Back in 1956, John McCarthy first coined the term Artificial Intelligence. Ever since, the technology has, gradually but surely, been developing and improving. Today, Artificial Intelligence is an essential part of technology that basically deals with the creation and development of intelligent machines that can work and react like humans. They are designed to include programming that makes them capable of speech recognition, problem solving, reasoning, perception, planning and the ability to move and manipulate objects.

We are mostly used to hearing about AI through science fiction films, but, in the recent years, it has slowly become an integral part of many different technologies. Because of the need for making decisions that is too fast, too large and too complex for humans to handle, AI is currently being developed to fill in these gaps, to make business transactions faster and flawless. Because of the enormous possibilities it has for all sorts of industries, startup funding has boomed since the year 2010. In the not-so-distant future, many industries, such as real estate, banking, healthcare and manufacturing are predicted to make mainstream use of AI technology.

Artificial Intelligence & Real Estate

In the past, real estate functioned by physically meeting clients, traveling back and forth from the office to the location of properties. Typewriters were used to prepare documents using carbon paper to make copies. Long hours were dedicated to completing investment analysis, usually by hand or calculators. It was a process that took a vast amount of time, effort, and thereby also money to complete.

Today, the technology has made conducting real estate processes a pleasure. Computers are used to prepare various documents such as leases and contracts. Preparing, modifying, making copies and sending them today takes, quite literally, a fraction of the time it took decades ago. Software tools are utilized to take exact measurements, make analysis and computations that make everything work seamlessly. By just using Google maps, we can easily look up locations and properties. In addition, real estate companies utilize knowledge management systems – such as those developed by Expert Systems, to improve business performances and large data analysis.

With AI slowly becoming part of the real estate world, many aspects of the workflow are becoming significantly more convenient. While artificial intelligence is still being developed, the industry is making use of a few tools that can make a huge difference in the future of real estate. For example, we can now use Facebook messenger to search for apartments. Partnerships with Trulia enable clients to search for units in the USA simply by entering their desired location, after which the bot provides listings that include summaries and images. CRMs, such as Boomtown, are also being utilized to match potential buyers with properties. Address Report is also being employed by consumers to conduct fast background checks on properties, learning their history and their market value possibilities.

AI’s Future in Real Estate

How does the integrated future of these two look? Well, if AI can be developed into a kind of technology that can perfectly match properties according to consumers’ lifestyle, personality traits and preferences (which is the current prediction), the real estate companies will be able to provide services of higher value, with more accurate results that are based on individual demands and needs. With the full integration with AI, real estate services are predicted to become much more efficient and effective, and to even affect the need for real estate agents.