48% of Brokerages Want AI. Most Are Not Ready for It.
AI is the most wanted emerging tech at 48%. But with 30% of tech just checking a box, most lack the data foundation.
In the 2023 survey, AI barely showed up. Brokerage leaders talked about integration, consolidation, better transaction management. Practical stuff. One year later, AI dominates every open-ended response in the 2024 survey. It is the single most wanted emerging technology at approximately 48%.
That is a massive shift. And it is worth paying attention to – not because AI is overhyped, but because the gap between wanting AI and being ready for it is wider than most brokers realize.
The data tells two stories at once
The 2024 State of Real Estate Brokerage Technology Survey, conducted by TotalBrokerage in collaboration with T3 Sixty with over 100 respondents, asked brokerage leaders which emerging technologies interest them most.
The results:
- AI: approximately 48%
- Virtual Reality: approximately 18%
- IoT: approximately 15%
- Blockchain: approximately 3%
- None of the above: approximately 25%
AI is not just leading. It is running away from everything else. And when we asked open-ended questions about what brokerages want to change next about their technology, AI showed up alongside CRM, transaction management, and automation as the most prominent themes.
But here is where it gets complicated.
The foundation problem
Approximately 30% of respondents said their technology simply checks a box. Not drives productivity. Not integral to operations. Just … exists. That is nearly double the 16.30% who said the same thing in 2023. Brokerages are not getting more out of their technology. By their own assessment, they are getting less.
On top of that, overall technology adoption across the brokerage tells a rough story. Approximately 28% of respondents said their overall tech adoption sits below 20%. Another approximately 12% put it between 20-49%. That means roughly 40% of brokerages have adoption below the halfway mark.
And agent interaction with brokerage technology? Approximately 30% said agents have no interaction at all. Another approximately 30% described it as limited.
So picture this: you are a brokerage where most of your technology just checks a box, fewer than half your people actually use the tools you provide, and your agents largely ignore the systems you have in place. Now you want to layer AI on top of that.
AI does not create data. It consumes it. If your data lives in disconnected systems – or worse, does not get captured at all – AI has nothing useful to work with.
AI needs clean, connected data to deliver value
This is the part that gets skipped in most conversations about AI in real estate. The pitch is always about what AI can do: automate follow-ups, generate reports, predict trends, write listing descriptions. Fine. But every one of those use cases depends on having accurate, connected, accessible data underneath.
When your transaction data is in one system, your commission calculations are in a spreadsheet, your compliance documents are in a shared drive, and your agent activity is nowhere – there is no dataset for AI to learn from. There is no single picture of your operation for AI to analyze. You get a toy, not a tool.
The brokerages that will actually benefit from AI are the ones that have already done the unglamorous work of getting their operational data into one place. That means a single system of record for transactions, commissions, compliance, and reporting. It means data that is structured, complete, and current. It means your back office actually runs on a platform, not on workarounds.
What the word clouds actually reveal
In 2023, the word clouds from our open-ended questions centered on integration, transaction management, and consolidation. Practical operational concerns. AI barely registered.
In 2024, AI dominates the word clouds. It appears in response to what brokerages want to change next (Q10) and what tools they wish they had (Q29), right alongside CRM, transaction, automated, and integration.
What is telling is that the operational concerns from 2023 did not go away. Integration and transaction management are still front and center. Brokerages added AI to the wish list without solving the problems that were already there. That is how you end up wanting AI but not being ready for it.
The sequence matters
There is a reason we keep coming back to data infrastructure and reporting in everything we write. It is not because it is exciting. It is because it is the prerequisite for everything that is exciting.
Here is the sequence that actually works:
- Get your operational data into one system. Transactions, commissions, compliance, agent data – all of it. No more spreadsheets, no more scattered tools.
- Get adoption up. If your people are not using the system, the data is incomplete. Incomplete data is worse than no data because it gives you false confidence.
- Build reporting that reflects reality. You should be able to answer any question about your brokerage's performance without asking anyone or pulling numbers from three different places.
- Then layer intelligence on top. When you have clean, connected, comprehensive data, AI becomes genuinely useful. Pattern recognition, anomaly detection, forecasting – all of it works because the inputs are real.
Skip to step four and you get hallucinated reports based on partial data. That is not a technology failure. It is a foundation failure.
