Digitization is one of the biggest technological drives in the world. In fact, for India, the population hasn’t witnessed such a spurring impact of any drive since the 1991 Liberalization. The shift from the brick and mortar established to everything being on the virtual platform has been massive and impactful to all the stakeholders of businesses. The introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and interfaces in the processes has set a new standard for running businessacross all geographies. The penetration of AI coupled with the availability of data with the population has proven to be a successful combination. The future for this stream of operations foreseeably has a bright future.

Real estate, on the other hand, is one of the fastest growing industries. With its foot embossed in the first tier of the needs pyramid, the demand for real estate is endless. Real Estate is the 2^nd largest employer in India after agriculture and contributes almost 6% of our GDP. Every individual and business require a real estate asset for operations. Businesses are looking for commercial spaces, Individuals seeking properties for sale, and industries looking for set up space across multiple geographies. India, per say, has been on the end shore of being a part of the digital drive. AI and digitization are crawling in multiple industries, including payment interface with United Payment Interface (UPI).

If we put these two facts together – the fastest growing industry and the fastest growing operative, it turns out to be one of the biggest transformations.

I. 5 Key Digitization technologies

1.Data Analytics:

• Digital footprint is not a myth. Whatever one does online, leaves a virtual footprint that businesses use for their targeting purposes.
• The companies in the businesses need to be well informed about the universal data that is available. Information enables big data analytics for businesses that they can use to harness power to build their leadership portfolio.
• The data availability and their analytics help businesses expand their audience base, property valuations, and detailed risk assessments.

2.Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality (VR | AR)

• Although a prevalent reality since 2016, the pandemic was a turning point where the businesses realized what a gem this tool is.
• Parallel to online interfaces, website, and listings, the covid-19 drove the businesses embed virtual walkthroughs on their website to be omnipresent and 24*7 available. This ensured fewer physical interactions and better penetration in the market
• Reports state that websites with virtual tours garner 87% higher views than ones without it. 54% of searchers do not interact for more than 5 seconds with websites without virtual tours.

3.Real-time tracking

Do you remember the time when you had to take an off or half day to submit verification documents? Or spend months to enter the details of transactions? Let us not even get into the tracking system. The entire CRM process used to be a time-taking process, the consequent communication was by default delayed or faltered.

• Cloud based CRM interfaces like salesforce and platforms eased out this process and reduced the time to basic minutes. Every action – site visit, preference, demographic details, identity verification, sale and post sales, all processes are cloud based now.
• Real estate firms are increasingly developing in-house or onboarding third-party systems to streamline their processes.
• A process, as crucial as signing the transaction documents can be virtually completed with the means of e-verification and e-signature.

Not only the process time has reduced, but it has also become efficient and effective to track and follow up transactions

4.Chatbots

• Although limited resolutions but capturing the attention of visitors of website has become easier.
• Artificial chatbots have set command of instructions basic which they provide constructive solutions to primary queries. For example, configuration, site timings, project details, digital assets, etc.
• With pandemic hitting every door, buyers wanted close to no interactions. Integration of AI chatbots on the website provided generic but personalized questions bank for users.
• Additionally, the 24*7 availability of AI chatbots increased the time-frame-focus of business. Erstwhile, due to the brick and mortal set up, the businesses were limited to their service hours.
• Advanced AI chatbots use machine learning algorithms to understand the patterns of clients’ behavior. The information obtained from ML is used to provide customized services. AI Chatbots searches through vast data and match the people with the best fit of property options. Parallel to that, AI chatbots automatically send follow-up emails to leads reminding them of planned activities. 

5.The art of personalization

• In the layers of services, augmentation of service is a differentiator for businesses. In the competitive market, every business is bringing in a tech-based USP to provide best experiences.

For example, developers like Lodha and their project portfolio have an exclusive CRM not only before sales, but post sales. Every resident is assigned a separate code along with access cards to keep a track of their amenity usage, access to buildings, parking, and other facilities. This gives a sense of individualized ownership and security.

