Estate agents who use Reapit can now run their businesses almost entirely via new AI tech that officially launches today but which the London-based firm promises isn’t designed or meant to replace staff.

Called RAI, it a ‘copilot’ that enables estate agency managers and their staff to ask their mobile phone via voice or typed-in queries to provide an almost limitless range of information about their business to be used in a variety of scenarios at all points in the property process.

This includes valuation, instruction, sales progression, compliance checks, follow ups and other admin tasks for both sales, lettings and property management.

This can be used for example to prep valuers for prospective vendor meetings, agents for viewings but also help managers run their teams with performance-related information.

“For example, if as a branch manager I want to know who’s been my best performing agent I would ask my RAI copilot to do that and email me a spreadsheet and then email the team member involved saying well done and thankyou,” Dr Neil Cobbold, the firm’s commercial director, tells The Neg.

“Agents who use Reapit don’t have to understand AI or know how coding works – our new tech just does it for them ‘under the bonnet’ and works backwards through the Reapit workflow to ask back-up questions like ‘would you like to do this regularly’, for example.

Key aims

Cobbold says Reapit had three key aims when launching RAI all designed to reassure its estate agency customers as the ‘AI clamour’ has intensified in recent months.

These are to provide a secure way for agents to use AI without compromising their own or their client’s data; reassure agents that AI is not going to replace jobs or roles within the industry and is instead there solely to help teama work more efficiently and successfully; and that it wanted to create an alternative for agents who use ‘generic’ AI services like Chatgpt and who therefore risk ‘sounding’ like everyone else.

“We didn’t want an AI that could be used to justify lay-offs,” adds Cobbold.

Dawson Scott, Reapit’s CTO who has led the team developing RAI, says that “most AI in estate agency still lives inside software. “RAI lives with the agent, wherever their day takes them,” he says. “It shows up at the right moment, it listens, it prepares, it remembers, and it brings the right context. RAI’s copilot is a true assistant that amplifies your work and helps you focus on what matters most, your clients.”

Mark Armstrong, Reapit’s CEO, adds: “Five years ago, we opened up proptech with the first app market for this industry. We’re doing it again for AI. Innovation in estate agency shouldn’t sit behind closed doors, and with RAI – it doesn’t have to.”

App development

Cobbold says Reapit has put an embargo on agentic AI-related developments for the third-party proptech providers that plug into its ‘app market’ since RAI was first mooted in June this year. “We didn’t think it was fair for them to spend time and money developing AI agents when we were preparing to launch one that covered the whole Reapit platform – we’ve been in dialogue with them all about this and to explain how RAI offers a completely new level of security”.

Reapit’s platform already includes AI capabilities, with AI photo enhancements and an AI viewing assistant to be released in May, and AI applicant entry rolling out in June.

For more information visit https://www.reapit.com