Today, any brokerage firm could be referring to the AI tools it has deployed. But far fewer can point to consistent recruitment. Even fewer can directly link AI to predictable growth in productivity, transactions, and agent performance.
For years, AI has entered real estate as a set of optional tools. Agents are encouraged to be deployed, experimented with, and self-managed alongside already demanding workloads. This result is well known throughout the industry. A small group of power users, mixed results, and a leadership team wondered why AI wasn’t delivering on its promise.
For real estate to move forward, AI must change. From reactive to proactive, task-based to goal-focused, and traditional to agent-based AI. And if brokerages want to have the meaningful impact expected from AI, the next stage of transformation will be different. Deployment cannot be agent-driven. It must be designed, deployed and guided from the top.
Beyond traditional AI
Most of the AI tools currently used in real estate are reactive. Rather than taking action, they wait for prompts, complete individual tasks, and surface insights. While useful on its own, it still relies on the agent to decide what to do next and when to do it.
That model doesn’t scale.
Agentic AI introduces a fundamentally different approach. Agent systems are built around outcomes rather than focusing on tasks. Plan, execute, and adapt autonomously throughout your workflow to achieve defined goals.
This is the structure behind Lofty AOS, the first agent AI operating system built specifically for real estate. Rather than asking agents to manage more tools, Lofty AOS takes ownership of core workflows and continuously works toward outcomes such as prioritizing opportunities, activating databases, and reducing administrative burden for agents. for example:
Social Agent can analyze what’s working in an agent’s market, build a content strategy, generate posts, and automatically schedule them to ensure agents are always visible. Sales Agent acts like a virtual ISA, capturing, qualifying, and booking inbound leads 24/7, so no opportunity is missed. Homeowner Agents can keep past clients engaged with personalized home value updates, ensuring agents always have the most up-to-date information in mind until the seller is ready to move. AI Assistant helps you run your day-to-day work within Lofty by discovering cold leads, composing messages, and summarizing calls in seconds.
In reality, Lofty AOS does more than just provide insight. It takes action and drives you towards results.
Why leadership is a catalyst
Just because a brokerage firm introduces a new tool doesn’t mean a permanent AI transformation will occur. It happens when a “new way” becomes the default way of doing work. In other words, transformation does not equal adoption.
Deployment often looks like a pilot, an optional usage, a novelty, and AI is treated as a useful add-on. Transformation is different. Transformation is built in, anticipated, and operationalized, and AI becomes part of the system rather than a separate step.
The reason this distinction is important is simple. This is because when people are under pressure, they revert to their default behavior. Even motivated agents can fall back on familiar routines during busy seasons, tough markets, and high-stakes negotiations.
Resistance is not emotional. That’s reasonable. People worry that AI will make them less able to do their jobs (discapacity), take away control (loss of autonomy), or diminish their self-worth (loss of identity). That’s why the most successful brokerages don’t try to “persuade” their agents to do more with AI. It’s easier to follow than to ignore because it removes friction and embeds AI into your daily workflow.
Once AI is built into the operating model, agents no longer need to think about using it. Opportunities will appear automatically. The conversation is now ready. Follow-up is stable. Time goes back to high-value, revenue-generating activities. In this way, AI becomes a power multiplier rather than another tool competing for attention.
Practical next steps for leaders
Currently, industry-leading brokerages are not chasing AI trends. They ask practical questions. Where do we rely on individual efforts rather than systems? Which results matter most? How can AI take on the work that slows down your team?
The most important change is recognizing that AI transformation is primarily a people and workflow issue, not a technology issue. Traditional task-based AI tools rely on inconsistent deployment and are not delivering the results the industry expects. Agentic AI changes that equation by making results more repeatable and scalable, helping intermediaries increase productivity, reduce agent burnout, and drive profitable growth.
As leaders evaluate their next moves, next steps don’t have to be complicated, but they do need to be intentional.
Talk to your agents and managers about where AI is already being implemented in their day-to-day operations and where friction still exists. Commit to making AI the default rather than an optional add-on by incorporating it into your core workflows. Start creating a plan that focuses on results, accountability, and consistent execution across your organization.
Lofty AOS is pushing the boundaries of AI in real estate and is designed to think, act, and operate autonomously at scale. Learn how agent AI can transform your business at lofty.com/AOS.
