Approaching 100% Adoption In PropTech

By Rivers Pearce

As a long time veteran of the property technology industry, the puzzle of technology adoption has been something that I have wrestled with for years. We know that agents and teams who effectively leverage technology can better manage, grow, and scale their businesses – the evidence is clear. Yet despite this proven path to success, widespread adoption remains frustratingly elusive.

It’s not that PropTech companies have been trying to solve the wrong problem – for years they have been pouring millions of dollars into making their products easier to use through UI/UX design, enhanced training, and robust support systems. Both PropTech companies and their brokerage partners have thrown vast resources at solving this adoption challenge.

Despite this, we appear to be at a point where the available options for simplification have reached their peak. We don’t appear to be able to overcome the underlying issues via UI/UX design (combined with training & support).

In order to understand why we are at this impasse, we need to take a look at the current adoption landscape.

Note: While property technology encompasses many sectors from commercial to construction, this article focuses specifically on residential real estate technology adoption challenges and solutions.

The Reality of Adoption

The current state of PropTech adoption tells us something crucial: The closer to the transaction, the higher the adoption rate. NAR’s 2024 Technology Survey data regarding technology that agents find very impactful illustrates this clearly:

• • eSignature (81 percent)
  • lockbox/showing tech (63 percent)
  • transaction management (50 percent)

Note: I have also referenced data from the 2022 and 2023 NAR technology surveys

These tools represent core operational services that brokerages provide to facilitate transactions. Unlike marketing or growth-oriented technology, agents don’t typically seek out or bring their own versions of these tools – they’re accepted as part of the brokerage infrastructure. Their purpose is clear and straightforward: they support specific tasks with immediate results. There’s no ambiguity in their use – an electronic signature is an electronic signature, a lockbox opens a door, transaction management tracks documents and deadlines. This operational focus, combined with their simple “input-equals-output” nature, helps explain their higher adoption rates.

In contrast, CRM technology – a critical tool for business growth – is consistently found very impactful by about 35-45% of agents year over year. The data tells an interesting story about CRM adoption: while it ranks as the second-highest source of quality leads (behind only social media), agents often prefer to bring their own solutions.

This preference for independent solutions makes sense when you consider the multifaceted nature of CRM technology. Unlike transaction tools with their singular purposes, CRM platforms can be used in vastly different ways: lead generation, database management, contact organization, automated communications, marketing campaigns, and more. Agents develop their own unique workflows and processes around these various capabilities, making it much more personal than transactional tools.

This disparity in adoption rates points to two fundamental truths: technology adoption soars when both the value is immediate and the use case is straightforward. It also suggests that tools requiring more personalized workflows tend to remain under the agent’s direct control, even at personal expense.

The Complexity Crisis

Real estate isn’t a simple business. Thus the technology solutions that power and empower it are inherently complex no matter any way you slice it. This is true for both “end-to-end solutions” and the “integrated modular platform/point solutions” approach. They all require large amounts of training and expertise to execute on the various functions of the real estate lifecycle.

Compounding this is the fact that agents are 1099 independent contractors. A brokerage can’t enforce technology usage/adoption (unless you’re a W2 model brokerage, e.g. Redfin, which would still be an outlier). However, as mentioned, the data states that they do adopt brokerage tools that enable the transaction (i.e. agents will adopt simple straightforward tools, especially ones that get them paid). 

But higher producing agents and teams (i.e. the agents all brokerages desire) are most likely to bring their own relationship/database tools to the table. This creates a problematic cycle: agents’ reluctance to input their valuable customer data into brokerage CRM systems leads to low adoption, which in turn devalues these tools in the eyes of both parties. Brokerages find themselves maintaining expensive systems that go largely unused, yet feel compelled to offer them to remain competitive in agent recruitment and retention. Meanwhile, agents see little value in a system they’re unwilling to fully utilize, further reinforcing their hesitation to adopt. The end result is brokerages investing in robust relationship management and integrated marketing tools that primarily serve as costly check boxes in their technology stack.

