Brokerage leader concerns about AI rebound as the tech advances
An annual survey found that real estate leaders are now more worried about AI risks, including compliance and data security, than they were in 2025.
Key points:
- As artificial intelligence has expanded and improved, more brokerage leaders in a Delta Media survey reported being concerned about the risks of using AI in their businesses.
- Female brokerage leaders cited compliance and data privacy as top concerns, while male brokerage leaders were more focused on the cost and ROI of AI tools.
- Leaders at larger brokerages were most worried about economics, infrastructure and data risks, while those at smaller firms were most concerned about compliance issues.
As more tech executives, including Microsoft Founder Bill Gates, sound the alarm on the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence, brokerage leaders too have become more attuned to the risks associated with the use of AI in their business. With agent and brokerage adoption of AI now approaching 100%, concerns about the technology appear to be rising.
Specific concerns vary, with gender and brokerage size playing a significant role in leaders' perceptions of AI risk, according to a three-year analysis released by Delta Media Group on Wednesday.
'Worry' rebounds after declining last year
The report, which looked at data from the annual Delta Media Real Estate AI Survey, found that the average AI "worry score" — based on concerns that AI lacks guardrails to limit risk or liability — was 6.38 out of 10 among the brokerage leaders surveyed in 2026. While lower than the worry score of 6.5 in 2024, it was a marked increase from 2025, when the average score fell to 5.8.
The share of brokerage leaders who gave AI risk a "high worry" score of 8, 9 or 10 followed a similar pattern. In 2024, 42.4% of leaders gave it a high worry score; in 2025, that percentage dropped to 33.7%, then in 2026, it rose to 37.9%.
As AI advances and the scope of its capabilities expands, brokerage leaders are becoming more concerned about the technology because "the decisions are getting bigger," Delta Media Group CEO Michael Minard said in the study.
"Brokerages are moving beyond simple AI tools toward agentic AI, automation and systems that can take action," Minard noted. "As AI becomes more powerful and more autonomous, choosing the right AI partner becomes a risk-management decision, not just a technology decision."
Perceived risk varies along gender lines
The 2026 survey collected responses from roughly 100 brokerage leaders, including 64 male and 35 female respondents. Sixteen respondents led firms with 20 or fewer agents, while 67 brokers led firms with 101 or more agents.
When breaking down the top AI risk concerns by gender, male and female brokerage leaders put greater weight on different issues.
Just over 71% of female brokerage leaders said compliance with real estate regulations was a top AI-related concern, while only 39.1% of male leaders named it as a primary concern. Nearly two-thirds (65.7%) of female leaders said data privacy and security risks were a leading concern, compared to less than half (48.4%) of the men surveyed.
Male leaders, on the other hand, were more worried about the costs involved with using AI. Just over half of the men surveyed (51.6%) named cost and ROI uncertainty as a main concern with using AI, versus only 28.6% of the women.
"[Women are] much more focused on compliance and protecting data, while men are considerably more focused on cost and ROI," Minard said in the report. "That distinction matters because AI risk is not one thing, and the safeguards a brokerage needs depend on where its greatest exposure lies."
Large, small firms focused on different risks
Brokerage size also influences how leaders think about AI risks.
Leaders of firms with 101 or more agents were most concerned about data privacy and security risks (61.2% of large brokerage leaders reported this as a leading concern), followed by integration with existing systems (56.7%), cost and ROI uncertainty (52.2%), and training of agents and staff (50.7%).
Brokerage leaders overseeing 20 agents or fewer were most focused on compliance issues, with three-quarters of small firm leaders citing regulatory compliance as their leading concern. Agent and staff training around AI was a top concern for 50% of those leaders, followed by data privacy and security risks (43.8%). The outsized worry about compliance, according to the Delta report, may be due to resource limitations at smaller brokerages.
"Whether a brokerage decides to build, buy or rent its AI capabilities, leaders need to know who is handling their data, how the technology is being managed and what protections are in place," Minard said. "The cheapest or fastest option may not be the safest one."