JONATHAN ROLANDE: Five things to remember when using AI in the property sector


Everyone seems to be talking about artificial intelligence (AI) right now.

It is an issue which has been bubbling under since Covid - but AI is now a full on obsession in the Press - and in more and more parts of society. 

According to some, pretty soon, there’s nothing it won’t be able to do. 

Robots will replace doctors, and put Hollywood directors out of business. 

They will fly planes, and then be waiting for you at immigration to stamp your passport. 

Then, when you get home, they’ll have even put the bins out and made sure you have a fresh pint of milk in the fridge. 

And, day-by-day, the use of AI is becoming more and more routine across the property sector. 

But something worries me. 

Why? 

Well here’s an extract of an email I received from a letting agent just last week, trying to entice me to sell a property with them rather than face the changes to letting regulations that may soon arrive. 

It said:  “The imminent changes might usher in a unified system of periodic tenancies, liberating tenants from subpar living conditions without lingering financial obligations or facilitating smoother transitions during life-altering circumstances.”

More worryingly, the person who sent it - I won’t mention their name - clearly didn’t see a problem with this AI generated nonsense.

It’s nonsense because we just don’t talk like that. And if someone can’t be bothered to check what’s created, or worse still, think that such convoluted language is acceptable, frankly I wouldn’t entrust them with a property.

But, equally, we’d be doing our industry and our clients a disservice to suggest AI can’t help improve the way we work and the services we offer.

Winners will use AI to outsource the unskilled tasks we all do and will then spend their time building real-life relationships with their customers.

And in my opinion there are five key things to remember especially when using AI to help with listings:

Be broad:   Never forget that AI is only a tool and it is generating outputs based on your inputs. You’ll get out what you put in AI is designed to provide outputs that it has calculated to match so be as broad as possible when you ask for that robot’s support.

It’s not foolproof

AI makes mistakes, so your job is to carefully review and verify the accuracy of the information and the way it has presented the property. You’d be a fool to just go live with information generated by AI. 

Choose the right AI tools for the job.

There’s a myriad of AI platforms out there - and it is vital to have the right model for the problem at hand. 

Consider factors such as the amount and quality of data available, the level of human supervision required, and the type of insights required.

Check the legal: Ensure that any AI systems you use always comply with legal and regulatory requirements, this includes data protection and privacy laws. 

Secure yourself: Invest in cybersecurity measures. Protecting AI systems from potential threats, such as hacking and data breaches is absolutely vital especially in an age where attacks are soaring .

There’s no playbook to successfully integrating AI into the work you do. You will make mistakes along the way. But as long as you don’t entrust everything to R2D2, and remember that the future is in your hands, then you can make use it as a positive force for good.

https://jonathanrolande.co.uk