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Agents are being encouraged to stay up-to-date with the rapidly evolving AI sector and experiment with the technology to discover how it can best serve them, said AI expert Silvio Giorgio.
Giorgio sat down with editor Liam Garman for an episode of the REB podcast to discuss the impact of AI on the real estate industry and how agents can make the most of it, ahead of his talk at the REB Innovation Summit.
According to Giorgio, while AI is increasingly becoming part of daily life, in real estate, it will first aid buying and selling before fundamentally reshaping the process.
With over eight years of data science experience across Australia Post, Coles, and a stint at RealEstate.com, Giorgio has built deep expertise in applying AI to real-world problems.
Giorgio said that while AI can be used for research, he still sees humans playing a major role in the industry, with trust and emotion being key factors as buyers seek reassurance from experts as they navigate their largest purchase.
“The process is still pretty complex when you think about the players involved.”
“We value that handholding from a human because they can be held accountable, whereas AI models can not,” Giorgio said.
With AI’s ability to search for properties and compare the market, Giorgio said that he could eventually see a world in which AI performs the role of property advisers and buyer’s agents.
“This would require a leap in trust in AI for us. But I do think that that day will come,” he said.
“I’m not sure when, but we will start to trust AI more, and then that opens up opportunities.”
Understanding the limitations and benefits
With the AI landscape changing at a rapid pace, Giorgio said it was important for agents to familiarise themselves with the technology.
He said that agents should experiment with and limit-test AI tools to get a better understanding of their potential industry applications.
Getting AI to draft documents, perform market analysis, and form personalised communications are just some of the ways the expert said agents can use the tools to win listings.
Additionally, he said that agents using AI to handle these processes would have more time to deliver personalised services and build interpersonal relationships.
“It’s helping you do the things you do today but much faster, or on a larger scale,” Giorgio said.
He said that while agents don’t need to be on the cutting edge, they would benefit from having an understanding of how others are using AI.
“Ignoring it won’t help,” Giorgio said.
“You just have to be across it enough to be able to engage with it; notice how it’s changing you, how it’s changing your customers or your clients, and how it’s changing your industry now.”
How agents can keep pace
Giorgio said there are three simple ways that agents can ensure they keep up with the advancing technology.
The first step he recommended is for agents to retrain their social media by searching for and consuming content that showcases AI advances in the sector.
Secondly, Giorgio suggested conducting regular research on AI providers that are available, offering to streamline their systems and examining how they do it.
Finally, asking other agents how they are engaging with AI and what they are using it for can help to improve your own use of the technology.
Giorgio said that it is important to understand AI as it becomes a more prominent feature of day-to-day life, having shifted from a background process.
“AI has been around for quite some time. It’s not new,” Giorgio said.
“However, it is new to us in the way that we are interacting with it a lot more directly than we were before.”
According to Giorgio, AI has been making strides in three key areas: prediction and recommendation, natural language processing, and computer vision.
Using AI for predictions and recommendations has been happening for almost 30 years, with Amazon initiating the practice back in 1998.
Similarly, brands like Netflix, YouTube and Facebook now utilise it to provide users with a hyperpersonalised experience.
There have also been significant advancements in AI’s ability to handle language processing tasks, with features like Siri and Alexa becoming a regular part of daily life.
Meanwhile, improvements in AI’s computer vision have seen the introduction of self-driving taxis.
Giorgio predicted that the advancements we have seen so far will eventually see users move to an AI prime search and away from traditional search methods, as well as a rise in digital assistance and spend less time looking at their screens.
“I don’t see us continuing to engage with our screens in the way that we do.”
Silvio Giorgio will be one of the speakers at the upcoming REB Innovation Summit on 25 September.
To hear more, listen to the full episode here.
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