REAL AI: AI makes you swear, AI facts, headlines, and quote of the week
By Kevin Hawkins with Korey Hawkins | Vol. 3 Issue 28
REAL AI is a human-created weekly roundup of all things related to artificial intelligence in real estate and emerging AI innovations in other sectors likely to impact our industry.
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AI makes you swear
Ever tried calling a company for help lately?
Any company. Your bank. Your health insurance. Even your favorite online retailer. The pattern is the same: you just need help, but first, you must survive the bad bot experience. So bad that it causes you to swear at it as it continues to make mistakes a human would never make.
“Tell me how I can help you,” says a chipper voice that isn’t real. You answer. It mishears you. You repeat yourself. It doesn’t understand. So, you repeat yourself – and raise your voice as if it has a hearing impediment. It then offers options you never ask for. You beg for an agent. A human – any human!
The AI bot still doesn’t understand. So, you press zero. You yell “REPRESENTATIVE!” louder than your kids ever yelled “MOM!” at the grocery store.
Then you start cussing out the bot. The colorful tirades we unleash on bots could give any trucker a run for their money. Companies should record the rants we make – it would be a top download on Audible. You could call it Rage Against the Machine… Literally!
Then, eventually, you either give up, or perhaps worse, get transferred to someone 6,000 miles away with a script and zero solutions.
In that rare occasion, like calling AMEX, you finally get through to a person and you sigh in relief – but spend the next minute telling them how badly their bot is broken, and they agree because they hear it all the time! Yet they keep the bots?
This isn’t artificial intelligence. It’s real stupidity.
And it’s spreading. Companies are using bots as modern-day moats: protecting themselves from the peasants (us) with concerns, questions, or (heaven forbid) a problem.
A plot twist
I was recently helping a real estate services client figure out what really makes their clients “buy” their tech solution. They have it all: cutting-edge tech that’s really the only automated and AI-assisted solution in their space. They do a great job talking about its benefits and list all the reasons why to buy – but one.
Because when we looked closer, we discovered that one of the biggest reasons their customers loved them wasn’t digital at all: it was that they had actual humans providing actual customer service, six days a week. No phone labyrinths. No bot battles. Just highly knowledgeable, U.S.-based people who answer the phone and solve problems.
This missing benefit immediately ascended to the top of their “why buy” list.
Radical concept, right?
It reminded me of a firm where human-provided customer service is better than almost everyone: Tech Helpline from the Florida Realtors. It’s why they are far and away No. 1 in their space: friendly, knowledgeable, and empathetic tech advisors. I’m kind of shocked tech firms aren’t outsourcing to them – especially now.
The epiphany here? In the age of AI-everything, human service is the new luxury perk.
What’s the REAL AI takeaway for agents and brokers?
If you’re building with AI, or choosing AI tools, remember: the best AI supports the human experience, it does not replace it.
We all need to “John Naisbitt it” by making sure high tech is supported by high touch. High touch is what real estate agents do best.
High touch is why bots are NOT going to replace agents. Without high touch, there’s no way to provide a truly great customer experience.
AI can only win with a HITL: human-in-the-loop. Especially in customer service, the best technology connects us faster to people who can help, not to bots that can’t.
Because when FedEx loses the documents your client sent, or you get a text from a bank saying your buyer’s trust deposit didn’t clear, there’s only one thing worse than no help at all: help that makes you curse! (-Kevin)
AI Facts and Stats
1. 67% of surveyed senior executives agreed that AI agents will drastically transform existing roles within the next 12 months – PwC
2. 35% of organizations cite tech integration and migration challenges as a top barrier to adopting AI (including agentic AI) – Blue Prism
3. 41% of enterprises exploring AI agents admitted they still treat them as a side project – Lyzr
4. 45% of organizations surveyed are most interested in “Multiagent systems” as a GenAI technology development – Deloitte
5. 55% of organizations surveyed rate customer service and support as important for new gen AI initiatives in the next 12 months – Google Cloud
Source: Pragmatic Coders (-Korey)
AI Surprise of the Week
That number is impressive, considering Reuters Institute says only 7% of US adults use ChatGPT daily as of July 2025.
AI Headlines
AI Is Rewriting the Rules of Brokerage. Are You Playing in the Right Tier? | 7/9/25 WAV Group
Learn about the three tiers of AI that every broker must know.
Welcome to Your Job Interview. Your Interviewer Is A.I. | 7/7/25 The New York Times
As job recruitment becomes more automated, prospective employees see it as hollow and dehumanizing.
Google adds image-to-video generation capability to Veo 3 | 7/10/25 TechCrunch
Gemini Pro and Ultra users can now turn their photos into eight-second video clips with sound.
Real Estate Brokers Are Learning That AI Can’t Fake Authenticity | 7/9/25 Propmodo
Real estate professionals must utilize AI to personalize tasks that require the human touch in their job and accelerate tasks that don’t.
5 hidden ChatGPT tricks most people don’t use — but they’re actually game changers | 7/7/25 Tom’s Guide
Digging deep into ChatGPT will help you unearth unique tasks it can help you with. (-Korey)
AI Quote of the Week
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