As the real estate industry advances towards digital transformation, proptech has become a vital component for success, says Marcus Chu, CEO of APAC Realty and ERA Asia Pacific.
SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - Real estate agency ERA Realty Network is leveraging the famous artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot tool, ChatGPT into its proprietary agent mobile application SALES+.
Specifically, it integrates the OpenAI Generative Pre-Trained Transformer 3 (GPT-3) as a new feature on the app. This tool will be available to ERA agents who use the app from Tuesday, 7 March 2023.
The AI chatbot is an additional support tool to help agents with essential copywriting, content generation, and translations. According to Marcus Chu, CEO of APAC Realty and ERA Asia Pacific, this will boost the overall effectiveness of ERA agents by freeing their time to focus on relationship building and providing counsel to their clients.
The OpenAI GPT-3 in SALES+ comprises a Guided Creation and an Advanced section that can assist with AI-generated content creation.
Under Guided Creation, some content management options include AI-generated property listing descriptions and search-engine optimised (SEO) listing content.
Other content options include open house invitations, profile introductions, translations, tenancy reminders, and personalised festive greetings for property agent-related communication and engagements. These are all generated through the AI chatbot.
Meanwhile, the Advanced section features more direct interaction with the OpenAI GPT-3 for a broader range of AI-generated conversational responses.
According to Raymond Leong, chief technology officer at ERA Realty Network, the integration of OpenAI GPT-3 took the development team about one month to roll out. "This came after extensive consultation sessions with our agency leaders and agents to find out how this ChatGPT can deliver what agents on the ground need," he says.
ERA says it plans to incorporate component training of the new ChatGPT feature as part of its ongoing agent training sessions for the SALES+ app. Since the app's launch in July last year, more than 10,800 attendees have completed different training modules to learn how to utilise the app.
The agency says that ERA has approximately 8,600 agents registered under its name, and the more significant attendance number reflects instances of repeat attendance.
The rollout of a chatbot to supplement the SALES+ app comes as the real estate agency industry doubles down on property technology (prop-tech) to boost professionalism and efficiency.
According to ERA, the company spent $3 million on prop-tech in 2022, which mainly went towards developing and rolling out the SALES+ app last year. "This investment was part of our larger initiative to fully embrace technology within our organisation, which included the appointment of a CTO to lead a tech team and steer innovation in the real estate industry," says Chu.
In 2023, the agency plans to invest another $5.2 million into prop-tech advancements to improve efficiency and automate vital administrative processes.
"Our utmost priority remains to enhance the overall customer experience using technology to increase efficiency," says Chu. "Our integration of GPT-3 into SALES+ is just the beginning of our larger tech expansion plan."
"As the real estate industry advances towards digital transformation, prop-tech has become vital for success. At ERA, we differentiate ourselves from the pack by equipping our salesforce with cutting-edge technology, creating new growth opportunities and investing in the right resources to ensure future proofing," says Chu.