Inside the habits of real estate’s AI power users: Inman Intel survey

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The increasingly widespread adoption of artificial intelligence tools in real estate has made agents more productive — although the difference for most has been modest so far.

But a smaller group of AI power users reports that they’ve already seen a “significant” bump in productivity, according to the latest Inman Intel Index results.

How much more productive do you think AI tools have made you in your work over the past year?

• Significantly more productive — 11%
• Slightly more productive — 46%
• No difference — 25%
• Slightly less productive — 1%
• Significantly less productive — 0.4%
• I do not use AI tools for business — 17%

In this December survey, hundreds of real estate agents shed light on a brokerage world that has increasingly embraced AI for tasks like writing property descriptions or marketing materials — with well over half of survey respondents reporting they regularly use these tools for text generation. 

But the results also revealed more under-the-radar AI tools that some agents say have significantly upped their productivity.

Check out the latest tech favored by power users in the full report. 

AI in the brokerage world

For well over a year, real estate pros have explored the uses of AI to streamline tasks like writing property descriptions or social media posts.

By late December, those two uses had become the most widespread applications of AI in real estate, agents told Intel.

For which of the following tasks, if any, do you regularly use AI tools in your business? Select all that apply.

• Generating text for property descriptions — 59%
• Generating text for social media or marketing materials — 48%
• Producing analysis or summaries of market data — 18%
• Generating images for social media or marketing materials — 12%
• Editing listing photos with a digital-staging software — 11%
• Managing leads or tasks in your database — 10%
• Editing images for social media or marketing materials — 10%
• Automating direct communication with clients, such as with a chatbot or other automated communication tool — 9%
• Summarizing contracts or other business documents — 8%
• Generating video for social media or marketing materials — 7%
• Generating contracts or other business documents — 6%
• Pulling data from property photos using image-analysis software — 3%
• I do not use AI for any of the tasks above on a regular basis — 30%

Most agents told Intel they were using their own preferred AI tools.

A smaller group — about 1 in 3 agent respondents — said they either relied mostly on AI tools that their brokerage provided, or used about an equal mix in their work.

But the results show some ongoing distrust toward tools like ChatGPT, which are known to “hallucinate” facts and make errors that have to be checked by humans. 

Here’s where agents came down on the trustworthiness of AI.

When you use a generative AI service — such as ChatGPT or a similar tool — to generate text that must be factually accurate, or to answer a factual question, how would you describe the level of trust you have in the results?

• I have a high degree of confidence that the text generated by AI tools is accurate — 6%
• I trust that the AI results are usually accurate, but I expect that in rare cases it will produce factual errors — 34%
• Generative AI is good enough to be useful, but I expect that it will frequently produce factual errors — 42%
• I view text generated by AI as fundamentally untrustworthy — 18%

With these words of caution in mind, some agents have found areas where AI tools have provided a big boost to their self-reported productivity.

What an AI power user looks like

For Intel’s purposes, we’re defining an AI power user as an agent who said that AI tools have made them “significantly” more productive.

This group is a small slice of the overall agent population — representing 29 total agents in the most recent survey — and their responses as a result should be taken with a grain of salt.

That said, a few key differences did stand out in their responses to Intel. 

Here are the five areas where the AI power user group looked most different from the broader population of agents.

For which of the following tasks, if any, do you regularly use AI tools in your business? Select all that apply.

1. Summarizing contracts or other business documents — 35% of power users, vs. 8% of all agents
2. Generating contracts or other business documents — 24% of power users, vs. 6% of all agents
3. Generating video for social media or marketing materials — 28% of power users, vs. 7% of all agents
4. Automating direct communication with clients, such as with a chatbot or other automated communication tool — 24% of power users, vs. 9% of all agents
5. Producing analysis or summaries of market data — 45% of power users, vs. 18% of all agents

Given the sensitive nature of contracts and direct communication with clients, it’s not hard to imagine why many real estate professionals have been reluctant to apply AI to these areas of their business.

But if that AI trust gap can ever be addressed — a big “if” in an industry where each transaction is this important, and this complex — these lesser-used functions could eventually provide a meaningful boost to agent productivity.

Methodology notes: This month’s Inman Intel Index survey was conducted Dec. 18, 2024-Jan. 4, 2025, and had received 553 responses. The entire Inman reader community was invited to participate, and a rotating, randomized selection of community members was prompted to participate by email. Users responded to a series of questions related to their self-identified corner of the real estate industry — including real estate agents, brokerage leaders, lenders and proptech entrepreneurs. Results reflect the opinions of the engaged Inman community, which may not always match those of the broader real estate industry. This survey is conducted monthly.

Email Daniel Houston