Many commentators have claimed that AI will make the big portals obsolete but one, Rightmove, has today launched a major initiative to put the tech at the heart of its service, revealed during its latest trading update.

The portal, which has been dismissed by some as a dinosaur, is keen to underline how it’s been working bringing AI on board, saying it has 27 projects under way that use AI including four that are now live.

The first is an AI-enabled and therefore more intuitive keyword search that uses tech ‘trained’ on the portal’s 25 years of data which, it claims, will give estate agents higher visibility for their listings via being served to more specific searches.

The second predicts when people will put their home on the market and powers two valuation lead products, Rightmove Discover and Opportunity Manager.

Rightmove Discover sends targeted communications to potential sellers on behalf of agents before they’re active on Rightmove, while Opportunity Manager uses Rightmove data to flag and prioritise potential valuation leads to agents based on their behaviour.

The final two are arguably less ground-shaking – a tool to enable agents to more efficiently connect via written notes with potential vendors, and a staging tool that enables those browsing online to re-imagine homes in their preferred style.

Tarah Lourens (main image), the portal’s Chief Technology and Operations Officer says: “We’re accelerating our delivery of AI-powered products and tools to enhance the search experience for home-movers, and provide our agent partners with more positive outcomes for their businesses.

“AI technology is something we’ve actively been using for a long time, and as the technology has evolved, we’ve ramped up the number of use cases across our platform.

“We’re constantly harnessing the huge data flowing through our platform every day to experiment with new tools and features that would add value to those using Rightmove.”