March 01, 2026

Jeff Turner is the co-founder of Tangilla, a REALTOR® association management platform. He has founded or served as president of several technology companies and mentored startups in the real estate industry.

During this year’s Texas REALTORS® Winter Meeting, Turner shared his thoughts on the roles agents and brokers will play in a future real estate industry with advanced artificial intelligence. Here are some of his observations and what he thinks agent success may look like going forward.

AI Can Be Too Helpful

AI has a real place in speeding up processes. My fear is the tendency for AI to be overly helpful. You’ve seen the AI follow-up question, “Would you like me to also… ?” It is very difficult to resist the pull of that. There are dangers of cognitive atrophy and AI having outsized influence on your decisions. Search engines give us links to information, while AI gives us conclusions. If AI is the first thing you turn to, you lose personal agency.

Humans Must Be Part of Big Conversations

Any conversation that shapes identity, security, belonging, or some form of moral responsibility should not be outsourced to AI. The top two are life-transition conversations and negotiation psychology.

Things like divorce, death, downsizing, scared first-time buyers, job loss, and financial stress shouldn’t be handled by AI because AI can’t carry the emotional weight. It cannot fully understand the consequences and thus cannot appropriately advise.

Also, AI can’t read the room. It can’t understand a look exchanged between a couple or a parent and child or the hesitation before a counteroffer. If agents simply become a relay between AI suggestions and the buyers or sellers, they shrink in value. If you remain a stabilizing presence, though, your value will grow.

Brokers, Think Strategically About Where To Use AI

Don’t rush into AI just to say you’re doing AI. Instead, ask: What tasks are being done repeatedly and require structured thinking? What value does a human bring to that task, and could an AI do it?

You need to build an operating model for AI processes, implement AI guidelines, understand the AI tools you’re using, and consider the risks involved. You also need to understand the disclosure requirements. The focus should be on agent productivity. How do I give time back to my agents to foster the connections that AI cannot?

Your Value Is in Making Connections

AI can only scale information. Humans have to scale trust, reassurance, and confidence. Those things come with someone who knows your kids’ names, remembers the look on your face when you saw the house, and shows up when the escrow gets messy. Eye contact, shared silence, showing up in person—these things won’t become sentimental extras; they’ll be differentiators.

The bottom line is that real estate professionals who use AI to get efficient while also becoming more human and more present will win. Those who automate away the messy human stuff will begin to look like everyone else. They will become interchangeable and indistinguishable from AI.