In the UK alone, there are 21,641 estate agents – all of whom are paid salaries ranging from £14,000 to £60,000 per year. As the world begins to once again open up, estate agents across the globe are once again out in force but, maybe not for long. As businesses look for new ways to cut costs, many people feel that there may be a new real estate kid on the block – the robot. Real estate agents are also often required to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the local area in order to inform potential buyers about important aspects of the region including schools, transport and nightlife. If you've ever viewed a property to either buy or rent, you'll no doubt have been shown around the place by a real life, human estate agent – but all of that may be about to change.

Though Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a hot topic for businesses right now, it has so far failed to shake up the real estate industry and the use of property software in the same way it has transformed sectors such as banking and healthcare. Tom Shrive explains how the sector is ripe for AI disruption, and why this burgeoning tech will not jeopardise jobs. AI is an inescapable buzzword at the moment and has become an essential part of the technology industry. However, the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has not come without controversy, provoking polarized responses from the general public. By definition, artificial intelligence is technology that can perform human-like tasks.

In a rapidly changing world, the property management industry needs to keep up. With the widespread digitisation of products and services taking over almost every sector, estate agents, property professionals and landlords alike will need to stay on the pulse. PropTech has become one of the latest buzzwords on everyone's lips. Not only could property tech improve the property market, but it could completely transform it for the better. With this year's Future PropTech event coming up, we thought it was a good time to explain what PropTech is, and why as a landlord, you should embrace it.

In terms of how it is affecting the property industry, Artificial Intelligence (AI) could very well be as innovative an event as the appearance of the Internet itself in the mid-nineties, which went far beyond the expectations of its creators. Rather than being fearful of AI replacing human jobs, companies are starting to embrace automation for a more intelligent way of working and providing the highest level of client satisfaction. Below we will explore the different ways in which smart technology has already been or is on its way to being implemented within the property industry. Problems within rented buildings are a constant source of complaint and burden, to which the human element of a property manager also contributes. Things don't always go wrong between the working hours of 9-6, and waiting for something to get fixed till the next working day may be a problem of the past.

Rather than being fearful of AI replacing human jobs, companies are starting to embrace automation for a more intelligent way of working and providing the highest level of client satisfaction. Below we will explore the different ways in which smart technology has already been or is on its way to being implemented within the property industry. Problems within rented buildings are a constant source of complaint and burden, to which the human element of a property manager also contributes. Things don't always go wrong between the working hours of 9–6, and waiting for something to get fixed till the next working day may be a problem of the past. Companies such as UK-based Pi Labs are already implementing an AI messaging platform called AskPorter to help residents in apartments have issues within their buildings or inquiries they may have solved quickly and efficiently.

Following on from my recent article, Artificial Intelligence and Real Estate: Can We Automate the Industry?, I've been talking to Angela Meadows, Senior VP of Client Development at Humley. They are one of the fastest-growing tech companies in the UK, concerned with harnessing cognitive computing to empower companies to access and implement an artificial intelligence platform within their business, whether this is to transform their customer service tools or business processes, or simply to enable the end-user to find and action solutions for themselves without the need or cost of human intervention. Historically, Humley began by creating experiences for network operators and handset manufacturers that allowed them to have on-device, ongoing, long term relationships with their customers via real-time communication personalised to the customer's context. The experience would help the customer easily set up their device (reducing customer service calls, thus reducing costs for the brand), as well as discover new exciting features about their device and/or network. They have now combined their contextual targeting with elements of artificial intelligence (powered by IBM Watson), that enables the end-user to ask questions in natural language and receive relevant answers, based on their individual context.