How the real estate industry has changed in today’s age of AI

I was talking with Frank Roche the other day, and the conversation turned, as it often does, to how much the business has changed. Frank started in real estate back in 1976. He was telling me about the days when the Multiple Listing Service was very primitive and involved listing sheets that were mailed out to the agents on a weekly basis and then stacked in individual binders. When a serious buyer from out of town basically had to take your word for what a place was like until they got there. Finding a payphone and digging a dime out from under the front seat just to find that the phone is out of service. It was a different world. Information was scarce, and buyers relied heavily on agents to provide that information.

That scarcity shaped everything. If you wanted to know what was for sale, you went to an office or called an agent. Long-distance moves were even harder. Researching a new area meant letters, phone calls, or an actual trip. Most people didn’t move far unless a job forced the issue.

Brokerages built their businesses on local knowledge and relationships because that was the only practical way most buyers and sellers could get reliable information.

The internet started to change that in the mid-1990s. Sites like Realtor.com put listings online but it was a closed system just for NAR members. Clients still had to meet with an agent to get the information. Email made it easier to send information without waiting for the mail. You could sit at a desktop computer and look at homes in another state. It was still limited — slow connections, thin photos, not much neighborhood context — but it was a real shift. In 1996 it was opened to the public and companies responded by competing for web traffic and learning how to generate leads online instead of relying solely on walk-ins and referrals. The old gatekeeper role didn’t disappear, but it started to shrink.

In the late 2000s, smartphones arrived, and the pace picked up. Suddenly the same listing data was in everyone’s pocket. High-quality photos, maps, street view, and virtual tours became normal. Portals like Zillow and Redfin turned home searches into something you could do at any hour. Social media added another layer. Facebook groups, Instagram, and YouTube let people see neighborhoods, follow local agents, and watch short videos of properties or market updates. For someone considering a move, especially a longer-distance or lifestyle move, the friction dropped. You could get a feel for a place — schools, outdoor life, the general character of a community — before you booked a flight or even picked up the phone. Younger buyers in particular grew up with that expectation. Research that once required personal networks or multiple scouting trips became something you could start on your own.

Agents and brokerages adjusted again. Photography and video mattered more. Consistent online presence and content became part of the job. Social media ranked among the top sources of quality leads in industry surveys because it kept agents visible and gave consumers a way to evaluate people as well as properties. The business model moved further toward being easy to find and useful before the first conversation.

Now we’re in the AI era. Recent surveys show how quickly people have gotten comfortable with it. A 2025 Realtor.com study found that 82% of people interested in buying or selling were using AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini for real estate insights, and most said it made them smarter about the market — ranking it just behind talking with an agent. Zillow’s 2026 consumer research showed roughly six in 10 buyers had used AI at some point in their search, often for listing recommendations, market overviews, or simply understanding the process. Agents report clients showing up with AI-generated notes on neighborhoods, schools, or comps.

Remote and hybrid work has amplified the effect. People can research places more thoroughly while still living somewhere else, which has kept interest steady in areas like the Lakes Region from buyers who aren’t making a traditional job-driven move. The technology makes the early research easier. What it still doesn’t capture well is the local detail — how a particular shoreland rule actually applies, what a septic evaluation will turn up on a given lot, which micro-markets are holding value, or how a zoning change is likely to play out. Those are the places where general answers fall short.

For buyers and sellers, these tools have made the early stages of research faster and clearer. Questions that once required phone calls, office visits, or waiting on an agent — basic market trends, neighborhood comparisons, process steps, or even rough affordability — can now be explored on your own schedule. AI and the platforms that came before it can find and explain information that used to be scattered or hard to interpret, so more people arrive better prepared and with a clearer sense of what they’re looking for. That efficiency saves time and reduces some of the uncertainty that used to come with starting a search.

A real estate agent remains essential for the parts that still require local knowledge and judgment. General tools can outline the big picture, but they don’t replace someone who knows what questions to ask in the first place. Most of us don’t know what we don’t know — whether it’s a local zoning nuance, a septic issue that isn’t obvious online, an electrical issue, a leaky roof, or how a particular market is actually behaving. An experienced real estate professional helps fill those gaps, verify the details that matter for a specific property, and guide the decisions that come with real money and real timelines. The difference is that buyers and sellers can now handle more of the background research themselves, which often makes the conversations with an agent more focused and productive from the start.

Frank’s 1976 starting point makes the contrast sharp. The tools are different, and buyers arrive with more background than they used to. But the work of understanding a particular property and a particular market is still local. The technology gets people further down the road on their own. The judgment about what actually fits still tends to happen in conversation with someone who knows the ground.

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This article was written by Randy Miller, a Realtor at Roche Realty Group in Meredith, and can be reached at 603-279-7046. Visit rocherealty.com to learn more about the Lakes Region and its real estate market.