By Doug Backman, DB Marketing
There’s no denying: AI is here to stay. It’s a permanent part of our world. In fact, AI will most likely change how we all do business. To stay relevant and competitive, every industry, company, and role has to figure out how to use AI – or risk getting left behind. Real estate is no different. But as real estate professionals adopt AI, we also have to figure out where we as humans fit in.
This is an existential crisis. How do real estate professionals keep providing value in the age of AI? If you aren’t asking yourself these questions, it’s time to start.
There’s also no denying that in recent years, real estate has taken a hit. The slowdown is due to a lot of factors, including high interest rates, inflation, supply chain issues, changing buyer preferences, and an uncertain economic and regulatory environment. But we’re in real estate because it’s an exciting, dynamic industry filled with opportunities. So we’re all doing our best to wait it out and pivot where we can.
For DBMK, this includes figuring out how AI fits into real estate marketing. But the flipside of using AI is figuring out what we as humans bring that AI can’t. For DBMK, we’ve realized it’s things like empathy, thoughtful and ethical decision-making, adaptability, accountability, true creativity and originality, and nuanced knowledge of clients’ businesses, priorities, and values.
Every real estate organization can benefit from having this conversation. Where does using AI make sense? How do each of us keep providing value in our roles? And how can we keep injecting real thought, care, and quality in our work in a world so infected with “easy button” thinking, which AI is making worse?
DBMK is integrating AI in ways that make sense. We’re also learning what AI can’t do well, and how the human layer is still important. Senior Developer Thomas Wright finds AI useful as a debugging tool and robust resource for web coding and language documentation. But AI tools can’t deal with complex development tasks or questions. Copywriter Heather Reagan uses AI to brainstorm wording and kick off research. Reagan said, “AI can really expedite information gathering. But I always have to double-check everything with reputable non-AI sources.”
Art Director Heath O’Campo finds AI helpful in creating images that set the tone for photography to come, and filling in images that need more content. But O’Campo readily sees AI images’ problems and limitations. “AI is helpful to me to a point, but it can’t get me over the finish line. It can create semi-realistic images that I can use as placeholders, but it’s hard to avoid humans with six fingers.” For example, in the included AI image, the teeth, eyes, hands, and plates of food aren’t quite right, a wine glass seems to be floating – and are they drinking beer, wine, or hot sauce? The mountains in the interior windows are out of line with the exterior mountains, and the home seems filled with benches.
Plus, truth in advertising is critical for building trust in your marketing, and AI can’t represent exactly what a property will look like. Some of DBMK’s clients are experimenting with AI. Jon Treter, Managing Principal with Coldwell Banker Commercial, said his team has had some success using AI tools. For example, AI helped them quickly compare two versions of a lease draft and highlight the differences, likely saving on attorney hours during contracting. But they’ve also had AI come back with way more feedback and information than is helpful, giving his team more work to do.
Some real estate companies are using AI-powered leasing platform templates and templated marketing. They are usually trying to cut costs and reduce the level of effort – understandable goals. But these tools have limitations. For one, the level of effort is still significant. Your team still needs to collect and feed the AI tool large amounts of information about your services, team, properties, and so on. Your team also needs to double-check everything, because AI makes more mistakes than anyone wants to admit.
Templated approaches also make it hard to convey originality and authenticity. Your website or marketing looks and feels like hundreds of others – including your competitors’. It doesn’t set you apart or define your brand, and it’s not effective in engaging customers. It checks the box, sure – but you only get one chance to make a first impression.
Sure, custom websites and campaigns have longer timelines and cost more. But giving a team of humans all the information you’ve collected brings benefits AI can’t. AI still can’t make decisions, solve real-world problems, or come up with truly creative, original, or innovative ideas based on years of experience and a nuanced understanding of your business and value proposition. Only humans can, creating branding concepts, content strategies, marketing campaigns, and targeted outreach grounded in context and reality. Only humans can bring empathy, emotional intelligence, and ethical judgment, helping your business be authentic, reflect its values, convey respect, and build real connections with customers. As a recent AdAge article said, “The real creative force is still human. AI may be able to optimize tasks, but it lacks the human capacity for the imagination and cultural understanding that bring ideas to life.”
Also, will that AI show up for you in a pinch? Only humans can build relationships with your team, adapt to changes, help you look ahead, and figure out what works in the real world – including learning from mistakes, which AI can’t do.
AI is changing which human job skills matter most. The top skills identified in the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Future of Jobs Report (survey of 1,000+ global employers) also tell this story. The top 11 skills in order are analytical thinking; resilience, flexibility, and agility; leadership and social influence; creative thinking; motivation and self-awareness; technological literacy; empathy and active listening; curiosity and lifelong learning; talent management; service orientation and customer service; and AI and big data. The report also looks at skills becoming more important. While the top three focus on tech (AI and big data; networks and cybersecurity; technological literacy), on their heels are creative thinking; resilience, flexibility, and agility; curiosity and lifelong learning; leadership and social influence; talent management; and analytical thinking. Also in the top 15 are empathy and active listening; design and user experience; and service orientation and customer service. Finally, one in four employers see marketing and media skills growing in importance in 2025.
The value of your properties is huge. Effective marketing can help you maximize it, and AI can provide value. But as you use AI, make sure you’re not doing a disservice to your properties and business.
It’s also important to understand that AI brings risks. Do you know which AI tools your teams are using and how? Is the data you uploaded secure? What about your customers’ data? Are AI’s outputs accurate and as “good” as they can be? AI can’t judge between what’s bad, good, better, or best. Only humans can make that call, knowing when to take ideas further. AI also can’t understand ethics, letting bias seep into AI images and content. How is AI putting your company’s security, quality, culture, or reputation at risk?
There’s a place for AI in real estate marketing. AI tools are great at quickly accessing, digesting, and distilling huge amounts of information. Plus, these tools are improving fast. But as you adopt AI, think about how your human professionals remain essential for providing value to customers. As for DBMK, the more we use AI, the more we’re sure we still have a critical role to play in our customers’ marketing efforts. Our existential crisis is only helping us get better at what we do.
