Human Estate Agent or AI Bot?

Date Published 22 June 2026

Do you like to deal with real humans? It's getting harder to know these days whether you're actually communicating with someone or have a chatbot-style programme answering your questions online.

How about when you read what's written about a property you're selling? Has it been written by a professional who knows how to highlight the things a potential buyer is interested in? Or is it simply a rehash of something that's been on the internet before?

That's how AI works - it's essentially a smart search engine that finds information and rewrites it. There's nothing 'intelligent' about that!

Hard work

As in most professions, you'll find estate agents who love their jobs and work hard, and others who 'get by' with minimum effort. Those are the ones who reply on AI programmes to write their descriptions, letters, websites and pretty much everything else.

There's a world of difference between a funny picture made for a social media post and a photographic depiction of a home for sale - there's a fine line where people should be able to judge whether something is being passed off as another thing entirely.

One industry journal has described this as "a new trust challenge" as the results of recent research show that 65% of consumers think estate agents should clearly disclose AI use. What's more, around 25% of those who took part in the survey said they aren't comfortable with it being used at all!

Lazy agents?

The report included feedback from 320 estate agents, more than 60% of them claiming they used AI as a burn out prevention tool for their teams.

Another separate report by customer comms company Moneypenny asked 2,000 people if they prefer speaking with a person rather than AI for significant parts of a property transaction and 83% said "YES".

It's not just lazy estate agents who use AI - most of the larger companies, who often work under locally based brand names, use these processes to streamline the way they work to fit into their corporate click-box culture.

Real people, real life

At Matthew Anthony we do things OUR way. We think it's essential that you can reach the same real people every time you get in touch. We have a strong team of qualified experts working together from a central office hub, and having the whole team under one roof is one of the reasons we work so efficiently together.

We're real people who treat everyone one we work with, sellers, buyers, landlords and tenants as real people too. We know that there can never be a 'one size fits all' approach in our business.

If you're thinking of selling or letting your property we think you'll find our friendly, professional and direct approach a refreshing change. Find out more by calling 01903 501105, email us or pop into the office at 325-329 Goring Road, Goring by Sea BN12 4NX to talk to us in person.