to sit at work from seven until seven. Being “busy” is not something that I aspire to.”
This philosophy shaped her entire approach to AI implementation. Rather than implementing tools for the sake of innovation, Kirstin focuses on leveraging AI solutions to resolve tasks that are significant drains on her energy and time.
Her breakthrough moment came not from a grand strategic vision, but from a frustrating daily reality: negative Google reviews.
“I’ll be really honest. It was a negative Google review, how much time and personal energy that would suck out of me because I’m very, very proud of my business,” Kirstin recalls. “I put one of those into ChatGPT for a response [removing any details about any particulars] and it was better than I could have ever done myself. It took 30 seconds of my time and the minute that I posted it as my reply, I just felt relaxed.”
Why This Matters for Your Agency
The lesson here isn’t about Google reviews, it’s about identifying the tasks that create disproportionate emotional and time burden. Kirstin recognised that her response to negative feedback was consuming not just time, but mental energy that rippled through her entire day. By addressing this specific pain point, she freed up both time and headspace for higher-value activities.
A Strategic Approach to AI Tool Selection
Kirstin’s AI toolkit didn’t emerge overnight. Her current arsenal includes ChatGPT for content creation and analysis, Fyxer AI for email management, RiTA for database communication, Go List for lead management, and Taylor for SMS automation. But the key to her success isn’t the tools themselves — it’s her systematic approach to evaluation and implementation.
“I can’t think of a tool that I have thought it’s not for me,” she notes, “but there’s definitely tasks that I’ve tried to use AI for and I’ve gone, oh, well, not yet.”
Kirstin recognises when specific applications aren’t ready for her needs. When she attempted to use ChatGPT for 3D house plan renders, the scale issues were immediately apparent.
“The garage was like three times the size of the house, and I was like, I’ll leave that one for later and we’ll come back to it once it’s sorted itself out.”
The Team Integration Challenge: Moving Beyond Individual Adoption
The most impressive aspect of Kirstin’s AI implementation isn’t just her personal productivity gains, it’s her success in bringing her entire team along for the journey. Kirstin has achieved organisation-wide adoption through transparent communication and customised 1:1 training.
“Getting the confidence of my team behind me was something that I was wary of,” she admits. “I was always honest and upfront with clients about our use of AI because transparency is one of my number one values in business.”
Her approach centres on a fundamental principle: everyone must be on the same system.
“It is not everybody just runs their sales process or property management process however they want to. We work really hard on procedures, best practice, procedures, risk management, risk minimisation. So everyone had to be on board.”
The Personality Factor in AI Adoption:
Through her team experimentation, Kirstin identified key personality traits that predict AI adoption success:
“I definitely think that it’s someone that’s not afraid to fail and make mistakes. There are people that are Type A personalities and they couldn’t think of anything worse than making a mistake or having something not work out for them. You need to have more of a Type B personality — the fly by the seat of their pants, be prepared to experiment”
Kirstin’s 1:1 Training Method:
Kirstin recently shifted from group training sessions to individualised 30-minute sessions, recognising that “what one of my team needs to know is completely different to what another of my team needs to know based on their level of confidence in AI.”
Why This Matters for Your Team:
Cookie-cutter AI training fails because it doesn’t account for individual confidence levels and specific role requirements. Kirstin’s shift to personalised training sessions allows her to meet each team member where they are while maintaining consistent standards across the organisation.
Client Transparency: Building Trust Through Openness
One of the most challenging aspects of AI implementation for real estate agencies is client communication. How do you maintain trust while leveraging automation?
Kirstin’s approach centres on transparency and careful boundary setting.
“I haven’t had any negativity about it,” she reports regarding client reactions. Her success stems from clear communication about when AI is being used and immediate human intervention when conversations become substantive.
The Data-Driven Advantage: Analytics as Competitive Moat
Beyond boosting personal productivity, Kirstin has leveraged AI to nurture her 89,000-person contact database — enabling consistent, personalised outreach that strengthens brand awareness and keeps her business top of mind with clients.
“There’s no way that my team could communicate with that many people effectively on a regular basis,” she explains. “Brand awareness is really important to me, so when someone’s talking about getting a sales appraisal, they go, ‘oh, Semple does loads, you should call them.'”
The AI tools don’t just manage communication — they create opportunity.
“We can’t call 4,000 people. But you know what? We can call 20 people that have opened [our emails] more than 5 times.”
Why This Matters for Your Database Strategy:
Kirstin’s approach transforms her database into a system that identifies the warmest prospects and creates targeted follow-up opportunities. The AI doesn’t replace human touchpoints — it enhances them by surfacing the most valuable opportunities.
The Human Connection: What AI Really Enables
The most powerful outcome of Kirstin’s AI implementation isn’t increased efficiency — it’s the return to high-value human relationships.
“The amount of time that it has freed up for me… I had stopped delivering my client’s gifts and was having someone else deliver my client’s gifts. I do that now because I want to go and see them in their new home and I want to sit with them and have a cup of tea because those connections are important to me.”
This insight reveals the true strategic value of AI in the real estate sector. Rather than replacing human connection, the implementation of AI has created space for deeper relationships by eliminating routine tasks.
Your AI Implementation Action Plan
This week, Kirstin challenges you to:
1. Find an Opportunity
“Choose a task that does not spark joy in your life and that you dislike, such as after home open communication or email inbox management, and find a tool that fixes a problem.”
2. Master Before Expanding
“Don’t just start it and then let it go. It’s not set and forget. Become super confident in every single working of it. Learn all of the ins and outs of it, the settings. Make sure you know how to turn it off when you’re on holiday.”
3. Sequential Implementation
“Once you’ve got one under your belt and you know it, then go, ‘all right, what’s the next problem I’m going to solve? Or what’s the next time sucker that I’m going to eliminate?”
Resources Mentioned
Join the Conversation
What’s your biggest time drain in real estate that AI could potentially solve? What tools are you experimenting with for database management and client communication? How are you approaching team training for new technologies?
Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.
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