Industry leaders said Thursday that artificial intelligence is lowering the cost of producing content and that in the future it will make home searches better and more useful.

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For many years, the things real estate agents included in their listings depended on cost. Photos were a given, but what about a 3D Matterport tour? Or a floor plan? For some agents, and on some listings, it’s worth it to pay extra for those features. But the cost was indeed extra.

Things, however, may be changing.

That was the argument Mikus Opelts, CEO of imaging company Giraffe360, made Thursday. Opelts appeared on the Inman Connect New York stage during a session focusing on artificial intelligence, and he had a startling prediction.

“The cost of media production is going down to zero,” Opelts argued, adding a moment later that in the near future, “all media production will be almost free.”

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Opelts’ point was that the rise of AI tools is making it ever easier to add more depth to home listings. And eventually, things that are considered extras today will simply be standard — and comparatively cheap.

“People will be able to access listings with much more immersion,” he argued.

From left to right, moderator Jonathan Klein, Drew Fabrikant, Amy Gromowski, Gaétan Rougevin-Baville and Mikus Opelts at Inman Connect New York. Credit: AJ Canaria Creative Services

Amy Gromowski — head of data science and property intelligence at CoreLogic — also appeared during the session, and also predicted that AI will bring about significant changes. Among other things, she said the technology will likely make it easier to “summarize a vast amount of data,” then take that data and produce useful results.

As an example, she predicted that AI might let someone do a search for homes in the Chicago area that fall within a specific price range and lie, for instance, outside of flood zones. Artificial intelligence might be able to streamline such a search and provide further insights, for instance breaking down a home’s condition based on photographs.

Gromowski also said AI will help identify how serious buyers actually are. And it could eventually help them find other acceptable markets — for example suggesting neighborhoods to a Chicago shopper in nearby Milwaukee that fit the search criteria. Gromowski’s point was that AI-enabled home searches could prove to be both deeper and more useful.

“It’s about being able to understand patterns and trends,” she said of AI’s potential.

Though the panelists were enthusiastic about the future of AI, challenges remain. Gromowski mentioned, for example, a large “AI governance council” at her company that includes people from various departments such as legal, data science, communications and more. The council’s job is to evaluate issues such as reputational risk and data stewardship, and to ask, “Just because we can, should we?”

Still, the potential is vast. Near the beginning of the session, Drew Fabrikant — founder of marketing platform Scout — stressed that it is important for real estate professionals to build trust and maintain transparency as they deploy new technologies. But ultimately, he suggested the sky is the limit when it comes to AI.

“We’re at a wild time right now in terms of AI,” Fabrikant said. “And I think you can get it to do whatever you want.”

Email Jim Dalrymple II

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