Check out our new The REAL AI Podcast for this week – Episode 43 9/7/26 – AI-generated with hosts Miles and Grace
REAL AI: AI is an unlicensed agent, Thanks BAREIS MLS, AI stats and facts, headlines, and AI quote of the week
By Kevin Hawkins with Korey Hawkins | Sept. 7, 2026 – Vol. 4 Issue 36
REAL AI is the industry’s first and most popular weekly newsletter and podcast, helping real estate professionals stay on top of the most important AI developments to help save time and stay safe. Check out the book: The REAL AI Guide for Real Estate Agents at Amazon.
AI is an unlicensed agent
What happens when an AI chatbot crosses the line from answering a question to giving real estate advice? Or when a real estate agent assigns their AI agent to communicate with a client, and the AI agent recommends what to do next or takes action without review?
That should set off a five-alarm alert inside every real estate agent and broker using AI today. AI may be called an “agent,” but it does not have a real estate license. If it performs an activity that requires one, your license could be the one at risk.
That’s the discussion I had this week during a taping of Inside AI with Summer Goralik, one of the nation’s leading real estate compliance consultants and a well-known expert on this topic. She previously investigated hundreds of complaints for the California Department of Real Estate and later worked with the Orange County District Attorney’s Real Estate Fraud Unit.
AI has no license to lose
Goralik offers very simple guidance that cuts through the confusion: Treat AI like an unlicensed assistant. If an unlicensed person cannot legally perform an activity in your state, you should not allow AI to perform it independently either.
Every state defines what an unlicensed assistant may and may not do. Agents and brokers should immediately find that guidance on their state regulator’s website and use it as their starting point for AI.
AI can be an extraordinary assistant. It can draft content, organize information, summarize documents and provide another set of eyes. But the licensed agent must remain involved in whenever professional judgment, fiduciary responsibility or consumer advice enters the picture.
And this simple test isn’t restricted to AI agents. You can make the same mistake with a chatbot like ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude. If you cut and paste advice generated by one of these tools and send it to a client without reviewing it, you could find yourself in the same kind of hot water. You can’t blame it on the bot: it’s your license to lose or a bad mark on your record you can never erase.
The rules aren’t moving at AI speed
The problem is that the technology is advancing much faster than the rules and regulatory guidance. It’s not even close. Goralik recently spoke to regulators from across the country and found that very few had issued AI-specific advisories, even though agents are already knee-deep in this technology.
That does not mean existing real estate laws disappear. Licensing laws, advertising requirements, fair housing rules, fiduciary duties and broker supervision requirements still apply. Regulators are now trying to apply rules created for human activity to AI systems that can write, communicate, recommend and increasingly act on their own.
The risk starts before AI takes action
Today, the risk is getting exponentially magnified as real estate agents begin to embrace agentic AI. Increasingly, AI agents are being connected to email, calendars, CRMs, transaction systems and other platforms. These AI agents are designed to save agents time by taking action on their behalf, including communicating directly with consumers.
Without a HIM (human in the middle) or HER (human evaluate and review), a real estate agent could cross the line by allowing AI to perform what state law defines as licensed activity.
AI agents acting on their own, sometimes even breaking through human guardrails, was one of the dominant themes at Ai4, the massive AI conference I attended in Las Vegas last month. We recently saw how dangerous that can become with the OpenAI-Hugging Face fiasco. The conversation has shifted from what AI can create to what it should be allowed to do.
In real estate, that question comes with licenses, livelihoods and putting trust – the backbone of our industry – at risk. Remember: just because you can doesn’t mean you should!
Keep the licensed human in charge
The safest approach is still the simplest: keep the HIM and HER in all AI. Review and refine AI-generated work before it reaches a buyer or seller and never surrender your licensed judgment or decision-making to a machine.
If something goes wrong, blaming the bot is not a justifiable defense. AI will not face a regulatory investigation, pay you attorney bills and fines or lose its license. AI does not and cannot have a real estate license. You and your broker own the outcome.
Scary, huh? Well, this is only one part of my recent conversation with Summer Goralik. In a couple of weeks, she joins me for what may be one of the most important Inside AI episodes we have done: examining what agents and brokers need to know about using AI before a complaint, investigation and enforcement action forces the industry to pay attention. (-Kevin)
AI Facts + Stats
1. 28% of Americans surveyed said they would use AI for estimating their home’s value.
2. 37% of Americans surveyed stated they’d be willing to let AI complete a home purchase from start to finish with minimal human involvement.
3. Only 9% of Americans surveyed said they trust an AI tool the most in deciding how much to offer on a home.
4. 72% of Americans surveyed said they would use AI for at least one homebuying or selling task.
5. 18% of Americans surveyed stated they would use AI for comparing mortgage offers.
Source: Lendingtree (-Korey)
AI Headlines
AI Will Transform Work, But It Can’t Replace Relationships | 9/4/26 Time
AI can take over routine work, but human relationships remain the real value in real estate.
How Realtors Are Really Using AI in the Age of “Real Estate Slop” | 8/31/26 Dwell
Agents are applying AI to analysis, marketing and content creation despite concerns about misleading imagery.
Tech Roundup: AI worries diverge by gender at brokerages | 9/2/26 Inman
Women leaders are more concerned about privacy and regulation, while men focus more on cost and ROI.
AI Is Making Big Brokerages Bigger and Small Ones More Visible | 9/2/26 Propmodo
The influence of AI is jumbling the playing field for real estate brokerages.
Inside AI – Episode 6 with Justin Lundy – The AI inflection point: When AI stops answering and starts doing | 9/2/26 WAV Group
How AI is shifting from answering questions to taking action across real estate systems.
How to use AI without losing the thing that makes you irreplaceable | 9/2/26 Inman
Agents should use AI to enhance their expertise, not replace their judgment.
AI Is Making Reputation More Valuable Than Reach – Even in Real Estate | 9/3/26 Entrepreneur
Reviews, media coverage and third-party credibility are becoming increasingly important for online visibility thanks to AI.
HomeSmart Extends AI From Upload to Closing | 9/3/26 RISMedia
HomeSmart’s new AI tools can now process documents, flag issues and streamline broker reviews. (-Korey)
AI Quote of the Week: Zach Gorman – RealReports
Your SAFE AI handbook is The REAL AI Guide for Real Estate Agents, the Amazon bestseller. Story ideas? Email korey@wavgroup.com.