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AI doesn’t need to get in between agents and their clients. That’s why CoreLogic believes its important to be “digital first” but “human when it matters”.
Recently, REB’s Juliet Helmke recently sat down with Josh Symons, head of real estate solutions at CoreLogic, to unpack the firm’s approach to helping real estate professionals nurture relationships with the help of technology.
Fresh off CoreLogic’s win at the Australian AI Awards in the category of Innovation in Real Estate, Josh explained why the company is putting a focus on the potential of new tech to revolutionise workflows, and what it hopes to launch in 2025.
Here’s how the conversation went.
Juliet Helmke, REB - first off, congratulations on taking home that prize.
Josh Symons, head of real estate solutions at CoreLogic - Thank you so much. It's always an honour, a privilege and these things always come as a surprise. We're excited and grateful that we had the opportunity to be part of this and take home the win.
JH: What did it mean to you and the team behind RiTA to be recognised in this setting?
JS: I think it's interesting because winning an award is just so much more than what it may seem at face value. This win is an absolute testament to the great work that our teams do and to the ongoing support of our customers. As we know, the proptech landscape is complex, there are a lot of players and these types of wins aren't possible without partners that we work with and our team has been laser-sharp-focused on introducing generative AI capability into the RiTA product.
The recognition is important because it's not easy to get products like this to market, it takes a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of investment, blood, sweat and tears. We have a vast array of go-to-market teams and customer experience teams that have taken a leadership position in educating our users to ensure they realise the full value of the investment we've made.
It also came at a pivotal time for our team because we've been working on our next three-year planning cycle. As part of that plan, one of the key goals we have is for CoreLogic to be known for delivering AI-first products that deliver class-leading user experiences. This is that vote of confidence in the plan that we've got ahead.
JH: Can you give us an overview of RiTA’s capabilities and how it intends to make people's lives easier?
JS: RiTA is one of the key products that has become part of a much greater picture of what CoreLogic is. We've got that legacy heritage and leading position in property research and data, but that only gets you so far and the business made some significant investments to broaden the real estate products and solutions that we have and RiTA being the cornerstone of that.
From our perspective, for the real estate industry, the real problem to solve is the ability of real estate agents to nurture relationships, do them at scale, build high trust and position themselves as the leaders in their market.
It's important to note that real estate agents are one of the only industries in the world that have to market themselves to get the product that they need to sell, to then market that product, to sell it so that they can get a successful outcome for them and their clients which brings a lot of challenges.
At its core, RiTA's capability is designed to help our customers’ agencies and their agents truly leverage the data that they collect and understand it. It looks inside the CRM, understands the contacts that you have, when you’ve connected with them last and then generates things like small smart call lists that help real estate agents contact relevant people at the right time to build those relationships at scale.
Right now, you've got all of this data just sitting. You've done all the great work collecting that data, you've got to make calls because something has happened in a certain neighbourhood – say there's been activity on a property nearby – but so many clients don't get contacted in that database purely because agents have so much to do. They've got to manage these complex sales processes and they've also got to build audience, connect with potential sellers and then they've got the other side of the equation which means that communication is key.
Through that two-way SMS service, you can connect with all of your customers who have given you consent to do so in a better, faster, more scalable way and that's absolutely where the generative AI capability has massive strength to contextualise those conversations, interpret what that person is saying and have a meaningful conversation.
Of course, then there's the whole email responder piece to inquiries. Both agencies and sellers invest heavily when they list their property on a portal and make sure that those conversations are happening with those inquiries in a timely manner and they're the key pieces that RiTA covers. But when you boil it down, it's a product that is designed to nurture all of those stages and conversations.
JH: These perceptions of AI are often about generating things out of nothing, but the smart solutions go so much further than that. Tell me about how you think business leaders should be thinking about this: What is their data worth?
JS: The data you have is only valuable when you do something with it and that's important for people to keep front of mind. What we mean by that is using data to drive insight, to drive an action, is the most important.
In the context of real estate, how agents build relationships, is being redefined. There's no shortage of commentary around the digital transformation of the real estate industry and that has certainly put us in a position where trust and transparency are more important than ever due to that digital footprint that exists.
There's been a lot of change in how data can be used and more changes are coming at us. This means your ability to collect first-party data and its importance is now really well understood. The ability to nurture relationships at scale, to market effectively to an audience, to maintain transparency and to leverage that first-party data is absolutely a key component of the strategy.
When you stand back and understand that is the key thing, there is no point collecting data that is not usable, that has no value because you can't drive an action from it.
We're encouraging the industry to truly understand what is first-party data, how you collect it, how you maintain it and how you use it to drive an action -- and that's the most critical thing in understanding.
JH: Does scale matter here? Is a bigger list more valuable or can businesses of any size look to make their database work better or work harder from them?
JS: I don't necessarily think bigger is better in this instance, data quality is equally as important as the volume of data.
We often hear comments banded around that I've got 40,000 people in my CRM and my database but you realise that there are incomplete names, no numbers, and incorrect email addresses -- in the context of RiTA and the ability to nurture relationships, those things are key.
Then we're massive proponents for making sure you're doing the right thing legally and ethically with the data. Making sure that you have consent to continue to connect with those people in your database is key because otherwise, you've got copious amounts of contacts that have no value.
Bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better. We have situations where we've got multi-office networks using RiTA, and then we have single agents that use it, and yes, there is going to be a vast difference between the volume of data that those different types of customers have.
