For all the advances in AI, automation, and predictive analytics, Mark McLeod believes the biggest win in real estate still happens in the most traditional of places, across a kitchen table, inside a client’s home.
Speaking at Connect 2025 alongside NurtureCloud founder Michal Kot, the Ray White Chief of Strategy for Real Estate shared one of the most powerful statistics to come from the group’s data: an agent who meets a homeowner inside their property is 400% more likely to win the listing.
“All this work will allow us to free up more time to spend more physical time with our customers,” Mr McLeod told the audience. “That’s where the wins are gonna be.”
Tech That Gives Time Back
Mr McLeod framed AI not as a threat, but as a “time-giver.” By removing repetitive, low-value admin work, agents can focus on the high-value human contact that builds trust and secures business.
That means automating the routine, from appraisal campaigns to targeted “just listed” SMS blasts, and letting AI surface predictive insights from agent databases.
He says the goal isn’t more screen time; it’s more time at open homes, auctions, and sitting with clients in their lounge rooms.
It’s a strategy that rests on Ray White’s long-term investment in clean, proprietary data. For over 15 years, the network has tracked buyer and seller activity in fine detail: who attends open homes, who bids at auctions, who’s upsizing, downsizing, or buying for the first time.
“The more you have, the more tools we’re going to be able to build,” Mr McLeod said.
“And the more powerful those tools become, the more time you’ll have to be in the community.”
The NurtureCloud Engine
That’s where Michal Kot comes in. A robotics engineer by background, Mr Kot has spent the past decade building NurtureCloud — a platform designed to operationalise Mr McLeod’s vision at scale.
NurtureCloud’s footprint within Ray White is now significant:
- 6,600+ active monthly users
- 4,000+ daily active users
- 1.2 million smart calls processed monthly
- 2 million buyer portal views in the past year
Every one of those interactions creates a data point, from call notes to portal behaviour, which feeds into NurtureCloud’s AI. This “network effect” means that the more agents use the system, the more intelligent and accurate it becomes.
From Data to Action in Seconds
Mr Kot explained how the platform is built to remove friction between insight and action. AI can:
- Identify owners showing signs of selling.
- Match active buyers to new listings instantly.
- Pre-fill vendor proposals with relevant comparable sales.
- Launch marketing campaigns to precise audiences without manual targeting.
On the calls front, NurtureCloud’s AI analyses the contact before the agent dials — generating conversation scripts, suggesting objection-handling points, and pulling relevant market data. When the call ends, notes and follow-up actions are logged automatically.
Looking Ahead: AI Teammates and Digital Twins
Mr Kot also shared a glimpse into what’s next. AI “teammates” could operate like digital colleagues, with their own phone numbers and inboxes, able to handle routine communications and tasks.
Further ahead, “digital twins” could learn an agent’s style, tone, and decision-making patterns over months, then act on their behalf in certain situations, effectively creating a virtual version of the agent.
But even with these advanced tools, Mr Kot said the mission remains unchanged: “Every interaction, calls, buyer portal visits, open home check-ins, becomes fuel for smarter AI predictions. The aim is to make the system faster, more intelligent, and more useful every day.”
Tech + Touch: The Future Formula
For Mr McLeod, the technology is only as good as the human connections it enables.
“We’ve been on this journey of data for a long time,” he said. “Now the opportunity is to ask better questions, get better answers, and use that time to be out there, in the community, in people’s homes.”
