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AI in Real Estate Statistics 2026

Last updated Oct 31, 2026 · 40 statistics from 10 sources

Key AI in real estate statistics for 2026: how many realtors use AI and how agents, home buyers and brokerages are using it, with every number linked to the survey or report it comes from. Most figures are from 2025–2026; older data is labeled.

Key takeaways: how many realtors use AI and how

How many realtors use AI? Nearly half of REALTORS® use AI daily (23%) or weekly (25%), and only 12% have no plans to use it.
Listing descriptions are the top use (75% of AI users), and ChatGPT is the most-used tool.
The clearest payoff is time: 68% of agents in one survey save at least an hour a week. Only 4% get more appointments.
Accuracy is the top worry (63%), and 41% of agents have caught an AI error before it reached a client.
82% of home buyers use AI, but buyers still choose agents for local expertise and skills.

Jump to: AI adoption among agents · What agents use AI for and which tools · Time and cost savings · Listing media, staging and tours · CRM, leads and client communication · Consumer attitudes · Concerns, accuracy and compliance · The wider real estate industry

AI adoption among agents

23% of REALTORS® use AI daily and another 25% use it weekly. (NAR, 2026 REALTORS® Technology Report (Sep 22, 2026))
Just 12% of agents say they are not using AI and do not plan to, down from the 32% who had not yet tried AI in 2025. (NAR, 2026 REALTORS® Technology Report (Sep 22, 2026))
41% of agents use AI-generated content tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot or Gemini. (NAR, 2026 REALTORS® Technology Report (Sep 22, 2026))
82% of agents in RPR’s survey of 225 NAR members have integrated AI tools into their business; 8% say they don’t use it and never plan to. (RPR (an NAR subsidiary) agent AI survey, via HousingWire (Feb 18, 2026))
Of agents who use AI, 68% use it daily or several times a week. (RPR (an NAR subsidiary) agent AI survey, via HousingWire (Feb 18, 2026))

What this means for agents: AI use is now the norm, but heavy daily use is still a minority. Most agents are somewhere between experimenting and weekly use, so a simple, reliable workflow beats a big tool stack.

What agents use AI for and which tools

Writing listing descriptions is the top AI use, cited by 75% of agents who use AI. (NAR, 2026 REALTORS® Technology Report (Sep 22, 2026))
56% of AI-using agents use it for social media posts and 52% for emails and follow-up. (NAR, 2026 REALTORS® Technology Report (Sep 22, 2026))
In 2025, the most-used AI tools were ChatGPT (58%), Google Gemini (20%) and Microsoft Copilot (15%). (NAR, 2025 Technology Survey (Sep 18, 2025))
Writing tools are the most popular type of AI tool among agents (77.93%), followed by chatbots or AI assistants (47.03%). (RPR (an NAR subsidiary) agent AI survey, via HousingWire (Feb 18, 2026))
62% of agent respondents pay for a general-purpose AI assistant such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. (Inman Intel Index, Sep 2026 survey sponsored by Lofty (Oct 19, 2026))
14% of agents pay for a real-estate-specific AI tool, and 6 in 7 of them also pay for a general assistant. (Inman Intel Index, Sep 2026 survey sponsored by Lofty (Oct 19, 2026))

What this means for agents: General assistants come first. A real-estate-specific tool has to earn its place by doing something ChatGPT can’t, like MLS-aware listing copy, staging or CRM follow-up.

Time and cost savings

81% of agents say saving time is their primary reason for adopting new technology, up from 66% a year earlier. (NAR, 2026 REALTORS® Technology Report (Sep 22, 2026))
68% of agents say AI saves them at least one hour per week, and 34% say it saves more than four hours a week. (RPR (an NAR subsidiary) agent AI survey, via HousingWire (Feb 18, 2026))
52% of agents say AI has made their content better or more consistent; 33% spend less time on administrative tasks. (Inman Intel Index, Sep 2026 survey sponsored by Lofty (Oct 19, 2026))
Only 4% of agents say they get more appointments because of AI. (Inman Intel Index, Sep 2026 survey sponsored by Lofty (Oct 19, 2026))
Among agents who pay for business help, 18% reduced costs for marketing or content help thanks to AI. (Inman Intel Index, Sep 2026 survey sponsored by Lofty (Oct 19, 2026))
36% of agents spend $50–$250 a month on technology, and 22% spend more than $500. (NAR, 2026 REALTORS® Technology Report (Sep 22, 2026))
63% of agents call the learning curve their biggest technology-adoption challenge, and 59% point to cost. (NAR, 2026 REALTORS® Technology Report (Sep 22, 2026))

What this means for agents: The proven payoff is time, not leads. Price a tool against the hours it saves you, and watch for overlap: our stack cost calculator adds up what you already pay.

Listing media, staging and tours

29% of agents said staging their sellers’ homes led to a 1% to 10% increase in the dollar value offered. (NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging (May 6, 2025))
49% of sellers’ agents observed that home staging reduced time on market. (NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging (May 6, 2025))
34% of sellers’ agents considered virtual staging less important to their clients than other listing media, while 24% felt it was equally important. (NAR, 2025 Profile of Home Staging (May 6, 2025))
82% of buyers are more likely to view a home if the listing includes a floor plan they like. (Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report 2026: Buyers (Oct 14, 2026))
69% of buyers say 3D tours give a better feel for the space than static photos, and 63% wish more listings had them. (Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report 2026: Buyers (Oct 14, 2026))

What this means for agents: Photos, floor plans and tours carry the listing. Virtual staging is a cheaper complement to physical staging, not a replacement, and altered photos should always be disclosed.