I think outside of volume, the ability to use it is probably the most important. Making sure when you ask for the right to keep in contact with someone, that you do that instead of letting that contact go stale and trying to revisit it in three or four years is probably once again a really important point. When you realise that, you really start to understand the importance and the value of the data and the contacts. This is why RiTA is such an important tool.
JH: How do you feel AI can help real estate professionals instigate more meaningful conversations? Particularly when sometimes there's a perception that it dehumanises the process, which can why people bristle against the idea of integrating it.
JS: I think at first there is a huge educational piece here, and then there will be an adoption curve.
When you start talking to people about the simple AI uses that have existed for a long time in Netflix, Google Maps and others, you start to see the penny drop. Because it’s an industry where trillions of dollars are being thrown at it and it's advancing quickly -- there is a little bit of fear.
But in terms of the dehumanising piece, scientific research shows that the average person can only hold 150 meaningful relationships. We've got a situation where agents and agencies need to hold thousands of relationships in their core market areas and beyond -- that’s where AI helps.
There's a philosophy we have at CoreLogic, which is digital first, human when it matters and we have that philosophy with the way we interact and deal with our customers, but we're also looking to broaden that and take that entire philosophy to our customers and the way they connect with the consumer and their customer.
It's about what's relevant to the persona that you're talking to: whether that's keeping them informed on their property, the estimate of value for their property, what's happening in their suburb, or properties that have been bought and sold or leased in their local area. You can use technology to do that and that technology just happens to be AI.
As you start to unpack these things, you start to help people understand that it's not about dehumanising it, but it's really about being relevant, being reliable, being consistent and making it convenient and then making sure that you're connecting over the phone, on a phone call or in person at those most critical points that matter to a buyer, a seller or a renter.
JH: Looking towards 2025, a lot of people are going to be doing some assessments of their business and how it's working going into the year ahead. How do you think they should be thinking about data as it relates to their team?
JS: This is everyone's problem and this is everyone's opportunity, no matter where you are in the business. First-party data is a well-understood strategy now and it's probably prudent to make sure as we all move into 2025, that there is an absolutely solid understanding of what the strategy is.
The first thing you need to do is understand what you have today and then what you need to be successful to execute in the future, and then take a step back and build some practices around that. It's really about how you collect data, how you cleanse it and then importantly how you maintain it.
The other element for us and our clients is making sure you know the law, understand the regulations that come with it and make sure you have those processes to comply with regulations. If you don't, there are legal ramifications, but then there is the whole element of building trust, being transparent and being respectful with customers and prospective customers about the information that you're collecting.
Finally, you need to invest in getting the right technology platforms to truly realise the value of the data that you hold.
JH: AI is an area of constant innovation and you're responding to what you see out there in the marketplace, what people need. Can you share a little bit about what you worked on this year, what happened in recent months, new integrations, and new updates that people might like to hear about?
JS: Stating the obvious, the introduction of generative AI into RiTA has driven outstanding improvements for our customers on that conversation capability by allowing those more contextual conversations. It's got multilingual capability behind it and importantly, it's got a deeper understanding of our very own unique Aussie slang because you can imagine the conversations that happen in SMS and the all-important emojis which we all love to use in sms.
Outside of that, one of the continual focuses for our team is that underlying technology that's always a focus and that doesn't necessarily yield tangible features and functions for our clients. It's such an important piece of work that our product and engineering teams do to focus on the scalability of the product into the future to make sure we can deliver on those promises of those conversations we're saying everyone should have with their contacts.
The other element is a renewed focus on the integrations we have with enablers such as MRI and Reap it. We recognise that we can't do in the complex Proptech ecosystem what we can do without our partners and we have this mantra that is key for us in the next three years of meeting our customers where they are. That means making sure that we have the best, most seamless integrations into the technology platforms that our customers choose to use and invest in. It's not about them having to do everything in our solutions, but using the underlying power of the solutions that we have with complementary platforms in that broader technology stack and ecosystem.
This year that's included specific things like how we integrate with MRI's box and dice solution. They've invested and had a focus on how leads are managed, which is another significant area that businesses invest in and are looking to make sure they're driving return on investment in. It's truly seamless and it is putting our power under the Box and Dice solution, which we know that customers that use it, love it.
Then, spoiler alert, we've been working with Luke and Ian at Locked On, so we'll be imminently announcing that integration with Locked On. We're excited to be working with those guys and once again going on that path of creating mutual value for the clients that use both systems.
Then in the first half of next year, we'll be looking at expanding those integrations once again and working with Eddie and his team at Zenu, delivering on that promise of meeting our customers where they are.
Lastly, we have been focusing on leveraging the vast property data universe that we have and the market activity that we collect to power solutions like Rita. Naturally, the more market activity indicators, the more meaningful conversations that happen and the greater impact we have on our customers due to the solutions that they use.
JH: If this has left anybody with some exciting things that they want to talk about, how can people reach out to you and CoreLogic if they're interested in hearing more about all the exciting things that you're doing in the product?
JS: If they head over to our website, corelogic.com there's a whole bunch of ways they can connect with us there and products that they're interested in. Please reach out and connect with the account manager who looks after you or anyone else in our team.
Listen to the full conversation with Josh Symons here.
Editor’s note: This conversation has been edited and abridged from the original transcript for clarity.
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