Artificial Intelligence (AI) is very quickly becoming part of everyday life. Whether looking for quick answers to your questions or help with complex tasks, AI is often the first place we turn to and is now integrated with our daily routines.
AI is revolutionising how we interact with technology, reshaping many industries and changing how we live and work. As of February 2024, 60% of agents said they believed the lettings industry should use technology more to improve the customer experience. So, how can AI play a part in this?
Online viewings and VR tours
Scheduling viewings can often be tricky and time-consuming when your energy could be spent on much higher-value activities. AI can take all of that away by automating such repetitive tasks as these.
Online viewings became more popular during and following the pandemic. As a result, much more importance is placed on AI. It has the capacity to scan the property to create a 3D model and the technology can create virtual tours of properties, allowing the user to "walk through" it from the comfort of their own home. It also allows the tenant to measure each room virtually against their own furniture to establish if it would be a good fit. These tours will save time and money for you and the user, therefore increasing efficiency within your agency.
Matterport and Boundless are examples of AI solutions that allow customers to experience property viewings on their own terms, combining 2D and 3D images to create immersive tours.
Content creation and property descriptions
Good property descriptions communicate to a potential tenant the features of a home and the various benefits it offers. However, if you have a large number of properties in your portfolio, writing expert descriptions can be arduous.
AI processing tools such as ChatGPT and Google's Gemini can more than halve the time it usually takes to write a description. ChatGPT has around 180.5 million users, as of May 2024, including letting agents. All you need to do is provide basic information, such as location, demographics, a command to write in a particular style, etc. This will tailor the result and help promote your properties.
Automating the process ensures all listings have accurate and informative descriptions promptly. However, editing before you publish is vital to guarantee the information provided is accurate and in the right tone of voice.
Tenant screening and ID checks
Letting agents are required by law to check the ID of all tenants looking to rent. Manually, this process can be demanding, but with the help of AI, it can be quick and painless. AI can check the ID for authenticity and look for signs of forgery using:
- document image analysis, which recognises the text and graphics components in images to extract information as a human would
- optical character recognition, which converts an image of text into a text format to make it easily readable to a machine
Facial recognition and liveness detection could also be used to prevent fraudulent use of photos during ID checks. Suppose a human is not detected in a photo, for example. In that case, the AI pinpoints clues such as extra fingers or nonsensical background objects; it can flag these suspicious IDs for further scrutiny by the letting agent.
Chatbots
Being able to ask simple questions directly to the letting agent without needing a phone call can benefit both parties. AI-powered chatbots help answer questions from potential tenants at any time of the day, including out-of-hours, without the need for human input.
A chatbot secures valuable leads that could have otherwise been lost due to poor response time or lack of information on the website. Its immediacy is indispensable and clears clutter from your inbox as tenants have their straightforward questions answered.
If you want to know more about how useful chatbots are, we assessed them on our blog Chatbots: Are they worth investing in your lettings website?
Property matching
Rather than tenants trawling through hundreds of properties to find ones suited to their tastes, AI algorithms can match potential buyers with properties based on their preferences.
To tenants, it will feel as though the platform has anticipated their needs before they have managed to express them, which makes for a speedier experience. AI does this by analysing tenant profiles and accounting for the person's past likes and dislikes, generating a more ideal selection of homes. Property hunting time would be severely reduced for the tenant and lead generation would be enhanced for the letting agent.
Your workflow could be significantly improved as AI would help you avoid being bogged down with smaller, more time-consuming tasks. ApartmentList, based in the US, uses AI to automate this exchange.
Final thoughts
AI can streamline the process for both tenants and letting agencies, reducing the number of tasks letting agents take on and therefore improving efficiency. This saves time and money in the long run.
Read Arthur's piece on Four ways automation can transform property management for further tips on automation.
*Disclaimer: this blog is only intended as a guide, and should not be taken as legal advice*
