How Consumers Are Using Ai And The Impact On The Role Of The Real Estate Agent

There is no denying that consumer usage of AI during a home sale or purchase transaction is on the rise. 

According to a study published earlier this month by Veterans United Home Loans, 53% of prospective homebuyers say they’d be comfortable buying a home without any direct human involvement. The study also found that 89% of prospective buyers would share personal financial information with an AI-powered lender tool for tailored mortgage advice. However, only just a quarter of survey respondents said they would be “very comfortable” closing a home purchase without any human involvement. 

Additionally, a Realtor.com study published in October 2025, found that 82% of consumers are using AI for real estate insights. Additionally, while 65.6% of survey respondents found getting information from real estate agents as a “positive use of time” this was closely followed by 61.9% of consumers reporting that getting information from AI was a positive use of time. 

So while consumer AI-usage is going up, it is clear that a large portion of homebuyers and sellers still want a human advisor involved in the transaction. However, brokers say this is changing the role of the human real estate agent.

“The conversation we’ve been having with our agents is how do we transition from information providers to real estate advisors because with AI and technology consumers can get all of the information, but the information is only as good as the questions you are asking,” Amy McCann, the head of agent success at The Keyes Company, said. “So, how do we take that information that the consumer was able to generate and then use judgment and local knowledge and really our experience to advise them on what makes sense.”

How consumers are using AI

Brokers said they are seeing clients use AI to do everything from find information about neighborhoods to advising them on lists or offer prices on properties. Due to this, Linda O’Koniewski, the broker-owner of Leading Edge Real Estate, said she has recently rewritten a series of letters the brokerage sends to clients over the course of their home buying or selling journey.

“We know the consumers are using AI, and we are telling them that AI is for research, not decisions or judgement as real estate is so nuanced,” she said. “The biggest thing is that they shouldn’t be outsourcing their thinking as they make the largest financial decision of their lives.”

While some agents may be frustrated or feel threatened that their clients are using AI, O’Koniewski said it is important for agents not to scold consumers for using AI. 

In addition to general research, pricing and even contract review, O’Koniewski said she and her agents have also seen consumers create repair lists for a seller based on home inspection reports. 

“Our listing agents and sellers have gotten repair lists back that are just ridiculous with things like gutter extensions and GFCI outlets and that just aggravates the sellers,” O’Koniewski said. “AI is a very poor gauge of the labor costs in most markets and it doesn’t understand local business customs and practices.” 

McCann said she and her agents in Florida have also seen these AI-generated repair lists. 

“What we’ve focused on with our agents is how to take this information and use judgement and understanding of the local marketplace to put the plan into action,” McCann said. “One of the things I tell our agents is that it’s an evolution of what we’ve been seeing. It went from information being passed from friends and family, to then the internet, to now having AI. They are checking with LLMs at every stage, and they are coming to the table armed with all this information and then asking the agents to put it into use and create the strategy for them to move forward.”

Could consumer reliance on AI impact commissions?

This increased consumer reliance and confidence in AI comes as industry experts predict that AI could drive down real estate agent commissions. “The Home Sale Transaction, Reconsidered,” published last week by Amit Kulkarni and Russ Cofano of Alloy Advisors, broke down the tasks bundled into a listing commission that have been commoditized by software and AI, finding that the remaining “human core” of the job does not scale with home price. 

Before AI, the report found that tasks like MLS entry, listing descriptions and transaction coordination had a combined market value of roughly $1,500 to $3,500 per listing, but with modern tools, the report found that their marginal cost of these services has fallen close to zero for a competent AI user, aside from $10 to $30 per deal for workflow software. As for the “human-value tasks” like skilled negotiation, emotional coaching, hyperlocal knowledge and licensed fiduciary accountability, the report estimated that costs to be roughly $2,000 to $6,500 per transaction, regardless of home price. If this cost does not scale with home prices, this, in theory, could drive down commissions for some agents. 

To O’Koniewski, this presents a great opportunity for the top agents and those willing to go the extra mile for clients to really shine. 

“The smart agents, the good agents, will always do extremely well because they don’t operate on an algorithm,” she said. “They work on high emotional intelligence, they bring amazing insight to the transaction and they protect people from themselves. People want to work with people who care.” 

McCann agrees, saying this change in consumer behavior has caused agents to “step up their game.” 

“There is so much information out there, so it is a matter of the agents coming to the table more informed and being able to translate that into what that actually means for pricing and strategy,” she said. 

Where to start

As for agents concerned about working with these AI-equipped consumers, O’Koniewski said the first thing she tells every agent to do is search the questions that buyers and sellers are most frequently asking AI so they can be aware.

“Then, make sure you are going into a listing appointment or a buyer meeting knowing the information that the LLMs can’t gain access to,” she said. “I am also encouraging my agents to go into and LLM in incognito mode in their browser and ask the AI what a fair price is on a property so they can go into a listing appointment and show the client that they asked AI too and then they can see the discrepancies in answers and have a conversation about how the AI lacks local context.” 

Here’s a strong ending that brings it back to the agent’s value without sounding defensive:

For brokers, the shift is less about competing with AI and more about helping agents understand where it stops.

Consumers may arrive with more information than ever, but that doesn’t mean they have the context, judgment or strategy to use it well. AI can summarize an inspection report, suggest a list price or explain contract language, but it can’t read the room during a negotiation, understand the seller’s motivation or know which repair requests are customary in a specific market.

That is where brokers say agents have to make the turn from being the source of information to being the interpreter of it.

AI may be changing the questions consumers bring to the table. But for agents who can provide judgment, local expertise and a steady hand through an emotional transaction, the answer may still be very human.