The real estate industry is being reshaped from the ground up by frontier technologies such as AI and IoT. But the real substance of digital transformation (DX) is not the technology itself — it is redefining and maximizing the value that only humans can provide. This article looks at the current state of DX in real estate and the new possibilities created by the partnership between technology and people.
How far has digital transformation progressed in the real estate industry?
DX in real estate is advancing rapidly, from closing the information gap between agents and clients to AI-driven price appraisal. The role of the real estate professional is shifting from "information broker" to "value creator." That shift echoes what happened to full-service travel agents and stockbrokers in Western markets once online booking sites and discount brokerages made raw information freely available — the same broker-to-advisor transition, arriving in Japanese real estate somewhat later.
For a long time, the real estate industry held onto analog practices: in-person negotiations, paper contracts, and pricing based on experience and rule of thumb. This traditional approach carried real value, but as society digitizes rapidly, the industry is now being forced to change — a pattern familiar from many Western real estate markets, where listing portals like Zillow and Rightmove disrupted the same information monopoly agents once held years before Japan's own portals caught up.
Simply holding property information used to be valuable in itself, but today anyone can access a vast amount of listing data on the internet. As real estate portal sites have matured, information that once belonged exclusively to agencies has become widely available to the public, and the information gap has narrowed considerably.
AI-powered pricing systems have also sharply improved the accuracy of property valuations. Traditional appraisal relied heavily on past transactions and rule-of-thumb judgment, whereas today AI analyzes market data in real time and produces a refined appraisal that reflects the surrounding environment and demand trends — a capability now standard at Western automated valuation model (AVM) providers such as Zillow's "Zestimate," which Japanese platforms are only beginning to match. This shift is raising transparency across the industry while demanding new kinds of value from real estate professionals.
How is technology changing real estate work itself?
Technology is not simply a convenient tool — it has the power to transform the business model itself. Automating routine work frees people to focus on higher-value work.
INA was founded in 2020, the same year the pandemic struck. In the midst of unprecedented difficulty, we changed our thinking and moved quickly to online negotiations and virtual viewings. We actively adopted technology and services that were still uncommon at the time, such as VR property tours and remote contract procedures — pandemic-era habits that, unlike in many Western markets where remote closings and e-signatures were already legally routine before 2020, required real estate practice in Japan to catch up quickly, since paper-based, in-person contract execution (hanko seal and all) had long been the default.
The main goals of DX in the real estate industry are to raise operational efficiency and increase customer satisfaction. Digitizing tedious administrative work lets real estate professionals focus on higher-value activities. Routine tasks such as automatic contract generation by AI and initial customer contact handled by chatbots will only keep getting automated.
What kind of value can only a human provide?
In a digital age, the value that only a human can provide comes down to three things: the power to empathize, the power to create, and the power to build trust. AI can analyze data, but it cannot stand beside a customer at the moment of a life-defining decision.
AI can analyze enormous amounts of data and derive an optimal answer from past patterns. But it cannot sense a customer's unspoken hopes and anxieties, or accompany them through one of the most important decisions of their life. A "home" is not merely a physical structure — it carries emotional value in the form of dreams, hope, security, and family memory. Only a human can understand and respond to this emotional dimension, a fact that holds just as true in London or Los Angeles as it does in Tokyo, even as the specific anxieties a buyer feels — from Japan's decades-long distrust of previously-occupied "used" homes to the very different worries of a first-time Western buyer navigating a competitive bidding war — differ from one market to the next.
Over many years in the real estate industry, we have seen a great many people who work hard on the front line yet go unrecognized and unrewarded. In the construction and property management industries especially, a multi-layered structure of prime contractors and subcontractors has often made it hard to see the contribution of the people actually doing the work — a structural problem with a real Western parallel in how general contractors and layers of subcontractors can obscure who actually built something, though Japan's version of the problem is compounded by a construction industry built around long, rigid keiretsu-style subcontracting chains that are less common in the more fragmented Western construction sector. It was this sense of the problem that drove us to found INA, carrying a strong desire to build a society where people who work hard are properly rewarded.
Digital transformation is a powerful tool for realizing this philosophy. As technology raises operational efficiency, it frees up more time and effort to invest in the kind of value creation that only people can deliver.
What new value emerges when AI and humans work together?
AI and humans are not adversaries; they are partners who draw on each other's strengths. Treating technology as something that expands human capability, rather than something that replaces humans, is the key to creating new value.
An AI-based property-matching system, for example, can analyze a customer's stated preferences and behavioral history to suggest the most suitable properties. This allows the real estate professional to raise the quality of the conversation with the customer and focus on consulting built on a deeper understanding of what they actually need — the same "advisor, not order-taker" shift that Western wealth management and insurance brokerages went through once robo-advisors took over routine portfolio matching.
AI and IoT form the foundation that lets people express their creativity and empathy to the fullest.
What kind of talent does the digital era require?
The real estate professional the DX era requires needs more than knowledge of technology — they need the flexibility to adapt to change and a willingness to keep learning. Developing people who combine communication skill, empathy, and creative thinking is the key.
At INA, we put real effort into developing people who combine not just technical skill but the ability to converse with customers, empathy, and creative thinking. In an initiative aimed at both creating regional employment and improving operational efficiency, we have focused on building a platform that connects talent in regional areas with the needs of urban markets — a rural-urban talent-matching problem that, in a country as geographically compact as Japan, plays out differently than it does across the much larger distances of a market like the United States, but is a familiar challenge in any economy where opportunity concentrates in a handful of major cities.
According to one survey, 98.4% of real estate companies say the industry should be pursuing DX. But in many cases the technology is racing ahead while the training of the people who will actually use it lags behind. Technology is only ever a means; the person is always at the center. No matter how far digitization advances, the trust and warmth between people will never fade.
What future is INA aiming for in the era of real estate DX?
The future of the real estate professional is not one where DX brings the profession to an "end" — it is one where the profession is "reborn." By actively using technology and delivering service that exceeds customer expectations, the industry can evolve into an entirely new stage.
As DX raises operational efficiency and frees up time for higher-value work, it directly serves INA's founding philosophy: building a system in which effort is fairly recognized and rewarded. Technology is a powerful ally in realizing our philosophy of "pursuing the happiness of everyone involved."
Through the partnership of people and technology, let us build a real estate industry that is more transparent, more fair, and more approachable and dependable for everyone. And above all, let us not forget that the person is always at the center of this transformation. Digital transformation is not the goal in itself — it is the means of realizing a society where anyone can shine.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q. What is real estate DX?
Real estate DX (digital transformation) means using digital technologies such as AI, IoT, and VR to transform the processes and business models of real estate work. The goal is not only operational efficiency but also a better customer experience and the creation of new value.
Q. Will real estate agents become unnecessary as AI improves?
No. AI excels at data analysis and automating routine tasks, but it cannot replace the human ability to empathize with a customer's emotions and build a relationship of trust. If anything, using AI well frees people to focus on higher-value work.
Q. What is the biggest challenge in pursuing DX in real estate?
The biggest challenge is not adopting the technology itself but developing the people who will use it well. Success depends on cultivating people who combine technical knowledge with the flexibility to adapt to change and empathy toward customers.
Q. Can smaller real estate companies pursue DX too?
Yes. Even without large-scale system investment, a company can start step by step with relatively accessible tools such as online property viewings and cloud-based contract management. What matters is not the scale of the technology but a clear focus on raising customer value.
