Two in three estate agents now use AI to write the advert for YOUR home, but just one in 25 use it to actually get the sale over the line

Two in three estate agents now use AI to write the advert for YOUR home, but just one in 25 use it to actually get the sale over the line

• 69% of estate agents now use AI regularly, but 85% use it for the same four jobs: property blurbs, emails, admin and social media posts
• Only 4% use it for the bit that matters most to sellers, chasing the sale from accepted offer to completion
• A fifth of agents have moved on and are getting FIVE HOURS a week back, almost four times what the rest are saving

The estate agent selling your home has almost certainly had help from a chatbot.

Two thirds (67%) of agents now use AI to write property descriptions, according to a survey of 250 estate and letting agents by Alto, the CRM used by more than a third of estate agents nationwide.

Nearly seven in ten (69%) use it regularly or every day.

But 85% use it for four jobs or fewer, and they're the same four everywhere: writing property descriptions (67%), emails (53%), admin (37%) and marketing and social media (35%).

Beyond those four jobs, use falls off a cliff.

Just one in ten agents use AI to prepare a valuation. One in 20 use it for anti-money laundering and compliance checks.

And only 4%, one agent in 25, use it for sales progression, the months of chasing solicitors, surveys and mortgage offers between an offer being accepted and the keys changing hands. That's the stage where sales fall through.

So AI is being used to make the advert sound better, and almost never to get the sale done.

However, the most advanced 20% do use AI right across the business: answering enquiries out of hours, spotting homeowners about to sell, keeping compliance paperwork in order and tracking how the agency is performing.

Each of them gets around five hours a week back, almost four times what agents using it for writing alone are saving.

Agents aren't blind to the risks of AI. Three quarters (76%) worry AI will cost them the personal touch with clients, and 64% worry about it making mistakes.

Even so, half expect to spend more on AI in the next 12 months.

Riccardo Iannucci-Dawson, CEO of Alto, said: "Most estate agents have discovered AI the same way the rest of us did; tidying up emails and marketing copy. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's the same tool doing the same job for every agent on the high street, so nobody gets ahead with it, and it's not going to help you sell your home faster.

"The fifth who are pulling away have pointed it at the bits that actually decide whether your sale goes through: answering enquiries at 9:00pm, chasing solicitors, keeping the paperwork and compliance in order.

"If you're choosing an agent, that's worth asking about. Not 'do you use AI', because they all do, but 'what do you actually use it for'."

ENDS