This is not anti-AI. It is pro-readiness.
We are not telling you to ignore AI. Approximately 48% interest is not hype – it reflects a real shift in what brokerage leaders think is possible. And they are right that AI will change how brokerages operate.
But technology that just checks a box is not going to become transformative because you add an AI layer. Disconnected systems do not become connected because you plug in a chatbot. Agents who ignore your current tools are not suddenly going to engage because the interface has a chat window.
The brokerages that get the most out of AI in the next few years will be the ones that invested in operational infrastructure first. That is not the flashy message. But it is the honest one.
What this means for your brokerage
If you are in the approximately 48% who want AI, good. That instinct is right. But before you evaluate AI tools, ask yourself three questions:
- Can you pull a report right now showing profitability by agent, by office, by deal type – without touching a spreadsheet?
- Is every transaction in your brokerage flowing through one system from contract to close to commission payment?
- Do you have a single place where all your operational data lives, structured and queryable?
If the answer to any of those is no, start there. That is not the boring work before the real work. That is the real work. Everything else – including AI – gets better once you have it done.
TotalBrokerage was built to be that operational foundation. Every transaction, every commission, every compliance check, every financial report in one system. Not because it is an AI product, but because it creates the data infrastructure that makes AI actually useful when you are ready for it.
If you want to see what that foundation looks like, book a demo.
About this survey
The 2024 State of Real Estate Brokerage Technology Survey was conducted by TotalBrokerage in collaboration with T3 Sixty with over 100 respondents from leading brokerages across the United States. The survey covered technology usage, adoption, satisfaction, emerging technology interest, and operational priorities across the industry. When citing 2024 figures, "approximately" reflects that values are drawn from visual survey data.
FAQ
Why is AI the most wanted emerging technology for brokerages in 2024?
Approximately 48% of respondents in the 2024 State of Real Estate Brokerage Technology Survey identified AI as the emerging technology they are most interested in. That is up from virtually no mention in the 2023 survey. The jump reflects the broader wave of AI tools entering the market and a growing belief among brokerage leaders that AI can improve operations, automate repetitive tasks, and enhance reporting. The interest is real, but readiness is a different question entirely.
What does it mean that 30% of brokerages say their tech just checks a box?
It means approximately 30% of respondents said their current technology is not driving productivity or serving as an integral part of their operations. It simply exists – licenses are paid, logins are active, but the tools are not meaningfully contributing to how the brokerage runs. That number was 16.30% in 2023, so the problem is growing. When you combine this with the push for AI, it raises a serious question: if your current tech is not delivering value, what makes you confident a more advanced technology will?
Can AI work without clean data infrastructure?
Not in any meaningful way. AI depends on structured, connected, and accurate data to deliver useful output. If your transaction data is in one system, commissions are calculated in spreadsheets, and compliance documents live in shared drives, there is no coherent dataset for AI to analyze. You end up with generic outputs at best and inaccurate ones at worst. The brokerages positioned to benefit from AI are the ones that have already centralized their operational data in a single system of record.
What should a brokerage do before investing in AI tools?
Start with the foundation. Get all your operational data – transactions, commissions, compliance, agent activity – into one connected platform. Make sure adoption is high enough that the data is complete and current. Build reporting that lets you answer questions about your brokerage's performance without manual work. Once that infrastructure is in place, AI tools have something real to work with and can deliver actual value instead of surface-level gimmicks.
How does TotalBrokerage relate to AI readiness?
TotalBrokerage is not an AI product. It is the back-office operating system that centralizes transactions, commissions, compliance, and reporting into one platform. That centralization creates the clean, structured, connected data that AI needs to be useful. When your operational data is already in one place and your reporting is already accurate, adding AI capabilities on top becomes a practical step forward instead of a leap of faith built on fragmented data.
What was the overall technology adoption rate among surveyed brokerages?
The results were mixed. Approximately 28% of brokerages reported overall tech adoption below 20%. Approximately 12% fell between 20-49%. On the higher end, approximately 28% reported adoption between 51-80%, and approximately 20% said adoption was above 80%. The bottom line: a significant portion of brokerages have low adoption of the tools they already pay for, which makes the push for more advanced technology like AI premature without addressing underlying engagement first.
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