Tuesdays are 3 AI updates, one hot take, one action. Fridays are 1 practical real estate agent workflow.
For years, the answer from real estate agents when I asked them "which AI agents are you running" was "None, I don’t know how to code." Well that blocker is slowly going away. This month the three biggest AI companies each dropped a working agent right inside apps you already have, and one of them now runs from your phone while you're out showing homes. The three updates below show that the time is now to build your first agent assistant.
1. ChatGPT can now do the work, not just talk about it. Agent mode now comes with the Plus and Pro plans most of you already pay for. You hand it a job and it goes and does it: reads a spreadsheet, researches a building, fills out a form, drafts a doc from files you give it. It runs its own browser, and you can watch it, pause it, or steer it while it works. OpenAI says it takes zero technical skill, and after using it, I agree. One tip: give it a job with a clear finish line, like "pull the last six sold comps in this ZIP into a table." The more specific, the more the whole thing clicks.
2. Google's Gemini agent already knows its way around Zillow. Google rolled its Project Mariner experiment into a real Agent Mode inside the Gemini app, and it runs up to ten tasks at once across live websites. In its own demos it filters Zillow listings and pulls LinkedIn profiles, the same sites your buyers are on every night. It's on the top Ultra plan for now, so it's the priciest of the three, but it's the clearest look at where this is going: an agent that shops the same portals your clients do and reports back. Point it at a series of browser research tasks you already run by hand and see how close it gets.
3. Claude's agent will soon ride in your pocket. Anthropic is testing a mobile companion for Cowork, its desktop agent that runs long jobs on your computer. Start a task at your desk, then check on it or steer it from your phone while you're out. For agents who live in the car between showings, that's the part that matters: kick off a listing packet before you leave, nudge it from the road, come home to a first draft. Cowork is the tool I teach, because it's the closest thing to handing work to a real assistant. Anthropic also doubled its free usage limits through July 5, so this is a cheap week to try it.
HOT TAKE
The "I'm not techy" excuse is dying. For two years it was fair cover, back when these tools needed setup and jargon to really make them work. Now the agent lives in an app you already pay for and takes plain English, so the only thing between you and handing off your busywork is deciding to start. The agents who get agents taking on grunt work this year will quietly out-serve the ones still doing it by hand at 11 pm.
1 THING TO TRY
Pick one job you did by hand last week and hand it to whatever agent you already have. Open ChatGPT agent mode, or Gemini's, and give it something with a clear finish: "find the five most recent sold comps within half a mile of [address], with list price, sold price, and days on market, in a table." Watch it the first time so you see where it's sharp and where it drifts. Then judge it like a new assistant, on time saved, not on whether it nailed everything. Do it once and you'll stop wondering what these agents are for.
AUGUST WORKSHOP
I'm running a live, in-person, full-day version of my Claude Cowork workshop at the Compass SoCal Luxury Summit in Orange County, August 12th. It's the hands-on version of everything I write about here, built for agents working at the top of their market. If you'll be there or are weighing it, reply "SUMMIT" and I'll send you the details on my session.
-Matt
