As technology-based as our industry can be, it’s no wonder we found a way to hop on the artificial intelligence craze. But could AI feasibly replace flesh-and-blood real estate agents? It’s a question you may want to pose to Luxora. That’s the name Las Vegas’s Luxury Realty Group gave one of its newest recruits: a fully AI real estate agent. They’re hoping Luxora will usher in a new, more convenient era for clients of the real estate industry as well as real estate agencies. But is an AI agent really what clients want?
Meet Luxora: The AI Real Estate Agent
Luxora is the first of its kind: a virtual luxury real estate agent that uses AI algorithms to narrow your home searches. Bruce Hiatt, the broker and owner of Luxury Realty Group believes other real estate agencies will be clamoring for their own AI agent. Admittedly, there’s plenty of novelty to Luxora. But the AI agent also sounds like a collection of AI technologies that have already been in use by numerous real estate agencies. Luxora simply dresses these up with an avatar and a conversational tone.
While Luxora was Hiatt’s idea, he worked closely with a tech platform to bring the virtual agent to “life.” The overview is simple enough. Homebuyers explain to Luxora what they’re looking for in a property and the AI agent produces the closest match possible. It’s like a streamlined version of a filtered database search. But Hiatt promises that Luxora condenses hours of searching down to mere seconds.
Real Estate Agencies Have Been Using AI For Years
Another of Luxora’s benefits that Hiatt spotlights: the ability to send prospective buyers on an immersive property tour, all from the comforts of their homes. However, similar virtual tour technology has been used by real estate agencies for years. It was popularized by the pandemic when agents needed socially-distanced methods of offering walkthroughs. In such instances, cutting-edge generative AI was used. This allowed the potential buyer to connect with a wireless device such as their phone to get a feel for a property.
Other common applications of AI employed by real estate agencies include algorithms for appraisals and cost estimates and smart features to monitor home stats while keeping property managers aware of any abnormalities. But if Luxora has any plans to enter the property management sector, it’s keeping that news close to the chest.
Getting Over Fears of New Technology
An AI agent may seem like a bizarre choice to that large sect of customers who prefer to engage with a human. But Hiatt points out that Luxora is not a licensed real estate agent. Therefore, home seekers and sellers will still need to work with an agent, even when taking advantage of Luxora’s benefits.
At JohnHart Real Estate, we celebrate innovation in technology. Keeping that in mind, we appreciate the spirit behind Luxora. And we also recognize that some client reticence may be a typical fear response that comes from the introduction of new technology.
Some of you may recall when cassettes threatened to overtake vinyl records in the 1980s. The inner sleeves of records were frequently emblazoned with a strange image; an amalgamation of a cassette tape and skull-and-cross-bones. The message? “Home Taping is Killing Music”. We won’t enter a debate on the health of the music scene. But we can all agree that, if music suffered any damage over the decades, it wasn’t at the spools of a blank cassette. And there are tons of examples of this throughout recent history. Change can be frightening.
A Human Industry
While we applaud the pioneering spirit of introducing AI to the real estate industry, we also align with the numerous real estate agencies that aren’t planning an AI real estate agent in the near future. Why? Well, for one, it doesn’t quite innovate enough. As we mentioned, it’s pretty much an avatar for pre-existing AI technology that real estate agencies have been using for some time.
But secondly, we believe very strongly that real estate is a human industry. We can use cutting-edge technology to give clients an upper hand with market analysis, convenient searches, greater marketing reach, and so on, but ultimately, the strength of a deal all comes down to relationships.
To be fair, Hiatt seems to agree with this. Luxury Realty Group has clarified that Luxora is an attempt to combine new technology with the human experience at the heart of a transaction. Currently, we see better use of this technology in the direct hands of an easily accessible real estate agent than liaised through an AI avatar. But there is plenty of room for differing perspectives in this massive industry.
Luxora Isn’t Coming For Your Agent’s Job
In the meantime, Las Vegas homebuyers can be among the first to test out an AI agent. We wish Luxora success, but more importantly, we wish a convenient experience for prospective homebuyers and sellers who are willing to try something new. But we don’t think human agents will need to worry about being replaced by AI anytime soon.
