As industries embrace automation and AI, the promise is greater efficiency, productivity, and convenience. That’s exciting. But in sectors built on trust and personal connection, like real estate, technology faces a unique challenge: it must enhance the human element, not erode it. If it doesn’t, the consequences can be damaging.
Without naming names, there are two major retail brands I refuse to shop with after dealing with poorly implemented AI chatbots that made my problems worse rather than better.
In both cases, I eventually had to speak with a real person to resolve the issues.
By then, however, the human experience had already been eroded, leaving me frustrated, burned, and never to return.
As CEO of Barry Plant, I’ve seen firsthand how poorly implemented technology can affect customers, and I am determined to avoid that in our business.
In real estate, the challenge is similar: adopting new technology must support the agent-client relationship, not undermine it.
In short, real estate will always be a people business. Technology should serve as a bridge, not a barrier.
This is especially true in prospecting. Few agents enjoy cold calling or chasing leads, yet generating listings is fundamental to the profession.
It’s essential, but also one of the least enjoyable tasks and the first to be automated when motivation dips.
Quality Over Quantity
Some in the industry turn to AI tools that prospect at scale. Often, this results in impersonal emails, janky chatbots, and spam-style messaging.
Buyers and sellers quickly recognise these generic interactions as low-quality and disengage.
Real estate has never been about contacting the most people; it has always been about speaking to the right people.
Technology is genuinely useful when it helps agents identify high-quality leads and approach them thoughtfully.
The goal is not to remove human interaction, but to make it more strategic and meaningful. Technology should help agents arrive at the right conversation sooner and with better context.
The right technology helps agents uncover opportunities they might otherwise miss and frees them to spend more time building trust, solving problems, and guiding clients through complex decisions.
Technology should remove friction, not create distance.
The Role of AI in Real Estate
AI can refine where agents focus their attention. Predictive models highlight clients preparing to sell or likely to re-engage.
AI also helps maintain accurate contact data, a longstanding challenge in real estate. But even the smartest model does not replace the agent; it supports better decision-making.
Buyers and sellers rely on agents for judgment, market understanding, negotiation skills, and reassurance in high-stakes moments.
These qualities cannot be automated. AI should strengthen them, not attempt to replicate them.
This philosophy guides our investment in technology. We recently concluded an exclusive use period with the Rebot mobile app and will continue using it as a core prospecting tool across the group.
Rebot identifies clients in an agent’s database who are most likely ready for a conversation, assigning a propensity-to-sell score out of 100 and presenting the highest-scoring leads first.
Rebot also improves CRM data by identifying incorrect contact details and removing duplicates.
Unlike many tools that focus solely on lead generation, it strengthens the quality of underlying data, creating compounding long-term benefits.
While performance results remain internal, the network response has been very positive.
Rebot has already sparked thousands of meaningful client conversations and contributed to a significant number of appraisals and listings. Its value will only grow as more data is added.
Our AI journey doesn’t stop there. We are developing tools to streamline routine tasks and proprietary solutions to enhance the customer experience.
Google’s Gemini AI is being rolled out across the group, seamlessly integrated into our Google Workspace in a secure, organisation-specific environment that protects sensitive data for both agents and clients.
We remain focused on the horizon, implementing technology at the right time so every innovation supports agents rather than slowing them down.
Looking Ahead
Real estate has always been relationship-driven. As AI evolves, our responsibility is to use it in ways that amplify, rather than replace, the human connection.
The best technology is almost invisible in its impact. It helps agents focus on the work that matters: building trust, delivering expertise, and guiding clients through major life decisions.
