Let’s chat, GPT

What’s the meaning of life? It’s the ultimate question that I, nor anyone I believe really knows the answer to. For most people, it’d probably be to live a happy and healthy life, to love and be loved. If you’re lucky, to have a fulfilling career, too. In my search for knowledge, I turned to one of the wisest (and youngest) sources available — ChatGPT — who advised me that the meaning of life is “different for everyone and is ultimately up to you to define”.

A profound, yet unsurprisingly informed response from the AI platform that’s skyrocketed in popularity since its launch in late 2022.

Standing for Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer, the tool is an aptly named artificial intelligence tool that has the potential to significantly change the global business environment. From the ways we communicate to the tools we use for marketing and service the world over, the impact it’ll have on real estate here in Australia is inevitable. It has joined the approximate 380 proptech offerings available across Australia*, and the thousands, if not millions of other tech platforms available to businesses. In Australia, it’s estimated that 66 per cent of proptech platforms are centred on residential property. The majority of these are within the B2B space (47 per cent), and focused on the manage (19 per cent), sell (18 per cent) and buy (14 per cent) phases of the lifecycle.

Proptech remains of huge consideration for agents, industries, buyers, and sellers and is one that’s fundamentally bettered the landscape over the last decade (the days of starting your property search in a newspaper are not forgotten). Now, with tools like ChatGPT that can generate immediate materials such as listing copy, email marketing, web chat and more, it’s obvious why everyone’s talking about it.

It’s easy to get swept up in the hype of this, and understandable that for some, there’s fear around the future automation of their responsibilities. My view is that it’s important to stay grounded when exploring tech and AI. Approach it through the lens of business suitability and benefits, the impact on your employees, and if a platform is suitable, whether it has the backing from its provider to evolve and grow with where your agency is heading.

There’s a framework that we’ve adopted at BresicWhitney that has helped us make clearer decisions around technology, and you might find it useful too.

Assess the ‘use case’

Like any technology with an inevitable investment required (in both time and money), it must have a clear value proposition and use case. This is what allows it to transition from being a gimmick to being a genuinely useful tool that in many cases, has the power to change our working life. If you’re the individual or part of a team at the forefront of exploring new tech for your agency, start with this in mind and always come back to the ‘why’.

Be unapologetically selective

Technology selection is so important. There are endless platforms and tools available, being pitched to us every week, each with its own spin on why they’re the next big thing. For many agencies, good intentions or ambitions turn into oversaturation of tech, and more time and money being spent than saved.

We decline about 95 per cent of the tech that’s presented to us over any given year at BresicWhitney. Most of it is not a good fit for our business, and we’re very clear about this. We’re also not interested in using a platform just because another successful agency does, and it’s important that tech providers understand the nuances and diverse aspirations of each business.

A useful way of helping frame your tech selection is starting with the problem you’re trying to solve. Is this tech part of the solution? Will it complicate or simplify your business? And most importantly, does it complement what your team already do? If you don’t find yourself nodding when you ask yourself these types of questions, then chances are it’s not right for you.

People and product

The interaction between people and product is what I believe to be the most important part of a successful tech selection and implementation. Test it with your people, or at least a group with varying responsibilities and uses, before you proceed. This should be for a minimum of two weeks to gain a good understanding of the ebbs and flows of workloads. How did they find it? Again, did it simplify or complicate their working day?

We recently undertook this process when we did an audit of our property management tech stack. We had over 10 different platforms and touchpoints that our team was using. It was time-consuming, unproductive, and repetitive (not to mention, limiting for team members working from home). Reduced by 50 per cent, we now have five platforms that connect into one API, and they’re complemented by the technology we use agency-wide. We have also invested in an offshore partner that reduces the cognitive and administrative load for our people; one we see as being critical in helping us maximise the existing investment in our tech offering and ongoing commitment to our people. It’s a paperless way of operating that’s helped us move closer to one single source of truth and fundamentally changed the experience for our people and our clients.

Frame for the long term

Choose tech that’s going to have a long-term use and benefit for your business, not a short-term one. Implementation and ongoing management are costly in many respects. Take a five-year view and make informed bets on what will and won’t work over that period.

Don’t be afraid to part ways with certain tech if it’s not able to evolve with you. As promising as it may have started out, if the provider in question isn’t prepared to make continual developments to their platform, your business will eventually evolve past it. It’s important to have difficult conversations when needed and cut your losses when it’s time.

Much like how ChatGPT summed up the meaning of life, the technology that’s a good fit is different for everyone, and ultimately up to you to define.

I’d love to know your thoughts on ChatGPT and the impact it’ll have on real estate. Drop me a line at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., on LinkedIn or in the comments below.

Will Gosse is the chief operations officer at BresicWhitney