How AI is changing the game for brokerages and agents

Pareja believes that AI is going to lead the industry to commoditize digital communication at scale. 

“You remember back in 1999 when we all loved email? We loved it so much that Tom Hanks made a movie about it,” Pareja said. “Well, I haven’t checked my email in three years. We launched an AI copilot that actually reads and responds to emails in my voice for me. But the output of all of this is that human experiences are going to be at a premium.” 

According to Pareja, as AI takes over more facets of our everyday lives, there’s going to be a strong desire for high-quality human interaction.

“In five years, the winner is going to be the one who creates the most amazing human experiences,” he said. “AI is going to be table stakes.”

Over at Real, CEO and founder Tamir Poleg shares a similar view. 

“We asked our agents to list all of the tasks you perform when helping buyers, and it was a list of about 250 different tasks. And when we analyzed each and every one of them, what we realized is that close to 90% of them can be done by AI,” Poleg said. 

For many, this statistic brings into question how the agent fits into the technology and AI-powered real estate transaction. But Poleg is confident there will always be a role for human agents.

“As long as it’s human beings that are buying and selling homes, human beings will be the one helping them with that process,” Poleg said. “Yes, 90% of their functions can be replaced by AI, but that means 10% can never be replaced, but that 10% is equal to 100% of what the buyer experiences.”

It’s with this in mind that Poleg is working with his team to create technology and AI tools that help Real’s agents become more efficient and enable them to better serve clients.

“The way to balance it is to normalize it in the world now, and to make sure that everything we are going to is going to work for them — and not against them — so that there is no threat to them,” Poleg said.”We are not giving them anything that can in any way jeopardize their future.” 

When planning for the future, Poleg said there are two questions that guide his decision making: Is it good for the agents? Is it good for the company? 

“From there, you have to find synergies, but since the agents have equity, most of those align,” Poleg said.

In this vein, Real has decided to pursue proprietary technology, which the firm highlighted during its first-quarter 2025 earnings call in which an AI version of Poleg delivered his prepared remarks.

“Five to 10 years in the future, the world is going to have changed dramatically,” Poleg said. “So the question is, are you going to use third-party tools to provide your agents with the tools they need to keep up, or do you create something more meaningful that really places them on a whole different level while also providing the consumer with a much better experience?” 

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