"While much of the focus is given to the idea of AI as being revolutionary, perhaps even an uncontrollable force for good and evil, less time is perhaps dedicated to its application as an industry tool"
- Gemma Young - Moverly
New insight from Moverly reveals how estate agents and conveyancers are harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence to speed up the property transaction process by removing repetitive admin tasks and mitigating the risk of human error.
Artificial Intelligence is considered to be the most important, impactful, and perhaps consequential technological innovation since the World Wide Web. Our ability to create programmes and software that enable computers to perform tasks previously only humans could perform has evolved at an incredible speed.
AI’s current and future influence on the world is such that oceans of investment are now flowing into the sector, so much so that today, the UK AI startup market alone is valued at $256 billion. Ten years ago, in 2014, it was valued at closer to $5 billion.
AI in estate agency
Streamlining
AI gives agents the ability to radically streamline a whole host of their daily administrative duties by automating tasks such as lead generation, invoicing, and client management. Without AI, these tasks require repetitive and time-consuming human input, while AI can, for example, autofill an invoice by learning how the agent typically completes the process and replicating it with supreme accuracy, thus slashing the time it takes to complete these jobs.
Client services
Whereas an agent has previously had to personally read and respond to every inbound enquiry they receive, AI is able to automatically reply to messages in a personalised manner, learn about and understand the client’s request, and categorise it ready for action by the agent.
Example programmes: Property Jinni
Data analysis
One of the most powerful capabilities of AI today is data analysis and trend spotting. AI, through Machine Learning, can digest huge amounts of market data, identify historical trends and use this knowledge to forecast what is likely to happen in the future. This means it can, for example, help agents determine the best times to list a property, provide insight into what sort of valuation they should be offering, and even assess the risk-reward balance of certain property investments
Example programmes: ValPal
Generate property marketing materials
AI can automatically create property listings, from writing the property description to generating floor plans, enhancing photographs, and even generating virtual property tours, all in an instant.
Example programmes: ChatGPT, Bing AI, Jasper AI, Copy AI, REimagineHome, Getfloorplan, Vieweet
Ai in conveyancing
As well as all of the abilities mentioned above, AI also has additional capabilities that are particularly suited to the conveyancing process.
Issue identification
AI can predict problems before they materialise, providing an early warning that action needs to be taken before a situation gets worse. This is partially valuable for things like structural surveys.
Communication
A good conveyancer is a master of communication and AI makes it markedly easier to be so. For example, automated messaging helps to ensure that all of the various parties involved in a transaction are being chased for updates or sent reminders that tasks need completing, and when milestones are reached, further communication is automatically sent to inform everyone who needs to know.
Assisted decision making
AI can assess a situation, or analyse a property transaction and instantly alert conveyancers to any complications or idiosyncrasies that have the potential to disrupt the typical flow of the conveyancing process.
Reporting
Standardised reporting is a constant and repetitive part of a conveyancer’s workday. AI can automate all of this so that there is no need to spend hours at the computer filling out paperwork.
Gemma Young, Moverly CEO, comments: “AI is widely misunderstood due mostly to the manner in which it is discussed and reported in the media. While much of the focus is given to the idea of AI as revolutionary, perhaps even uncontrollable force for good and evil, less time is perhaps dedicated to its application as an industry tool – a utility that agents and conveyancers can harness in order to reduce much of the time-consuming and processes that eat up so much of the working day.
“Conveyancing is a particularly good example. Historically, it has been a slow, drawn-out process because of the sheer amount of admin and resources that have to be dedicated to things like sourcing information, chasing answers, and assessing risks. But with the arrival of AI, much of this is eradicated because we have software that can do it on our behalf.
“For example, gathering and presenting material information, or asking vendors to prepare legal forms upfront can be something that would demand hours of dedication and scrutiny over oft-repeated steps and processes. Artificial Intelligence now makes it possible to deliver some of this information in an instant. This means a property transaction can be more primed to lock in buyers (who also can benefit from streamlined onboarding and offer confirmation) and subsequently, professionals can handle far more transactions over any given period of time, thus generating more income.”
