The real estate industry is in the middle of a major turning point. Artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and big data are advancing rapidly, and long-standing conventions and practices are being rewritten one after another. For those of us who work in real estate brokerage, the question is not whether this change is coming, but how we choose to understand it and put it to use.
I have always tried to place "people" and "trust" at the center of how I run my business, and I have put a great deal of effort into building trust with every client, one relationship at a time. But the pace of technological change is now reshaping the very nature of what our work looks like. I do not see this wave of change as something to fear. I see it as a rare opportunity to renew the entire industry and to offer a genuinely better level of service.
In this piece, I want to think through what real estate brokerage should look like in the age of AI, drawing on where the industry stands today and where I believe it is headed.
Where Real Estate Technology Stands Today
"PropTech" — real estate technology — refers to a new wave of efforts that use AI, IoT, big data, and other cutting-edge tools to solve problems and improve efficiency across the real estate industry. Japan's real estate sector has long run on largely analog processes, but in recent years the pace of digitization has been picking up fast.
The advance of generative AI in particular has begun to change how the industry handles data analysis, customer interaction, and property introductions, among many other areas. Forecasts suggest that over the next five to ten years, generative AI will automate and upgrade a large share of the processes across the real estate industry, with the value it creates estimated at somewhere between $110 billion and $180 billion.
Concrete examples of how this is already playing out include the following.
1. Property Matching and Recommendation Systems
AI can instantly cross-reference an enormous inventory of listings against a client's requirements and surface the properties that fit best. With the latest AI matching systems, a client only has to answer a handful of questions about budget and preferences, and a personalized shortlist of properties is generated automatically.
2. Price Assessment and Market Analysis
AI-driven price prediction models learn from historical transaction data and information about the surrounding area to deliver highly precise valuations. Some rent-prediction systems have achieved error rates as low as 4.98%, and this kind of precision is doing a great deal to improve both the transparency and the accuracy of how prices are set across the industry.
3. Virtual Viewing Technology
Property-viewing services built on virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) now let prospective tenants tour a unit regardless of time or location. This reduces the number of in-person visits a prospective tenant needs to make, since a virtual room tour lets them examine every corner of a property from wherever they are.
4. Automated Customer Service
The introduction of AI chatbots means client inquiries can now be handled around the clock, every day of the year. From answering simple questions to supplying property details, automated responses have made it possible to raise customer satisfaction and improve operational efficiency at the same time.
The Role Real Estate Brokers Need to Play in the Age of AI
As this technology keeps advancing, the shape of real estate brokerage work is changing fast. But technology on its own cannot fully substitute for judgment rooted in human sensibility and experience. If anything, I believe that when AI and people each lean into what they do best and work together, we can deliver a kind of value that was never possible before.
Where Technology and Human Ability Come Together
AI is extraordinarily good at processing and analyzing huge volumes of data, and at making things more efficient. But the "feel" of a property, the sense of what it is like to actually live somewhere, and the emotional support people need when making one of the biggest decisions of their lives — these are things only a human being can provide.
Compass, the American real estate technology company, is a good example: it built its own proprietary AI platform, but pairs data analysis with human expertise to shape the client experience. Alongside AI-driven market analysis and property recommendations, its agents take on the job of caring for clients emotionally and offering advice that carries real value.
At INA&Associates, we are eager to adopt the latest technology, but nothing matters more to us than direct conversation with our clients and the trust we build with them. AI, in our view, is a tool — nothing more — and it should be a human being who makes the final judgment call and delivers the real value.
The New Role of the Real Estate Professional
What role should real estate brokers play in the age of AI? I believe the following points will matter most.
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Interpreter and translator of data
Brokers will need the ability to translate the vast amounts of data and analysis AI produces into insights that actually mean something to a client. Numbers alone rarely convey the full value or possibility of a property — communicating that, as a professional, is essential. -
Providing emotional support
Searching for a home or making a real estate investment is one of the major decisions of a person's life. Beyond numerical rationality, only a human being can offer the psychological reassurance and sense of hope about the future that clients need. -
Serving as an ethical check
AI algorithms can carry hidden bias. Humans are needed to monitor and adjust AI's suggestions from the standpoint of fairness and ethics. -
Creative problem solver
When a situation falls outside the standard case — an unusual condition or a complicated request — it is the experience and flexibility of a human being that makes a creative solution possible.
The Future Business Model for Real Estate Brokerage
So what will real estate brokerage look like in a future where AI and humans work side by side? Here is how I picture the business model to come.
1. The Hybrid Service Model
I expect the dominant model to be a hybrid one, combining basic information and property matching delivered by AI with high-value consulting delivered by people. Clients will be able to explore listings on an AI system at their own pace, while turning to a professional's advice at the moments when a decision really matters.
2. Data-Driven Yet Human-Centered Value
Final value delivery will increasingly be built on a human-centered approach that draws on the enormous datasets AI collects and analyzes. For instance, brokers will be able to take data on a property's projected future value or expected changes in the surrounding area, and use it as the basis for personalized advice tailored to a client's life plans and values.
3. Building a Community-Based Ecosystem
Beyond individual transactions, momentum is building to use AI to connect the full range of services tied to housing and daily life into one integrated ecosystem. Mortgages, moving, renovation, energy management, community building — the world we are heading toward is one where every service connected to where and how people live works together seamlessly.
Amid this shift, real estate brokers need to evolve from being simple "introducers of properties" into becoming "total coordinators of daily life."
INA&Associates' Initiatives and Outlook
At INA&Associates, our goal is to become the world's number-one company for investing in people, and we are working to create new value by bringing technology and human capability together.
Developing People and Teaching Technology
We are also investing heavily in developing the next generation of real estate professionals — people who can keep pace with advances in AI and technology. Cultivating talent that combines strong data-analysis skills with genuine human empathy is, in our view, the real source of competitive advantage in the age of AI.
Raising Transparency and Trust
Trust is the single most important thing in any real estate transaction, and to build it we are working on AI-driven pricing systems that are highly transparent, as well as on making the transaction process itself easier to see into. Our goal is to resolve the information asymmetry and opacity that have long characterized the real estate industry, and to build an environment where our clients can transact with real peace of mind.
In Closing: The Spirit the Age of AI Demands
Technology keeps advancing day by day, but the essence of real estate brokerage remains what it has always been: connecting people to people, and helping them find the home that fits. There is a part of this work that stays constant even in the age of AI, and a part that keeps changing alongside technology, and striking the right balance between the two matters a great deal.
AI and technology, in the end, are tools that extend what human beings are capable of; it is people who ultimately create the value. Holding on to "people" and "trust" while making the most of what technology can offer — that, I believe, is the path real estate brokerage should follow in the age of AI.
At INA&Associates, we intend to keep being a partner that brings real value to each client's life, and to keep pursuing a new shape for real estate brokerage built on the fusion of technology and human capability. As people involved in a decision as important as where someone calls home, we carry that responsibility with pride, and we want to help open up the future of real estate brokerage in the age of AI.
