2025 was a landmark year for artificial intelligence, with companies in real estate, retail, and other major industries expanding and deepening their use of artificial intelligence.
For consumers, that evolution has been a mixture of elation and anxiety. Yes, AI can push human intelligence even further and help medical professionals pinpoint the early stages of the most deadly diseases.
But there are also concerns that AI is eroding human relationships, with OpenAI warning users against using ChatGPT for mental health advice or other personal insights.
“I understand that,” Zillow vice president of product Cameron Swiggett said of mixed feelings about AI’s place in the world.
But Swiggett (whose team spearheaded the development of SkyTour, Showcase Listings and several other AI-powered tools that the portal giant rolled out last year) remains bullish on the technology, saying innovators need to focus on creating a balanced and ethically sound experience for agents and consumers.
“What we need to do as an industry is find ways to leverage and empower agents with technology so they can delegate, automate, and use technology to gain insights to take next actions, freeing up agents to do human work,” he recently told Inman. “And there is also a very important responsibility that we have with AI.”
The following is a version of Inman and Swigget’s conversation, edited for clarity and brevity.
Inman: How has 2025 been for Zillow? It’s been a big year for new product releases and pushing the limits of AI.
Swiggett: 2025 saw real change. We’re seeing AI-powered agents and teams really take control and start leveraging all of this new technology.
In the AI space, there are many new proptech companies developing technology. From my perspective, Zillow has clearly developed a ton of great new features and moved agent efficiency deeper into the funnel. Now it’s less about listing copies and more about ultimately automating and delegating parts of your workflow.
A good example of this is: [customer relationship management] FollowUp Boss, a platform owned by Zillow. If you and I were having this conversation over the phone right now, as agent and client, using my follow-up boss’ phone number, I would be able to learn more about you, learn what you’re interested in, and make plans to consider the home.
I get to have a human connection with you, but in the background, AI transcribes, summarizes, and takes all the right notes, so when you hang up, it’s all automatically reflected in your CRM and suggests what to do next.
This is the human interaction part of real estate that reduces cognitive load and allows agents to work most efficiently. I think we’ll see more of that in 2026. It’s important to focus on what’s important, right?
Looking back to 2023 and 2024, the average person’s use of AI was limited to large language models like ChatGPT. And companies responded with AI-powered chatbots and assistants. However, in 2025, the way people approach AI has changed dramatically. What do you think triggered this leap forward?
If you look at the huge amount of investment that’s been put into AI, I think it’s one of those things. So you’ll see headlines about OpenAI and all these companies. [getting] Hundreds of billions of dollars in investments.
So I think the underlying technology for a lot of these things is improving. I think we’re seeing an overall increase in the use of hockey sticks, not just in real estate, of course, but in all other major sectors as well.
People are starting to get used to it more and more, but for us in particular, it felt like this big unlock where all our hard-earned work, blood, sweat, tears, and financial investment really started to click. And it hit home in a few areas. So we shipped some products in 2025.
We shipped something called SkyTour, which is an AI-powered flyaround interaction model. We launched Showcase Listing, our flagship premium listing product. We have also started virtual staging, which is also powered by AI.
And here’s what I started to see, and what the market started to see as well. [AI-powered tools] It is becoming more and more popular. 250 million people visit Zillow every month, and they’re seeing these features pop up in more and more listings and saying, “Wait a minute. Why isn’t that on my list?” How can I put it on the list?
I think that created a bit of a snowball effect.
So another aspect of what I’ve been bringing up in almost every interview about AI in recent weeks is the growing sense of overwhelm of a rapidly digitizing world. So even Popeye’s now has an AI-powered drive-thru experience.
I think New York Magazine ran a feature last week about Gen Z replacing their smartphones with old-fashioned flip phones. They’re buying things like digital cameras and MP3 players. I understand that. I even considered getting rid of my iPhone for a few months.
How do you make sense of this trend, and what does it mean for Zillow and companies like Zillow that have put a lot of effort into AI?
I understand that. I think the reason people do things like that is an underlying fear of what this technology claims to be able to do. And you’ve probably seen the same headlines I’ve seen. No matter what tech CEOs get on stage and say it, by 2030 office jobs will be gone and AI-powered machines will be doing everything.
And people, especially millennials, think, “I have to work for another 30 years.” what do you mean? You’ll lose your job, right? ‘I think there’s a creeping existential dread, and even I myself can feel it.
And going back to real estate, real estate changes, changes, and will continue to change. And successful agents and teams will be successful in 2025 and successful in 2026. It’s about finding the right balance. And that’s very important.
Like the Popeye example you’re talking about, people can tell when they’re talking to an AI or when they’re talking to a non-human, but sometimes it feels wrong. And what they want to be able to do is have human interaction.
And if you’re making the most important financial decision of your life, putting all the money you’ve ever earned into something you’re going to live in for the next 30 years, you don’t want to interact with a computer throughout the entire process of getting it done.
We have the data and we have the anecdotes. we know that to be true.
Even with all this new technology and automation powered by AI, people are actually raising their hands and saying they want humans more than ever before. They want an agent who can support them on that journey.
93% of sellers said they needed an agent to represent their home. Additionally, over 85% of buyers say they would definitely like to have an agent on the buying side. This is growing. This is not something that will be diminished by technology.
In the future, successful agents will realize that the activities with the highest ROI are those performed by humans. And those who try to automate everything with AI will not succeed. It’s important to find the right balance. What we need to do as an industry is find ways to leverage and empower agents with technology, freeing them up to do human work by allowing them to delegate, automate, and use technology to gain insights to take next actions.
Email Marian McPherson
