Back in 2008, the music industry faced an existential threat from illegal download sites like The Pirate Bay. Sales had fallen off a cliff, and nobody could see a way forward. When Spotify appeared, it looked like the final nail in the coffin.
The key players had a choice: fight to protect their intellectual property in court, or embrace the new world.
They chose the latter, taking equity stakes in Spotify while receiving income from every stream. That decision created a far more profitable model and kept them central to the revolution in consumer behaviour.
Today, the property market is at a similar crossroads.
More and more viewing requests are coming from AI search tools, bypassing platforms like Rightmove, and agents are rushing to exploit this new channel. Within months, not years, a property search module will emerge on ChatGPT that makes aggregation obsolete. Why pay for property portals when AI can gather everything directly from agents’ websites?
In the short-term, this seems like a huge win: cutting out expensive platforms, reducing overheads, and speeding up transactions.
But within a few years, the very data agents are now handing over will render them obsolete.
If you use AI as much as I do, it’s easy to picture how a “sell-my-home” module will work. In fact, here’s what I got from a quick “can you help me sell?” enquiry:
Absolutely, I can help you through the whole process of selling your home, but first I need to understand a bit more about your situation…
Then it asked me for: location, property type, agent status, goals, and timeline, and offered to:
– Decide whether to sell off-market or on the open market
– Prepare documents
– Choose the best agent (or contact buyers directly)
– Set a pricing strategy
– Build a marketing plan to reach serious buyers quickly
That’s today. But remember how useless 1st-gen mobile internet (WAP) was? Now look at it! Multiply that progress by a hundred. That’s the trajectory of AI.
Soon, it won’t say “let me help you choose the best agent.” It’ll say:
“Take photos and build a floor plan. I’ll create the perfect listing, set the optimum asking price from comparables and buyer demand (thanks to all that agent data), match it to buyers, book viewings, coach you on what to say, help negotiate the best price, and oversee the sale.”
For anyone thinking “they said this about Purplebricks” — this is different. AI isn’t another cut-price agent. AI is already your expert. Soon it’ll be your PA. Soon after, it’ll be your everything.
Disruption will come in two stages:
Stage 1 – Portals disrupted: Buyers move to AI search. Agents feed their data in, undermining costly portals like Rightmove.
Stage 2 – Agents disrupted: The very data agents gave away trains AI systems to replace them.
The rise of AI is inevitable. The world is about to change fast, and I’m not sure many of us will like it (unless you’re one of the world’s tech oligarchs).
We can’t stop the big picture, but we can protect our industry.
How? By building a closed platform where AI can’t go. Think Airbnb for property, with buyers and agents in a dedicated space.
Within that environment, AI can learn from the full picture of buyer–agent interactions, delivering smarter valuations, matches and strategies – enhancing agents’ expertise while protecting their data. Buyers will still have an AI-powered experience, but agents will remain the best choice for sellers seeking maximum price and efficiency.
AI + agent will trump AI alone – but only if we find a way to keep the data off-limits to Musk and Bezos’ grubby little hands.
Time is running out, and far faster than you think.
Mark Wells is founder and CEO of Invisible Homes.