CRM, leads and client communication

46% of agents use a CRM. (NAR, 2026 REALTORS® Technology Report (Sep 22, 2026))
Text messaging is the preferred way to communicate with an agent for 43% of buyers who hired one; phone calls for 31%. (Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report 2026: Buyers (Oct 14, 2026))
38% of leaders at brokerages that buy AI tools say connecting to existing systems (CRM, transaction software, MLS) is the single most important factor. (Inman Intel Index, Sep 2026 survey sponsored by Lofty (Oct 19, 2026))

What this means for agents: Fewer than half of agents run a CRM, while buyers expect fast text replies. A CRM with AI-assisted text follow-up closes that gap.

Consumer attitudes

82% of home buyers use AI in general, and 61% of those used it while buying a home. (Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report 2026: Buyers (Oct 14, 2026))
Buyers who used AI while shopping used it to learn about the process (74%), get market insights (71%) and get home recommendations (70%). (Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report 2026: Buyers (Oct 14, 2026))
24% of buyers know their agent used AI tools, 24% believe they did, and 52% saw no evidence. (Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report 2026: Buyers (Oct 14, 2026))
7% of buyers chose their agent mainly for a technological edge; local expertise (38%) and specialized skills (33%) led. (Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report 2026: Buyers (Oct 14, 2026))
82% of Americans surveyed use AI for real estate insights; ChatGPT (67%) and Gemini (54%) lead. (Realtor.com AI and Housing Survey (Oct 9, 2025))
Real estate agents (62%) narrowly beat AI (61%) as the source that makes consumers “smarter” about the market. (Realtor.com AI and Housing Survey (Oct 9, 2025))
40% of agents say clients responded very positively to technology in the buying and selling process. (NAR, 2026 REALTORS® Technology Report (Sep 22, 2026))

What this means for agents: Your clients already ask ChatGPT. Agents still win on trust and local expertise, so use AI to speed up the work, not as the selling point.

Related: Market analysis tools

Concerns, accuracy and compliance

63% of agents cite accuracy of outputs as their top AI concern; 49% cite compliance or legal issues and 28% fair housing. (RPR (an NAR subsidiary) agent AI survey, via HousingWire (Feb 18, 2026))
41% of agents have caught a factual error in AI-generated material before it reached a client; 5% said an error slipped through. (Inman Intel Index, Sep 2026 survey sponsored by Lofty (Oct 19, 2026))
29% of agents held back from entering client information into an AI tool due to privacy concerns. (Inman Intel Index, Sep 2026 survey sponsored by Lofty (Oct 19, 2026))
17% of brokerage leaders reported a disclosure, fair-housing or MLS-compliance issue arising from AI-generated material. (Inman Intel Index, Sep 2026 survey sponsored by Lofty (Oct 19, 2026))

What this means for agents: Review everything before it goes out: facts, fair-housing language and photo disclosures. Read a tool’s terms on data use before pasting client details into it.

The wider real estate industry

Generative AI could generate $110 billion to $180 billion or more in value for the real estate industry (McKinsey, 2023 estimate). (McKinsey, "Generative AI can change real estate" (2023 analysis, older data))
88% of commercial real estate investors, owners and landlords have started piloting AI, but only 5% of occupiers report achieving all their AI program goals. (JLL, 2025 Global Real Estate Technology Survey (Oct 28, 2025))
92% of surveyed commercial real estate executives are in the AI piloting or research phase, while only 8% have integrated AI solutions. (Deloitte, 2027 Commercial Real Estate Outlook (survey Jun–Jul 2026))

What this means for agents: Even large firms are mostly piloting. Individual agents who settle on a few dependable tools are not behind; they are roughly where the industry is.

Related: Real estate AI news

Methodology

We collected statistics from primary sources where possible: survey reports, press releases and research pages from NAR, Zillow, Realtor.com, JLL, Deloitte and McKinsey, plus trade-press reports from Inman and HousingWire where the underlying survey isn’t public. We quote numbers exactly as published and give each source’s date and sample where it matters. Please keep in mind:

Surveys differ in who they ask. NAR samples its members. RPR (an NAR subsidiary) surveyed 225 members. Inman’s Intel Index reflects its engaged reader community (460 responses) and this edition was sponsored by Lofty, a CRM vendor we also list; Inman says its journalists prepared the report without sponsor review.
JLL and Deloitte survey commercial real estate leaders, not residential agents.
McKinsey’s $110–180 billion figure is a 2023 estimate of potential value, not realized value.
We did not include vendor-only marketing claims, and we leave a stat out rather than estimate it.

We plan to update this page when NAR, Zillow and other sources publish new data. Spotted an error or a newer number? Tell us with a source.

Sources

Cite this page

AgentAICompare.com. “AI in Real Estate Statistics 2026.” Updated October 31, 2026. https://agentaicompare.com/learn/ai-in-real-estate-statistics/