When Bryn Carmody, a real estate agent based in Nova Scotia, Canada, became burnt out at age 25, it wasn’t because she lacked potential clients. That’s because she had too many things on her plate and no system to handle them.
She was manually piecing together disconnected tools across CRM, marketing, transactional, and communications platforms. As a result, the days became longer, the nights became longer, and eventually a breaking point was reached.
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“We were building a huge pipeline – thousands of leads, a huge email list – and we didn’t have the infrastructure to support it,” Carmody told Inman. “I was doing everything while acting as an integration layer across a fragmented technology stack. This kind of burnout is more common in this industry than people give it credit for.”
That experience became the foundation for Her Market Lab. It’s a new entrant in the growing wave of all-in-one real estate “super apps” aimed at simplifying how agents use technology to put AI to work in practice.
Mr. Carmody is the sole founder and CEO of the platform, which launched on April 13 and granted access to founding members. Carmody said Her Market Lab can replace five or more separate technology platform subscriptions for most agents.
Gender disparity arises in AI implementation
Carmody’s frustrations, which led to the creation of Her Market Lab, reflect deeper problems in the industry as a whole. She said that while the adoption of AI among agents is widespread and continues to grow, its real-world impact remains limited.
He pointed to a recent National Association of Realtors technology survey in which 46 percent of agents said AI has had little or no meaningful impact on their business. Carmody argues that it’s not a question of willingness, but ease of use.
She says agents are often handed off without clear guidance on how to integrate powerful AI tools into their workflows. The learning curve is too steep for many people.
The gulf may become even clearer when viewed through a demographic lens.
According to NAR’s 2025 Membership Profile, women make up 63% of agents. However, a growing body of research suggests that women are less likely to adopt generative AI than men, especially in the workplace.
A recent study by Lean In, a nonprofit organization founded by Sheryl Sandberg that focuses on women’s leadership and workplace equity, found that men are 22 percent more likely than women to use AI tools on a daily or full-time basis.
Carmody has several theories as to why the gender gap in AI adoption still exists.
“The cutting-edge AI tools being built for real estate agents are undoubtedly powerful, but they are also out of reach for most real estate agents,” she said. “Setting up servers, managing cybersecurity risks, and configuring open source infrastructure between showings is not practical for real estate professionals.”
That’s where the disconnect lies, Carmody said. Agents who stand to benefit the most—often women who run their own businesses independently and without dedicated technical support—are among the least likely to adopt these tools.
“It’s not because they’re reluctant, it’s because the technology isn’t designed with their reality in mind,” she says.
Why onboarding is a real differentiator
Carmody said Her Market Lab’s approach turns the typical proptech model on its head. Rather than leading with AI capabilities, the platform focuses on building a functional business infrastructure first and layering automation on top.
The product integrates CRM, transaction management, email marketing, and lead funnels into one system and is preconfigured specifically for real estate workflows.
But Carmody said the key differentiator is onboarding.
Agents are guided through a structured 7-day setup process designed to build a functioning business system from the ground up. Only once that foundation is in place will the platform’s AI agents become active. The goal is to eliminate the fragmentation that causes agent lag in the first place.
Early users say the difference is noticeable, especially in output quality. Carmody said initial feedback will highlight AI-generated content that requires minimal editing and better reflects the voice of the agent. This is a common shortcoming of general-purpose AI tools.
Community as a function
Her Market Lab also focuses on support models that go beyond traditional onboarding. Instead of static tutorials or recorded walkthroughs, the platform includes ongoing “lab” sessions where users can ask questions, troubleshoot workflows, and adjust how they use the system.
This community feature is designed to address core industry issues. In other words, agents often fail not because of bad tools, but because of a lack of time or support to implement them effectively.
“Rather than just handing someone a CRM, an all-in-one platform, and maybe a Loom video for onboarding, we’re creating something much more hands-on,” Carmody says. “Every week, our users receive labs and implementation sessions that provide clear, actionable takeaways for their business, and they can ask us questions directly. That’s exactly where we fill the gap.”
Bet on your own against control
Her Market Lab is not venture-backed. Carmody chose to start the company himself, using the income from his real estate career to fund the development. He said the decision was made to maintain control over the direction of the product and avoid the compromises that come with outside investment.
“Too often, product decisions get lost in translation in board meetings, and once you start adding input, it can quickly become a slippery slope,” says Carmody. “I had a very clear sense of my positioning from the beginning, and I didn’t want to dilute that. Another factor was that I had the luxury of taking that approach. I had spent years in the real estate industry and was able to support myself while building, so I leaned into that.”
The rise of real estate “super apps”
Her Market Lab taps into an increasingly consolidated market. From CRM platforms to transaction tools to AI assistants, the industry is experiencing an explosion of point solutions. Many companies are now looking to bring these capabilities together under one roof.
“Super apps” for real estate agents range from Rechat to Homie to Breezy, and there may be more on the way.
Carmody believes this trend will continue, but warns that not all “super apps” will be successful. The differentiator, he said, is not how many features a platform offers, but whether agents can actually use those features without becoming overwhelmed.
Why AI won’t replace real estate agents
As AI proptech solutions proliferate, many agents may also be wondering about their future in the industry. Carmody, like many others, believes it is essential for agents to learn AI while they can.
“The reality is that I think agents that don’t deploy AI will just be outpaced by agents that do,” Carmody says.
But like many in the industry, Carmody tempered that statement with a caveat.
She pointed out that there’s a lot of hype in the media about AI replacing jobs, specifically about AI replacing real estate agents and how everyone will just use tools like ChatGPT to buy and sell homes. But that was never the agent’s intrinsic value in the first place.
“The real value is in relationships and trust,” Carmody says. “While there’s no harm in platforms like ChatGPT and Realtor.com, first-time homebuyers navigating a stressful transaction or one that is likely to fall apart during an inspection don’t want to rely on chatbots. They want human guidance.”
That said, Carmody said the role of agents will change. AI will take over many of the transactional and administrative tasks.
“But if we get that part right for both agents and consumers, it ultimately expands agents’ ability to provide better service and better care for their customers,” she said.
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