Back in December, I wrote a detailed piece about the potential for artificial intelligence streamlining the real estate industry through automation. Eight months on, and there is increasing evidence of just how big an impact there could be for machine learning in real estate. The most recent evidence, launched in mid-July, is TouchAssist, created by Touch Commerce, which promises to "enable brands to offer intelligent automated conversations leading consumers to self-serve on digital channels". The idea is to create a'smart' virtual assistant (or'chat bot') which can answer customer queries or book in property viewings, whilst simultaneously gathering analytical and KPI data. Wherever the bot fails to answer a customer question, a human customer operator steps in, and the machine continues to listen in and learn more answers.