AI solved the blank page problem. It created a judgment problem.
Everyone assumes AI means fewer people. Fewer writers, fewer marketers, fewer agents doing the grunt work. And maybe, that’s partially true.
But something else is even truer: when output becomes abundant, judgment becomes the scarce resource. The level up becomes the job.
(I know. Not exactly the sexy AI take you were expecting.)
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately because it’s essentially my whole thesis on why editorial thinking matters more now than it ever has.
The blank page problem is solved. Now what?
AI is brilliant at getting you from zero to something. Summarising text, remixing it, generating a decent first draft. It solves the blank page problem quickly and cheaply.
For anyone who writes as part of their job – and in real estate, that’s basically everyone – this is the immediate value.
What used to take a day now takes minutes. Listing descriptions, market updates, prospecting emails, social posts.
Done and done.
But here’s where it gets interesting. When execution gets cheap, it becomes easier to skip the thinking altogether.
Try this yourself. Go to ChatGPT and vaguely describe the kind of buyer or seller you want to reach. Ask how to market to them. Then ask again. And again.
You’ll get different answers each time. Most will sound reasonable.
Very few will be strategically useful.
(This is the part where you go “…oh.”)
That’s because AI amplifies whatever strategy you already have – for better or for worse.
If your positioning is fuzzy, AI will happily produce a thousand variations of that fuzzy idea.
If your strategy is sound, AI helps you move exponentially faster.
But the quality of the output is still bounded by the quality of the input. If you’re just remixing inputs, it’s not enough.
The editing problem doesn’t go away. It gets bigger.
Here’s what the data consistently shows across every industry survey I’ve seen: the vast majority of people edit AI-generated copy to make it sound more human, even when the content is technically correct.
Think about that for a moment. The words are right, but they’re not right.
Any sales agent who’s sent a letter to a vendor and thought “that’ll do” before deleting the whole thing and starting over knows exactly what I mean.
So does any property manager who’s fluffed up a response to a tenant, read it back, and gone… nope.
Knowing what resonates with a specific audience – knowing what’s on-brand, what’s authentic, what actually lands – that’s the thing AI can’t replace.
The quality control job is a problem of experience and discernment. And it doesn’t go away just because word generation is faster.
If anything, there’s more to discern because there’s more output to deal with.
This is why I keep saying that in the AI era, every agent needs to think like an editor.
From making stuff to deciding what matters
The smartest professionals I’m working with aren’t panicking. They’re adapting.
They’re shifting away from producing things and towards deciding which things matter and how can they go the extra mile.
That’s a different skill entirely. And honestly? It’s a harder one.
When AI handles the scaffolding – outlines, first drafts, headline ideas, final checks – the scarcest resource on your team is no longer time. It’s judgment. It’s knowing:
- Which customers are actually worth pursuing (which you know better than any AI, because you live in your market)
- What to publish and what to leave in drafts
- The difference between truly good and good enough
- Context, timing and tradeoffs that only come from experience.
AI is very good at probabilistically predicting which words are likely to come next.
What it can’t do is tell you which questions you should be asking in the first place, where the real risks are, or when something that sounds right is actually wrong.
You’re the one who knows that the vendor two streets over has been sitting on an unrenovated property for six months and might finally be ready to have a conversation.
You’re the one who remembers what worked – and what bombed – the last time the market shifted.
And you’re the one who can read a room, read a client, and know when the AI-generated email needs a complete rewrite because the tone is just… off.
So what’s the actual question?
If you’re an agent or a principal sitting there thinking, “Do I really need to learn all this AI stuff?” – respectfully, that’s the wrong question.
The better one is: “Am I the person who decides what’s worth doing – and can I hold the bar when it isn’t good enough?”
Because an editor doesn’t just write. An editor decides what ships. What gets cut. What needs one more pass. What’s ready to go.
That’s the job of a leader now.
And when execution is cheap – that kind of judgment is the premium.
