Artificial intelligence is having an impact on myriad industries, from manufacturing to retail, and it is poised to have an impact on many more areas of industry. However, it appears that agents won’t be replaced by robots any time soon.
According to Bridget Frey, chief technology officer at Redfin, agents possess market knowledge, making them indispensable in the home buying process.
Fry told GeekWire that Redfin learned early on that algorithms and programs that left humans out weren’t popular within the real estate community.
“We need our algorithms to work hand in hand with all those folks,” Frey said. “We’ve found that our algorithms work better when we leave a place for a human to be in the loop, and I think that’s where the direction needs to go.”
AI, in layman terms, makes machines perform complex tasks, associated with human minds, in a smart manner. Machine learning makes computers (machine) analyze and solve problems by teaching it basic logic and making the machine intelligent enough to learn on its own, as it progresses to solve different variants of the problem.
However, AI can be among the technologies to help property seekers find a home.
Realogy, a provider of residential real estate services, has taken steps to provide innovative AI-powered virtual assistant to serve agents.
OJO, a conversational AI-powered assistant, uses mobile messaging and innovative web experiences to redefine how consumers access personalized information throughout their home transaction process.
“We are committed to a strategy of leveraging the power of Realogy to make our affiliated sales agents more productive and their businesses stronger,” said John Peyton, president and chief executive officer of the Realogy Franchise Group. “We are excited to get OJO and this innovative technology into the hands of our affiliated agents. We hope the results of the program will support our belief that an AI assistant could lead to increased agent productivity and higher conversion rates for online leads. This is just one of many new concepts we plan to learn from in the months ahead.”
Technology is entrenching itself in the toolbox of every agent and Frey noted that it helps automate some of the more mundane parts of their days, allowing them to focus more on working with their clients.
“What we’ve seen is as we’ve automated pieces, our agents can actually spend more time providing personal service,” Frey said. “That is the direction that our whole economy is going toward, this service economy.”