And round and round we go…

The Force Multiplier Potential

Steve Jobs in a famous 1980 interview referenced a study he read in Scientific American that measured the efficiency of locomotion across different species. The study showed that humans were relatively inefficient compared to most animals in terms of energy expended to travel.

“I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometer. And, humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing, about a third of the way down the list. But, a human on a bicycle, blew the condor away, completely off the top of the charts. And that’s what a computer is to me. What a computer is to me is it’s the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with, and it’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.” 

His point is that it’s “man’s ability as a toolmaker to fashion a tool that can amplify an inherent ability that he has” that sets us apart from the pack. 

Let’s be clear, the latent value in PropTech to amplify agent ability has always been there. It can be tapped into and leveraged in powerful ways. However, it requires so many hurdles that unlocking its full potential is only feasible for the select few who put the time, energy, money and effort into extracting it. Well-oiled agent teams have shown this to be the case through their extraordinary growth in the last 10+ years. I have personally seen firsthand the levels to which some real estate teams go to in order to leverage technology to manage and scale their businesses. The tech stack is almost considered a team member, and has dedicated resources for maintaining and optimizing it.

So if we know that PropTech has the potential to be the bicycle for the real estate industry, what’s the problem??

The Brinker Breakthrough

Sometimes problems need a paradigm shift in order to break the stalemate and open up pathways to fundamental disruption. In this case, the combination of generative and agentic AI creates a powerful equalizer.

Generative AI provides the intelligence to understand complex requests and adapt to changing conditions, while agentic AI provides the capability to execute tasks across multiple systems. Together, they allow complexity to shift into the background, into the unseen, and unleash the potential for PropTech to deliver the value that has been latent for so long.

McKinsey provides are great overview of this evolution, stating:

We are beginning an evolution from knowledge-based, gen-AI-powered tools—say, chatbots that answer questions and generate content—to gen AI–enabled “agents” that use foundation models to execute complex, multistep workflows across a digital world. In short, the technology is moving from thought to action.

Graphic showing how generative and agentic AI work together to execute a workflow.

Scott Brinker of ChiefMartec.com and Hubspot has been a leading voice in the marketing technology space for the last 15 years, and is known best for his annual marketing technology landscape reports. Earlier this year he wrote about the inflection point we are beginning to see marketing technology in the era of AI.

His hypothesis goes like this (full article is worth the read):

• Increasing Marketing Complexity: As marketing strategies and channels have expanded, the complexity of marketing activities has grown significantly.
• Growth in Martech System Complexity: To manage this heightened marketing complexity, martech systems have become more intricate, incorporating a wide array of features and functionalities.
• Escalation of UX Complexity: The added complexity in martech systems has traditionally led to more complicated user interfaces, making them challenging for users to navigate and utilize effectively.
• Introduction of Agentic AI: The advent of agentic AI, such as generative AI interfaces, is transforming this dynamic. These AI-driven interfaces can interpret natural language commands, simplifying user interactions with complex systems.
• Divergence of System and UX Complexity: With agentic AI, even as the underlying martech systems continue to grow in complexity, the user experience becomes more streamlined and intuitive. This marks a significant shift where system complexity no longer directly translates to UX complexity.

In short: advancements in AI are enabling more user-friendly interfaces, allowing marketers to leverage sophisticated technologies without being overwhelmed by their intricacies.

Graphic showing the inverse relationship between system complexity and user interface complexity in era of agentic AI.

As a result of AI, and more specifically agentic AI (i.e. independent AI agents interacting with and executing operations across the technology stack), complexity moves behind the scenes and simplicity moves to the forefront. In this new world, there’s an inverse relationship between software complexity and user experience. 

The implications here are profound.

