E
ric Chesin, chief strategy officer for Anywhere Real Estate, believes the industry is at a pivotal moment due to the ongoing revolution in artificial intelligence. "It's forced us to transform our business," he said, highlighting how AI has enabled them to not only change their operations but also improve customer service.

    Anywhere has recently launched two AI integrations: one with Amazon Q, an AI agent that assists call center conversations by providing language suggestions and answering customer questions; the other is a Google tool that creates educational podcasts for agents using the company's vast library of content. These initiatives demonstrate Anywhere's top-down approach to AI integration.

    However, Chesin also emphasized the importance of a bottom-up approach, leveraging the creativity and innovation of 300,000 real estate agents across the globe. Agents are encouraged to experiment with AI personally and professionally, and Anywhere is showcasing innovative uses through contests like Coldwell Banker's current challenge among its agents.

    By meeting agents where they are with AI tools, Chesin said adoption becomes less of an issue. For example, Anywhere partnered with Canva, a tool many agents already use, to lower costs and direct useful real estate use cases for the product.

    Anywhere has also taken a similar approach with proprietary AI applications, integrating them into products agents already use. One such example is Listing Concierge, which has seen significant adoption and was enhanced with AI-powered features like automated listing descriptions and photo sorting.

    Chesin also highlighted an agent performance predictor tool built in 2018, which has been integrated into brokers' CRM systems, resulting in strong adoption and "massive results." The company is now incorporating AI into this tool to further improve its effectiveness.

    While these applications are eye-catching, Chesin noted that Anywhere has seen the most tangible business impact in less glamorous areas like document intake and processing. AI has reduced manual oversight by 50% and will reach 90% by year-end. Additionally, AI is being used to better integrate Anywhere's different business units, including title.

    As the housing industry looks to the future, Chesin emphasized that AI is not a future development but rather the present reality. "For every company waiting to see how it evolves, we're all at risk of falling behind," he said, urging companies to leverage AI tools now to stay ahead.