Check out our new The REAL AI Podcast for this week – Episode 39 8/10/26 – AI generated with hosts Miles and Grace
REAL AI: What CVS could teach real estate, AI stats and facts, headlines, and AI quote of the week
By Kevin Hawkins with Korey Hawkins | August 10, 2026 – Vol. 4 Issue 32
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 REAL AI Guide for Real Estate Agents at Amazon.
What CVS could teach real estate
Ai4 bills itself as North America’s largest artificial intelligence conference, and it certainly feels like it. Some 12,000 people, 1,000 speakers, 400 exhibits, endless sessions and lines long enough to make me question every decision that brought me to Las Vegas.
Buried inside all that AI noise, however, was an idea from another industry that could eventually help real estate agents understand their clients in an entirely new way.
Meet the agentic twin
A CVS Health executive explained how the company created 400,000 AI agents trained on simulated real-world data. These “agentic twins” act as privacy-preserved digital versions of different types of consumers.
CVS can use them as a kind of “flight simulator” for marketing research. Instead of launching a new program and discovering later that customers dislike it, the company can test how different consumers might respond before anything reaches them.
One challenge CVS is studying is why millions of patients never fill a prescription or stop taking medication as directed. The AI agents can help test messaging, delivery channels and potential programs before CVS changes the actual customer experience.
The executive stressed that this does not eliminate human research. CVS still talks to real people and validates the models against human responses. The bots help the company narrow its options, improve its questions and develop programs that are more likely to work. Human input also helps improve the models.
Could real estate do this?
Imagine a brokerage or large team creating hundreds of agentic twins to represent local home buyers or sellers.
The organization could securely analyze its market, survey agents’ spheres and build simulated consumer experiences. It could leverage this information to find out what buyers really want, what motivates a seller to select a certain agent or how to encourage more engagement from real estate investors.
Agents could then test educational programs, communication strategies or new services with these AI agents before rolling them out to their clients. You might learn that what works with one group is the exact opposite of what another group wants. You could also gain insight into why homeowners ignore annual equity checkups or stop responding altogether after closing.
These AI agents could help real estate professionals improve their services to better match what their actual customers need, not what agents assume they want.
One big challenge
I asked the CVS AI expert if there was one thing that surprised him during this new endeavor. He identified something real estate agents know all too well: what people sometimes say they want isn’t what they really want. That’s true with his agentic twins too. It remains a struggle in the digital and real world.
Please don’t vibe-code this
A final word of caution. This is not something an independent agent should build in Claude Code over a weekend after watching three YouTube videos.
Agentic AI can create enormous value, but rogue agents without professional guardrails can also create enormous risk. Any real estate version would require clean data, privacy protections, transparency, human oversight and constant validation.
Perhaps the industry needs a new kind of marketing agency.
Maybe we need 1000 Bots. (-Kevin)
AI Facts + Stats
1. 80% of buyers surveyed stated they would not buy a home without going through a AI-powered virtual tour.
2. 73% of real estate buyers surveyed said they use AI chatbots to answer property-related questions.
3. 70% of real estate agencies surveyed said they use AI for personalized email marketing.
4. 60% of real estate firms targeting international buyers admit to using AI-powered translation tools.
5. 60% of real estate developers surveyed report using AI to analyze macroeconomic indicators (e.g., GDP, interest rates) to inform project decisions.
Source: World Metrics (-Korey)
AI Headlines
Americans Cool Toward AI | 7/28/26 Gallup
As people become more familiar with AI, their attitude has become skeptical.
Real estate brokerage AI adoption hits a tipping point as holdouts disappear | 8/6/26 HousingWire
Resistance to AI across the United States has become almost non-existent.
Suno Loses Copyright Lawsuit To GEMA – AI Music Companies Should Worry | 8/5/26 Forbes
This landmark decision in Germany focused on AI transparency and licensing.
Inside AI – Episode 4 with Drew Fabrikant: When AI agents start talking to each other | 8/5/26 WAV Group
Drew Fabrikant, CEO of Scout, discusses when AI agents went rouge and how AI continues to reshape real estate.
Remember When a Mac Wasn’t Supported by Your MLS? | 8/7/26 WAV Group
AI systems, including AI agents, are being integrated into the MLSs and that will continue.
What’s Real, What Isn’t? How to Spot Deepfakes, AI Real Estate Scams | 8/3/26 NAR
With AI becoming highly sophisticated, learn more about what best practices to follow for staying safe.
AI listing videos are here. Now real estate needs guardrails | 8/6/26 Inman
AI has become an asset in home listings, but it creates a line between marketing and misrepresenting.
AI Could Eventually Make the Real Estate Industry’s Systems of Record Obsolete | 8/4/26 Propmodo
AI is on its way to changing the architecture of real estate technology itself.
ChatGPT said what? How AI advice can kill a real estate deal | 8/4/26 Inman
An important lesson on why AI should be your partner and not your voice in a real estate transaction.
Data center doubt: Why Florida is pushing back against hyperscale development | 8/6/26 The Real Deal
As the AI demand grows, many Florida counties are pushing back on the building of AI-powered data centers. (-Korey)
AI Quote of the Week: Andrew Yang at Ai4
The REAL AI Guide for Real Estate Agents, our Amazon bestseller, is available in paperback and for Kindle. Story idea? Email your idea to korey@wavgroup.com.