Let's be honest.
A lot of real estate agents are worried that artificial intelligence is going to push them out of the business. Some agents should be concerned, but not because AI suddenly made them vulnerable.
If you are not marketing, not following up, not improving, and not doing the work, AI is not what created the problem. You were already vulnerable. AI may accelerate the consequences. It did not create the underlying issue.
Is AI replacing agents?
People are blaming AI for almost everything right now. When a large company eliminates positions, AI receives the blame. When an organization begins operating with fewer people, AI receives the blame. When a real estate agent struggles to remain relevant, AI receives the blame.
I think that explanation is often too convenient. Some companies are genuinely changing how work gets done because of artificial intelligence. But some are also using AI as the public explanation for eliminating inefficiency, excess staffing, and work that was not producing enough value.
The same principle applies to real estate. Artificial intelligence did not suddenly make effort, expertise, follow-up, marketing, and client service important. Those things were always important. What AI changes is how quickly the absence of those qualities becomes visible.
Am I calling agents lazy?
No. I am not saying every real estate agent is lazy. I am talking specifically about the agents we were discussing during my Fargo Talks conversation with Jeff Fargo. These are agents who are not marketing, not following up, not learning, and not doing the work required to create value for clients.
There are outstanding agents who work incredibly hard. They understand their markets, build relationships, communicate clearly, negotiate effectively, and guide people through decisions that carry significant financial and emotional consequences.
Those agents are not valuable because they control access to information. They are valuable because they understand what to do with the information and understand the people standing in front of them.
What do clients value?
The most fundamental work of a real estate agent is human. An agent markets. An agent finds opportunities. An agent listens to clients. An agent helps people understand what they are actually looking for, including needs they may not initially know how to articulate. An agent walks through a property with them and observes what creates excitement, hesitation, discomfort, or disagreement.
During my conversation with Jeff, I made the example personal. What are Katie and I looking for in a home? How do we live? What does the property need to provide for both of us? Where do our cats fit into that life? Those details may sound small, but they can determine whether the house is actually right.
A search tool may know the number of bedrooms, square footage, price, school district, and distance from work. A good agent understands the people entering the house. The agent connects what clients say they want with what their reactions reveal they may actually need. That requires listening, interpretation, trust, and situational judgment.
What should AI remove?
The opportunity is not to make the real estate agent less human. It is to remove the work preventing the agent from spending enough time being human.
Agents are frequently pulled into administrative roles surrounding the transaction. They capture notes, repeat information, coordinate documents, track details, correct omissions, and move work from one system to another. That work may be necessary, but it is not where the agent creates the greatest value for the client.
An agent should be able to spend far more time marketing, advising, communicating, negotiating, and helping people make decisions. The agent should not spend most of the day functioning as an accountant, financial adviser, legal-document processor, contract-field filler, or administrative assistant.
AI should reduce the burden surrounding the relationship. It should not replace the relationship.
Can AI choose the home?
Artificial intelligence can process enormous amounts of property information. It can compare prices, square footage, neighborhoods, commute times, taxes, market history, and property characteristics. Those capabilities will continue improving.
But identifying data is not the same as understanding a household. A buyer may request a particular feature and discover during a showing that it does not matter. Two partners may respond differently to the same room. A house may meet every stated criterion and still feel wrong. A seemingly minor detail may reveal something central about how the buyers expect to live.
An experienced agent recognizes those moments and asks the next question. The agent sees the interaction between the people and the property. Right now, I do not know how AI independently walks through a home with Katie and me, reads our reactions, understands how our cats fit into our lives, and helps us recognize whether that house is actually right.
AI can help narrow the possibilities. The agent helps the client understand the decision.
Will good agents win?
They can. The answer depends on what agents do with the time the technology returns to them. Removing administrative work has little value if the recovered time is wasted.
A strong agent can reinvest that time in prospecting, marketing, market knowledge, client communication, negotiation, and better service. That creates a meaningful division in the industry. AI may make weak agents easier to replace. It may also give strong agents more capacity to perform the work clients value most.
The technology does not determine which result occurs. The behavior of the agent does.
Where does Ethica fit?
Ethica AI is the company behind Ethica, the AI transaction assistant that is available as a free member benefit for California Association of REALTORS members. Ethica is designed to reduce more of the transaction work surrounding the agent while keeping the real estate professional central to the relationship and the decision.
That aligns with the larger argument I made on Fargo Talks. The best use of AI is not eliminating the part of the job that makes an agent valuable. It is removing more of the work that prevents the agent from doing it.
The full Fargo Talks episode with Jeff Fargo publishes Wednesday, August 5, 2026.
*Judd Hoffman is CEO and Co-Founder of Ethica AI, building AI-powered tools for real estate transaction workflows.*