The rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning likely leaves you with many questions about how this technology will impact the real estate industry. One key area where AI is already making a huge difference is enhancing user interactions, especially through your real estate website. AI-driven tools can save both users and your team plenty of time while providing a level of interactivity and support that wasn't possible with older tech.

The important thing to remember is that this is not a future technology — it's ready to benefit your team and website users right now. So pull up a chair, grab a coffee, and settle in. This month, we're taking a deep dive into some of the most important ways AI and machine learning can enhance user interactions for your real estate website.

1. Personalized Property Recommendations

A skilled agent knows how to evaluate the needs, wants, and budget of a buyer, combining that knowledge to produce accurate personal property recommendations. Those recommendations are typically among the first things that any new buyer wants and can go a long way toward convincing them that you're the right agent for their needs.

Now, AI-driven personalized property recommendations provide similar functionality for the buyer, while saving tons of time for your team. It's like a virtual matchmaker, using past data and analysis of buyer preferences to provide current buyers with tailored recommendations through your website.

2. Predictive Search

How often do you fully type out a search query on Google, rather than clicking one of the predictive search options that pop up while you type? While it may seem like a small thing, predictive search is a huge time-saver and convenience benefit that significantly enhances the user experience of your website. In the past, predictive search was more time-consuming and expensive to implement, which is why it was mostly a feature reserved for the big search engines. With AI making the process of implementing predictive search much more efficient and affordable, now you can bring the power of predictive search to your real estate website.

3. Chatbots

If you've been following the developments in AI over the last few years, you might recall that chatbots were among the first real examples of AI in action for much of the general public. While AI chatbots have extensive functionality, for most users, they operate like an enhanced, interactive search engine with a dash of personalized customer service. It turns discovering information into a more interactive, conversational experience, where users can ask questions and receive answers in a more natural, responsive way than typing queries into a search engine.

Adding an AI-enhanced chatbot has many benefits for your website, starting with saving time for your team and providing a better user experience for your target audience. It's an easy way to enhance accessibility, build trust, and save your team from spending time answering low-level questions. It's also a feature that users are quickly coming to expect as a standard of UX/UI design.

4. Image Recognition and Visual Search

Predictive search is not the only way that AI is making it easier for users to search for homes that match their needs. AI-powered image recognition optimizes listings for specific keywords automatically, which naturally fits with how users search for homes. Users don't just search, for example, "single-family Canton home." They search something like "Canton home three bedrooms good school district near parks."

Previously, listing search results would include plenty of answers for the first, simpler query, even when you made a more detailed search like the second example. AI makes it much easier to provide search results that more directly match the client's needs while filtering out the fluff. Visual search, like chatbots, turns searching for real estate information into a more intuitive, conversational process that feels natural to users.

5. Virtual Property Tours

Most agents agree that virtual tours are an awesome way to market homes online — so why didn't we see more of them in the past? The short answer is that virtual tours, especially for large, luxury listings and commercial properties, were quite time-consuming and costly to produce. You'd see virtual tours for high-end listings or from agents who liked to stay ahead of the technological curve, but not as much for other types of listings. AI is making it easier than ever to create virtual tours, allowing you to use this powerful marketing tool for more properties while staying on time and budget.

AI and real estate tech take so much of the heavy lifting out of creating virtual property tours. Take Delta's Properties in Motion® platform, for example. It allows you to automatically create HD-quality listing videos, with extra features like SEO functionality, auto MLS HD voice-over, an integrated texting platform, lead tracking, and weekly reports. It even automatically feeds videos to your Facebook, YouTube, and real estate websites.

6. Sentiment Analysis

Today's AI is incredibly good at sifting through, analyzing, and drawing insights from huge, varied data sets, which makes it an ideal fit for sentiment analysis. By analyzing data from news sources, social media, financial reports, and more, AI-driven sentiment analysis reveals industry trends on a deeper level. This process can reveal insights into recent market shifts and even help you predict what's coming next, with vastly more efficiency than older methods. It's a great tool for keeping you prepared to offer the best possible advice to clients and a powerful way for clients to identify promising future investments.

7. AVM

The AVM tool is a great example of AI in action because it has significant benefits for both you and the end user. When a seller visits your website, finding out how much their home is worth is typically the first thing on their mind. With our AVM tool, uncovering that data is as simple as making a request. The user requests an AVM through your website, and it's automatically produced by AI-driven tech.

You provide the seller with a key piece of data in a convenient, easy-to-digest format, without lifting a finger yourself. And when the seller sees how quickly you can provide an accurate valuation for their home, that's a point in your favor when they're deciding on an agent. A seller's use of the AVM tool can easily provide the push they may need to reach out to your team and convert from prospect to client.

Is It Time to Update Your Real Estate Website With AI-Driven Features?

Whether you're new to the benefits of AI or have been following developments closely over the last few years, there's no doubt that now is the time to update your website with the latest generation of real estate tech. At Delta Media Group®, our websites offer all these AI and machine learning features and more. We're constantly updating existing tools and developing new ones, all to put the best real estate tech — including AI — in the hands of real estate pros. Get in on the ground floor of AI in real estate, and reap the rewards for years to come.