By Vin Vomero, CEO

The HousingWire AI Summit at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas last week brought together industry leaders and technology professionals to share how they are using AI to transform the housing industry. I noticed three themes which were prevalent throughout the Summit which I have highlighted below.

1. AI Transforming the Mortgage Industry

Jason Bressler, CTO at United Wholesale Mortgage, highlighted the revolutionary potential of AI in the mortgage industry. He emphasized that he believes AI is as transformational as the internet, enabling a complete overhaul of existing processes. He also stressed the urgency of adopting AI now to avoid falling behind, suggesting that those who leverage AI effectively will have a significant competitive advantage.

When setting out to build AI tools, Shashank Shekhar cautioned against measuring ROI too early in your AI journey. He shared a personal experience: when he came to the US, he wrote blog posts three times a week for six months before he got an inbound inquiry directly attributable to one of the blogs. He could have quit anytime but he kept at it. Shashank said “it didn’t work, until it did”. He encouraged everyone to focus on experimenting, learning, and building – the ROI will come.

2. Enhancing Productivity in Real Estate

For the mortgage industry, the majority of the use cases discussed were internal use cases focused on process improvement and productivity, the most common of which was AI for document processing. Other common use cases were AI co-pilots to answer employee questions and surface data more quickly as well as using AI to improve the customer experience in call centers by retrieving relevant information in real time based on the conversation.

Alisande Heriyanto of Corcoran and Chris Cox of Keller Williams discussed new innovative tools for sales agents. AI-powered agent recruiting, chatbots, and listing description generators are all helping real estate agents save time and focus more on client interactions.

These new AI-powered technologies not only reduce administrative burdens but also provide valuable insights that can help employees more effectively go about their work.

An important note echoed by almost all speakers was an emphasis on keeping the agent/appraiser/person at the center. “AI won’t replace your job, someone who uses AI will replace your job. “ – Jason Bressler CTO @UnitedWholesaleMortgage

3. Regulation and Compliance in AI

A significant portion of the summit was dedicated to the regulatory and compliance challenges posed by the advent of AI. They emphasized that while AI can offer substantial benefits, it must be implemented responsibly. This includes addressing discrimination issues, ensuring transparency, and avoiding the “black box” problem where the decision-making process of AI is not fully understood. The speakers also highlighted the role of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in setting standards for AI usage in the industry.

Overall, the HousingWire AI Summit 2024 showcased the vast potential of AI to revolutionize the housing industry while also underscoring the need for strategic implementation and thoughtful regulation to maximize benefits and minimize risks. The insights shared by industry leaders provided a clear roadmap for harnessing AI’s power to drive efficiency and innovation in mortgage in addition to a wide variety of real estate sectors.

In retrospect, I knew the conference was going to be outstanding the first day. How you may ask? This was the first time I’ve seen a 5K run informally kick off a conference and the folks that showed up at 6:00 am the first day were ready to get after it! It set the stage for a fantastic exchange of ideas and great conversations – my first one of the day was on that run with Clayton Collins, CEO of HW Media and the host of the conference. I can’t wait for next year’s HousingWire AI Summit!