The Ten: Real estate faces an AI tipping point
Artificial intelligence is getting smarter, more powerful and more accessible to agents and executives. It’s no longer optional — but not without risks.
Editor's note: In a year of epic mergers — and industry division — a handful of people and themes have emerged as defining forces. Real Estate News has selected the top newsmakers of 2025, based on their industry impact and influence. They are The Ten.
In October 2022 — just 30 days BC (Before ChatGPT) — AI expert Ayanna Howard told real estate leaders about new Google technology that would be able to create any type of image using artificial intelligence.
Sound familiar?
That powerful generative AI tool had not yet been released because Google was taking a cautious path, working to mitigate potentially harmful or inappropriate use of the technology.
That caution opened the door for OpenAI. The company released ChatGPT on Nov. 30, 2022, and it took off like a rocket, hitting 100 million users in just two months — faster than any other app.
Real estate joined the rest of the world in the race to embrace generative AI. Companies that had already been working in the artificial intelligence space found themselves crowded with newcomers, and brokerages rushed to add AI initiatives or play up the artificial intelligence they were already leveraging.
In 2025 — barely three years since ChatGPT leapt onto the scene — AI has become unavoidable. The challenge? To look past the hype and embrace technology that can move the industry forward — while holding on to the humanity that has made real estate so resilient in the face of constant innovation.
More convincing results, but not without risk
AI-enhanced experiences have come a long way from the not-so-long-ago early days, when an agent could magically generate a listing in seconds … but might have to remove "hallucinations," like flowery descriptions of vaulted ceilings and hardwood floors that didn't actually exist.
AI-generated words, pictures and videos have become much more convincing and more nuanced. Virtual staging, for example, existed before ChatGPT, but it's now easy for both professionals and consumers to redecorate a room at the touch of a button.
The imagination that used to be required when looking at a fixer-upper, or even a polished empty space, can now be outsourced to artificial intelligence, for better or worse.
And the pace of change has been dizzying, entering a new era this year with wider accessibility to high-quality AI video tools and tech that turns listing photos into video walkthroughs — but it's a slippery slope from virtual experiences grounded in reality to the "new" roofs and "magically expanding lofts" WIRED uncovered when it declared in October that "real estate is entering its AI slop era."
Many leaders are weighing innovation vs. risk in real time, trying to balance fair housing rules, industry regulations and the integrity of listings data with the potential for greater profitability.
Adoption isn't optional anymore
It may be tempting to reject AI, but even if you never interact with a chatbot again, it may become impossible to engage in lead-gen or marketing without some flavor of artificial intelligence churning away behind the scenes.
As with the internet era that began in the late 1990s, technology has a way of bleeding into everything. Suddenly you're downloading or streaming music and getting your news from your phone instead of ink on paper — or you're living in the past.
For all of its advancements, the real estate industry has been slow to adopt new technology. A recent survey found that most agents use AI in some form, but 46% do not, and 17% don't plan to use it in the next few years.
Which means they will fall behind during a pivotal time. AI-driven changes are "moving so fast that the work you're doing in the next 90-120 days will impact the next 10 years of your career," AI expert Matt Britton told NAR NXT attendees last month.
The next big step will be toward automation, which may sound daunting or inhuman, but in reality can mean making your knowledge and even personality more accessible. It is within your reach to create, for example, custom GPTs that handle everything from nurturing leads to onboarding and training.
"You do not need to be an expert to do something great," Britton said. "You just have to figure out what are the most important problems you want to solve in your life and your career."