AI As The Great Force Multiplier

He goes on to discuss Hubspot’s new Breeze Copilot (formerly ChatSpot) and how it represents this new era. He states:

“Through a simple ChatGPT-like text prompt, you could ask ChatSpot to do something for you in HubSpot — create a contact, write a personalized email, run a report, etc. — and, voilà, it would just do it for you… You didn’t need to navigate any menus or screenfuls of buttons, dropdowns, checkboxes…. this new mode of software interaction as a shift from point-and-click to describe-and-done.”

Graphic showing the evolution from “point and click” to “describe and done” with Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO of HubSpot. 

This shift extends well beyond marketing technology. OpenAI recently introduced their “Swarm” technology, which allows multiple AI agents to work together to break down complex tasks and orchestrate various tools simultaneously. Meanwhile, Anthropic has launched capabilities that enable their AI to actually control computer interfaces directly. So instead of the AI suggesting a great place to go on vacation and pointing you to websites to book the hotel, buy plane tickets, etc., agentic AI takes it a step further by executing all of those tasks for you (video below).

Think about that for a second: AI can now not only understand what you want to accomplish, but can actually execute the tasks across multiple systems. This isn’t science fiction anymore – it’s happening now. 

Again, the implications of this shift cannot be overstated. In this new world, complex workflows become simple commands. Multiple systems work invisibly together. No longer do we need to master complex tools and features. We simply need to understand what our ultimate goal is.

In other words, in this new era those who can best articulate their desired outcome will be the ones who achieve the greatest results. Energy and resources are diverted away from training on tool mastery, and focused on strategic thinking and customer experience.

The Implications For Real Estate

The shift from “point-and-click to describe-and-done” transforms everything about how real estate professionals interact with technology. It solves one of the fundamental problems the industry faces: making the complex simple.

Let’s consider the cascading effects on adoption. Traditionally, measuring ROI from proptech has been a difficult task. At best, we could draw correlations between feature usage and increases in production. For example: users who login daily, log their calls, create audience segments, and send timely relevant emails see an increase of X in leads generated and/or deals closed. However, feature usage as a benchmark for future success becomes more and more difficult as software complexity increases.

In this new world, tool usage moves behind the scenes and the energy is shifted into how to best articulate the desired outcome or goal. While there is no doubt a learning curve associated with mastering goal articulation, it’s arguably much less daunting than tool mastery. How many times have you heard someone say, “I just want the system to do XYZ!!” That is now becoming a reality.

This paradigm shift redefines what adoption means in property technology. Instead of measuring how many features an agent uses, we measure their ability to achieve desired outcomes. The agent no longer needs to master multiple tools – they simply need to articulate their goals through a clean interface (i.e., prompt box). Behind the scenes, AI becomes the power user, intelligently leveraging the full technology stack to deliver results. In this way, agents “adopt” more of the technology than ever before, even though they never directly interact with most of it. This invisible utilization is how we finally approach 100% adoption: not by making tools easier to use, but by making them invisible to the user entirely.

This transformation couldn’t come at a more critical time. As Jeff Corbett recently explored in ‘Real Estate Darwinism: Evolution, Then Revolution‘, the combination of the NAR Settlement and generative AI represents a quantum leap for competitive forces in real estate. Agents and brokerages will need to leverage technology to enable efficiency like never before – not just to maintain margins, but to meet evolving consumer expectations around both service and cost.

One important factor to note, though: it’s crucial to understand that this transformation isn’t about replacing real estate agents – it’s about elevating their role. While AI excels at executing routine tasks and managing complexity behind the scenes, it still requires human oversight and expertise. AI can schedule showings and analyze market data, but it can’t replace an agent’s strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, or negotiation expertise. By handling the rote and complex tasks that previously consumed so much time, AI frees agents to focus on what they do best: building relationships, providing strategic counsel, and applying their market expertise to help clients make better decisions.

Think of it as a partnership where each party plays to their strengths: AI handles the operational complexity while agents focus on the high-value activities that truly impact client outcomes. This isn’t about diminishing the agent’s role – it’s about amplifying it. By moving complexity behind the scenes, agents can spend less time wrestling with technology and more time applying their expertise where it matters most.

