Why AI will never grasp the tone of a nervous Irish house buyer
Throughout this year, we were consistently fed information about improved AI capabilities and the positive benefits it could bring to all of our lives.Article headlines in this very paper such as “Greater use of AI by workers will reduce stress ”, “Ireland stands at a pivotal moment in the ongoing digital and AI transformation”, or “AI will soon know more about us than we know ourselves” certainly made me take stock of this coming wave.It focused my mind on my career as an estate agent and how AI might replace me.Understandably apprehensive of the long-term impact AI might have on the auctioneering industry, I thought back over my years’ of experience with the sales process to see where it might be beneficial to both my clients and I.I considered our sales this year, which spanned a wide range of property types from two-bedroom apartments in the early €200,000’s to detached homes above €2m. I was lucky to have encountered such a wide profile of vendors and purchasers, each with their own individual human stories, and no two the same.While I am not an AI crusader, I do think it is important to highlight here that I am aware and constantly experience its benefits in my own life.If tasks can be completed cheaper, better and to a higher standard as a result I am all for it.However, when it starts to encroach on one’s profession, it becomes harder to commend its merits specifically, when in my view, finding the right home for the right person is such a rewarding profession.AI tools are already assisting us with tasks like listing creation and appointment scheduling, which I can already see benefiting the daily tasks of auctioneers.I myself am excited to work with any tools available that will make my job easier and allow me to spend more time meeting people and showing houses.Anyone who has bought or sold a house on the Irish market this year, regardless of age, will know that it is a highly emotive process. Often one side of the transaction might be experiencing sadness at the thought of moving on from their home, whereas the other side are in a state of euphoria from finally clawing their way up on to the thinnest of rungs of the property ladder.No two clients are the same, no two transactions are the same, and the challenges that come with one sale do not necessarily repeat. AI is known to work on pattern recognition, using innumerable data points to produce the right answer. However, I do question whether the problems I encounter on a daily basis when negotiating with clients are the types that are solved with data.Will AI ever have the capabilities to grasp the tone of a vendors or purchasers voice just before they pull out of a sale?Will it ever know whether the best time to contact either of these parties with bad news with regard to the sale is on a Friday evening, or to wait until Monday?The one common trait to all transactions is that it relies heavily on trust. On the vendors’ part, they place their trust in the agent to deliver the transaction to their satisfaction.And from the purchasers prospective, they have to trust that the agent will have their best interests at the forefront of their mind. Both are mutually interdependent. Vendors and purchasers who may look to circumvent the agent process and go straight to an AI sales platform can do all of the necessary research as to the obstacles that can come their way during a transaction, but it is another thing altogether trying to fix them at the 11th hour.The bidding process and getting to that Sale Agreed status is the easier part of the transaction. It is only after that point that so many other elements and other professional inputs are introduced to the process. The human, hands-on approach of dealing with all of the different individuals and finding solutions to the myriad of obstacles that need to be navigated in a property sale is not something that, in my view, AI can co-ordinate as successfully.A recent report released by BOI/MyHome suggests that the average Irish home sells just once every 50 years.This implies people are likely to buy a house maybe twice in their lifetime, if they are lucky. Do vendors and buyers really want to be interacting with an AI interface for what will be one of the most infrequent and important transactions of their life? Research shows that when making large purchases people prefer to interact with a person. When the purchase involves a large sum, long-term consequences and emotional weight, people want qualities such as reassurance, expertise, and accountability from another person, not just a system.It is one thing getting an Amazon package delivered to your door, picking up the keys of your new house from a lock box might take some of the magic away from the purchase.Without the required knowledge base on these large language models, interacting with an AI chatbot feels to me like a magic 8 ball. In I throw my questions and out pops an answer. Often right, always matter of fact.This is fine when I wish to find a Christmas pudding recipe. But when I, as a vendor, want to question why the bidders have stopped bidding, the answer might need some more finesse than “generating……!!!!!!!.”.When AI is the middle man, it will be more black and white. The profile of our vendors and purchasers is very varied from those who rely on AI for everything to those who are less comfortable with these platforms. However, I find that most want the personal interaction and assurance we as professional estate agents can give them and, in my view, that human connection and relationship will always win out.I cannot help but wonder what AI tool can be designed for a situation where the purchaser just changes their mind. After weeks or sometimes months of dealing with the process a prospective purchaser might decide to walk away with no reason and no explanation given. The way our property market functions allows them to do this with no financial consequence or no accountability.How will AI determine how to pick up the pieces and patch the sale back together with another buyer? What way will it deal with the opaque situation where a boundary and title map are slightly off but it is how it has always been and reflects exactly how it is physically displayed on the ground? Given the amount of clients we now meet who wish to sell their houses via a private sale one has to wonder in what way AI can enhance this. These are all conducted through human connections with a distinct lack of information to run a formulaic process.Where is the “transparency” in the system in its current form I hear you shout into your paper! The industry is marred by accusations of ghost bidders and auctioneers only out to keep prices up. All of us working within this field are accountable and regulated by the PSRA who issue us with our licence to practice. This requires years of study and on the job training. A transparent process is beneficial to all, however if it is transparency you are after I fear AI is not the solution. Algorithms which can be tweaked at the behest of politically motivated tech moguls are not in my opinion transparent.In 2024 there were 61,000 residential property market transactions in Ireland. This is equivalent to 2.8% of the housing market stock given the 2,178,571 residential properties in the Republic. If these were all completed through an AI platform there would be much better information available on all houses in the country. This is something that would be invaluable to individuals, professionals and government alike. We do not currently have a comprehensive dataset of residential properties.I appreciate that we have the Property Price Register since 2010 however the information it contains is minimal and lags behind real time market activity and has a disparity between how new and second hand prices are analysed. By using an AI interface for each sale we could much improve the data collection process which would bring huge benefits to policy makers and planners alike. Also with this improved information we should find that pricing and market analysis will become far more accurate. This should hopefully remove buyer’s remorse and set concrete expectations for vendors. We are all apprehensive of change but I believe we need to embrace AI for the positive impacts it will bring us all.Trish Stokes heads up Cork City-basedPatricia Stokes Auctioneers and Valuers
