And it’s raising client expectations across the board
I remember when estate agency websites first started appearing.
There was no shortage of scepticism.
Some agents worried they would weaken relationships. Others feared they would turn property into a commodity. Consumers, meanwhile, worried about security, reliability and whether they could trust information they found online.
The internet did not wait for confidence to catch up.
What began as a novelty became a necessity. Today, the idea of running an agency without a website would be absurd.
Which brings me to artificial intelligence.
If you spend any time reading the trade press at the moment, you could be forgiven for thinking that the biggest question facing the industry is whether customers are ready for AI.
I’m beginning to wonder if we’re asking the wrong question.
The truth is that customers are already interacting with AI every day. They encounter it when they shop online, contact customer services, use search engines, stream entertainment or manage their finances. In many cases, they may not even realise it is there.
The important point is that they are adapting.
Humans have always been remarkably good at adapting.
We adapted to the internet. We adapted to online banking. We adapted to portals, mobile phones, self-service checkouts and digital boarding passes. Each new technology was initially met with suspicion before becoming part of everyday life.
AI appears to be following the same pattern.
That does not mean people blindly trust it. Far from it. Most of us still want to know who is responsible when something goes wrong. We still value judgement, experience and reassurance. But there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that consumers are far more comfortable with AI in certain situations than many businesses assume.
Interestingly, much of the hesitation appears to sit with businesses themselves.
Estate agency is hardly alone here. Banks, insurers, law firms, healthcare providers and retailers are all trying to work out how AI fits into the customer experience.
For agents, the concern is understandable.
Property transactions are emotional. They involve significant sums of money and often some of the biggest decisions people will ever make. Nobody wants to jeopardise trust by replacing personal service with a machine.
Yet perhaps that is where the conversation becomes unhelpful.
The choice is rarely between people and technology.
It is usually about deciding which tasks genuinely benefit from human involvement and which do not.
Most agents would probably agree that spending hours chasing routine follow-ups, updating records or responding to repetitive enquiries is not the highest and best use of their time.
Equally, most clients would probably agree that waiting days for a response is not a great customer experience.
This is where AI starts to become interesting.
Not because it replaces the agent, but because it frees the agent to spend more time doing the things only agents can do.
Negotiating. Advising. Reassuring. Building relationships.
The customers of tomorrow are already here
The irony is that while many discussions about AI focus on technology, the real issue may be changing customer expectations.
The oldest members of Generation Z are now approaching 30. Many are already well established in their careers, earning more, saving deposits and entering the housing market. They are no longer the next generation of customers. They are becoming the market.
They have grown up with online banking, instant messaging, same-day delivery and services that are available whenever they need them.
Whether we like it or not, those experiences shape expectations.
They do not necessarily expect less personal service. They do, however, expect information to be readily available. They expect responses to arrive quickly. They expect technology to remove friction rather than create it.
And those expectations do not stay neatly contained within one age group – they spread.
Younger people teach parents how to use apps, help grandparents with online banking, persuade older relatives to use WhatsApp, and bring the same behaviours into the workplace. Colleagues influence colleagues. Families influence families. Customers influence businesses.
In that sense, we are all becoming a little more Gen Z.
Not because everyone thinks the same way, or wants the same service, but because convenience has a habit of becoming contagious. Once people experience a faster, simpler way of doing something, the old way starts to feel slower than it did before.
None of this is unique to estate agency.
It is happening across almost every sector of the economy. Banks, retailers, insurers and healthcare providers are all adapting to a customer base whose expectations have been shaped by digital convenience.
The question for estate agents is not whether those expectations are right or wrong.
The question is whether we are adapting quickly enough to meet them.
And that is not always easy.
Most agents are busy running businesses, progressing sales, solving problems and dealing with the endless demands that come with the job. It is hardly surprising that many look at AI and conclude they will find time to properly understand it later.
The danger is that customers won’t wait while agents catch up with their expectations.
Those expectations are changing anyway – gradually; quietly. Often without us noticing.
Which is why I sometimes wonder whether our industry’s AI debate is focused on the wrong issue.
Much of the discussion centres on whether customers are ready for AI.
But perhaps that is no longer the most important question.
The question is no longer whether customers will encounter AI – they already do.
The more important question is whether agents are paying attention to what those interactions are teaching customers to expect.
Every generation of agents has had to adapt to technological change. Websites did not prove to be the end of estate agency. Neither did portals, email or online valuations.
AI will not be the last technological shift our industry faces.
The agents who thrive over the next decade will not necessarily be those who adopt every new tool that appears.
They will be the ones who remain curious enough to understand how changing technology is changing their customers.
Because ultimately, AI will not decide the future of estate agency.
That task will always fall to agents.