{"id":3576,"date":"2026-09-23T06:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T06:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usepillar.com\/blog\/realtors-ai-technology-usage-nar\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T06:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T06:05:14","slug":"realtors-ai-technology-usage-nar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usepillar.com\/blog\/realtors-ai-technology-usage-nar\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly Half of Realtors Use AI Weekly or More Often, NAR Technology Report Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Forty-eight percent of real estate agents now use artificial intelligence on a daily or weekly basis, according to the National Association of Realtors’ 2026 Realtors Technology Report released September 22. The figure marks a sharp increase from 2025, when 32 percent of surveyed agents had not yet tried AI tools, HousingWire reported<\/a>. The survey of NAR members found that only 12 percent of respondents said they are not using AI and do not plan to, down from the one-third who had not experimented with the technology a year earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TL;DR:<\/strong> NAR’s September 22 technology report found that 48% of agents now use AI weekly or more, up from 32% who hadn’t tried it in 2025, with listing descriptions (75%) and social media posts (56%) the most common applications.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The report identified time savings as the primary driver of technology adoption across the industry. Eighty-one percent of surveyed members said saving time is their main goal in adopting new technology, up from 66 percent in 2025, the report showed. Improving client experience ranked second at 71 percent, compared to 64 percent the prior year. “Real estate agents are making practical choices about technology, and the two payoffs they want most are time and a smoother experience for their clients,” said Jessica Lautz, NAR Deputy Chief Economist, in a statement accompanying the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI Applications Concentrate in Listing and Marketing Workflows<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Among agents who use AI tools, three-quarters deploy the technology to write listing descriptions, the report found. Fifty-six percent use AI for social media posts, and 52 percent use it for emails or follow-up messages. About 30 percent use AI for market summaries and to draft marketing content in a personal tone, while 27 percent rely on AI for document review or summarization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concentration of AI use in marketing and client communication workflows creates compliance and training requirements for brokerages, the report’s findings suggest. Listing copy, social media content, and client messages increasingly carry AI assistance, raising questions around fair housing compliance and data governance standards at the brokerage level. Prior research has shown that brokerage AI rollouts fail when training budgets trail technology spending<\/a>, a dynamic the NAR data reinforces with adoption now outpacing formal instruction in many offices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Real<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Core Transaction Tools Remain Near-Universal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The report found that transaction-enabling technologies maintain the highest adoption rates across the industry. Ninety-six percent of respondents reported using the multiple listing service, while 79 percent use e-signature platforms. Sixty-eight percent use showing scheduling tools, and 59 percent use comparative market analysis or pricing tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marketing and relationship management tools showed lower but growing penetration. Forty-eight percent of agents reported using drone photography or video, and 46 percent use a customer relationship management system. Forty-one percent use AI-generated content tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot, or Gemini. The gap between transaction infrastructure (MLS, e-signature) and marketing tools (CRM, AI content generators) indicates where vendors and brokerages may see adoption headroom in the next reporting cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning Curve and Cost Remain Primary Barriers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Despite accelerating adoption, agents continue to face obstacles when implementing new technology. Sixty-three percent of respondents cited the learning curve as their biggest challenge, while 59 percent pointed to cost as a barrier, the report showed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monthly technology spending varies widely across the agent population. Eighteen percent of agents said they spend less than $50 per month on technology, while 36 percent spend $50 to $250. Nineteen percent spend $251 to $500, and 22 percent spend more than $500. The spending distribution suggests that a majority of agents manage technology budgets under $250 monthly, creating pressure on vendors to demonstrate return on investment within that constraint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Client reactions to technology in the transaction process show general acceptance with caveats. Forty percent of agents said their clients responded very positively to technology, while another 37 percent said clients found it helpful but expressed some reservations. The mixed response indicates that agents must balance efficiency gains from digital tools with in-person service and clear explanations of how technology is being used in the transaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What This Means for Estate Agents<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The NAR report establishes that AI adoption is no longer experimental for the typical agent\u2014it is a production tool embedded in daily workflows. Listing descriptions, social media posts, and email follow-up represent the tasks agents most commonly delegate to AI, which means competitors in any local market are now deploying these tools to accelerate listing turnaround and maintain client communication velocity. Agents who have not yet integrated AI into these specific workflows risk falling behind on response times and content output.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cost and learning-curve barriers cited by a majority of respondents point to a practical threshold: tools that require extensive training or exceed $250 in monthly spending face adoption friction. Agents evaluating new platforms should prioritize vendors that offer onboarding support and can demonstrate time savings within the first billing cycle. The 81 percent of agents who cited time savings as their primary technology goal have set a clear benchmark\u2014platforms that cannot reduce task completion time fail the market’s stated priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For team leaders and brokers, the data confirms that AI tool subscriptions alone do not drive results<\/a>\u2014training infrastructure must scale with technology budgets. The jump from 32 percent experimentation in 2025 to 48 percent regular use in 2026 occurred without a corresponding drop in the 63 percent who cite learning curves as their top challenge, indicating that many agents are using tools they have not fully mastered. Brokerages that pair AI platform access with structured training protocols will capture the productivity gains the technology promises while competitors struggle with implementation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forty-eight percent of real estate agents now use artificial intelligence on a daily or weekly basis, according to the National Association of Realtors’ 2026 Realtors Technology Report released September 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_title":"48% of Realtors Use AI Regularly, NAR 2026 Report Finds","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Forty-eight percent of real estate agents now use artificial intelligence on a daily or weekly basis, according to the National Association of Realtors' 2026..."},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n