Breaking down these implications further:

For Agents:

• • Energy is redirected from learning tools to more dollar-productive activities.
  • Natural language replaces complex workflows.
  • Technology truly becomes their force multiplier.
  • Focus shifts from tool mastery to outcome articulation.
  • Clear and tangible ROI creates stronger incentive to engage with brokerage tools.

For Brokerages:

• • Technology training costs plummet.
  • Technology stack decisions are simplified… stack optimization based on actual AI utilization (i.e. a monthly report showcasing which tools and their associated features were leveraged by the AI to compose solutions for agent requests).
  • Focus shifts to enabling agent outcomes vs. teaching tools, which is more aligned with brokerage competencies around coaching, for example.
  • Better agent adoption leads to more valuable data insights.
  • Agent churn isn’t impacted by the individual components of a tech stack (thus, fear of agent churn is also reduced).

For PropTech Companies (it’s not as clear…)

• • Freedom to build deeply sophisticated solutions and shift resources away from UI/UX design (but this raises intriguing questions about differentiation in an AI-first world).
  • While complexity moves to the backend where it belongs, the implications for competitive advantage are still emerging. When every solution has an AI interface, what becomes the key differentiator?
  • Traditional metrics based on feature usage will become obsolete, but new success metrics remain undefined. How do we measure effectiveness when the user interface is largely invisible?
  • The technology stack hierarchy may shift dramatically. Will data aggregators gain power as AI’s need for comprehensive data grows? Will point solutions thrive in a composable world, or will end-to-end providers maintain their advantage through integrated data and workflows?
  • Integration becomes paramount, but questions remain about what form this takes. Will we see a new ecosystem of AI agents communicating with each other? Who controls these interactions?
  • As focus shifts from user retention to AI utilization, PropTech companies face strategic choices about their role in the value chain. Is it better to be the platform where AI operates, or the intelligence that guides it?

Early Signs of Transformation

While this might sound like a future vision, we’re already seeing evidence of this shift across the industry. 

Real estate brokerages such as Compass, Real Brokerage, and SERHANT are integrating advanced AI tools to enhance agent productivity and client engagement. While these tools are currently more focused on marketing-related tasks (i.e. generative AI that helps with writing emails or property descriptions), some are also beginning to execute operational tasks like scheduling meetings, as well as provide data analysis. SERHANT claims that its S.MPLE platform “has become a transformative tool for agents, streamlining workflows and saving nearly 1,000 documented hours of administrative work.” 

PropTech companies like StackWrap and RealSynch have an opportunity to fold into the tech stack in a way that facilitates this new reality (i.e. by connecting disparate toolsets via API integrations, which serve as the foundational layer for agentic AI). Sidekick’s AI assistant is already integrating into MLS and other proptech tools to augment agent productivity (e.g. market analysis, CMA generation, document analysis, and calendar management).

These early implementations, while focused on specific tasks, hint at the broader transformation ahead. They are simple interfaces and app experiences that sit on top of the complex tech stack hidden safely behind the scenes. Turning these advancements into consumer-facing experiences is the logical next step (as Real Brokerage plans to do in 2025).

Riding Into The Future

When Jobs spoke of computers as “bicycles for the mind,” he envisioned technology that amplified human capability without requiring mastery of the machine itself. Most people don’t need to understand gear ratios and mechanical advantage to ride a bicycle – they just need to know where they want to go.

Similarly, in this new era of PropTech, agents don’t need to master complex tools – they just need to articulate their destination. The AI handles the mechanics behind the scenes, much like a bicycle’s gears and chain working invisibly to multiply human effort.

This is how PropTech finally delivers on its promise: not by making tools easier to use, but by making complexity invisible. The question isn’t whether agents will adopt it, but how quickly they’ll learn to ride.