Compass recently debuted a new AI assistant to 83,000 real estate agents and used a full-company sales push to drive adoption.
The brokerage held a demo day for the launch of the tool, called AI Assistant, and more than 10,000 Compass agents watched live. CEO Robert Reffkin, President of Growth Rory Golod, Chief Technology Officer Shay Artzi and President Neda Navab presented the tool, alongside agents who had used it during the pilot and feedback phase.
Since then, senior leaders have visited local offices to promote the product. Corporate staff at those regional offices were trained to teach agents how to use the tool, which was designed to handle repetitive administrative tasks and nudge agents toward new sales opportunities.
'It takes a lot of work to get agents to actually adopt these tools,' Golod said.
Compass says that within weeks of the July debut, about 15,000 agents generated more than 97,000 conversations. The National Association of Realtors says nine out of every ten agents across the industry report that they use AI today or are planning to do so, and more than two-thirds say they save at least one hour of work each week using AI.
The adoption push comes with a generational hurdle. The NAR says the median age of a real estate agent is 57, while Pew Research says older Americans use AI chatbots less for work than younger employees.
There are also market risks. Brokerage firms have a mixed record of embracing new technology, and Compass itself faced a market shift when online real estate marketplaces like Zillow and Redfin responded to buyers moving to digital channels faster than agents.
A second threat is the democratization of real estate services through the AI systems themselves. The story cites early signs of buyers and sellers experimenting with chatbots for do-it-yourself transactions to save money on fees. One physical therapist assistant said he saved thousands using an AI platform for a home contract, while a man in Florida said he used ChatGPT to close on the sale of his home in five days for $100,000 more than agents had estimated.
Regulation is also moving in. In New York City, a proposal would require landlords, brokers and online listing platforms to disclose when they have used AI to generate or digitally alter rental listing photos or videos.
Golod said AI cannot replace the experience of an agent visiting a seller’s living room, seeing the property and having a face-to-face conversation. 'To actually sell a home properly and help a buyer buy a home properly, it requires incredible judgment, high EQ, and relationships,' he said. 'Those are just not things that AI has the capability of driving right now, and maybe not for a very, very long time, if ever.'
Compass previously built an earlier AI tool, Compass AI, around content creation such as marketing materials and social media posts. AI Assistant is meant to act more like a human assistant, producing prospective-client lists, drafting personalized outreach, enabling voice notes and compiling home lists for buyers.
The market has already voted for AI in real estate. The question now is whether automation becomes a productivity tool for agents or a quiet threat to the commission model that still pays them.