• Builders are relying more on digital innovations since the response of the audience is accommodating and lucrative

- Increasing Retention Rate

- Increasing Conversion Rate

- Increasing digital footprint

- Increasing competitive advantage

- Better engagement rates

II. Why is it a big transformation?

A process that has traditionally been a “brick-and-mortar” set up, is now gearing up to be a part of the digitization drive. Let us look at a brief timeline of this development journey –

A. Before 2008: The industry was largely a fragmented and unorganized. With limited builders, and scope of development, the industry had a fad of monopoly. What did it lack? Transparency. The process was cumbersome, multiple middlemen, no accountability, and depreciating quality, all these reasons made buying a home a long and problematic procedure.

B. Between 2008 and 15: With the same unorganized procedures and missing regulatory body, the industry was still a problem. However, there was a changing sentiment from builders’ end. Corporates and emerging brand names brought in a wave of change in the industry. The buyers were getting intrigued with the emerging varieties in the market.

C. Between 2016 and 2020:

• The highlight of this year was the much-needed regulatory body – Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) in 2016. This was basically the steppingstone of real estate in the world of digitization. RERA became a consolidated body of addressal for real estate.
• RERA became a “one stop solution” for buyers, builders, and channel partners. A technological interface that keeps an elaborate history of any project, builder, and channel partners was the one thing that bridged the gap in this journey. The digitized records empowered the buyer with knowledge that was ambiguous and unclear before. A redressal committee to handle the recurring issues of property fraud, delayed possession, construction quality etc. was an increasing necessity for any buyer.
• The other technological drives would be the shift of the entire procedure to virtual world with Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). These technologies were used widely by the industry to empanel the business on internet, making the accessibility easy and convenient.
• The various websites listing properties enabled the feature of virtual tours and walkthroughs. Some builders went on to complete the entire procedure virtually with varied tools

D. The Pandemic (2020 to 2022): This was not only a turning point from the transaction point of view but also the intermediate process of buying a house. As it is rightly said that necessity leads to invention, real estate changed its face due to the holistic restriction on movement and interaction had slowed down the business to stagnation. Do you think the industry would halt?

Absolutely not! In fact, real estate was the fastest industries to jump back to its original momentum.

• How was it feasible? Digitization! One word answer to all the problems. The introduction of the entire process of enquiry, selection, conversation, walkthrough, negotiation, and even closure was embedded in the virtual world. The service providers of real estate walked through this road at a very fast pace to catch up with the momentum of the business.

E. Post Covid (Post 2023): Even today, the width of target audience is widened to NRIs, overseas population, international clients, travelling population. This increases the scope and tangents of real estate

III. The partnership of AI and Real Estate

1. Valuation – AI enabled automated valuation of property features, market trends, price indications, and valuation are more precise, uniform, and quicker to assess.

2.Lead Generation – AI streamlines the process of zeroing down to the target audience, their demographic nature, and demand study to help the businesses to customize their target content to get better audiences/leads.

3.Marketing – If the audience is identified by AI, then the process to augment a campaign, how to communicate, and what to communicate can also be fashioned by AI

4.Customer Service – AI has widened the base of customer for business. The entire procedure is now carried out virtually now. The uniformity in responses and processed has eased out the communication chain with customers.

5.Risk Assessment – The chances of mortgage faulters or other associated risks is evaluated better with information; businesses are better equipped to make decisions regarding lending and investment opportunities.

6.Property Management – CRM, post sales, property management, and all post sales operations can be driven with AI.

IV. 6 Positive Impacts on Real Estate

V. Future of AI in Real Estate

As beneficial and impactful as AI has been for real estate, the future doesn’t seem limited. The integration of AI and incessant upgradations in the field makes it a mandated element of real estate business. The business experience AI creates for its buyers, it is irreplaceable in the long run.

• The new streak of change is expecting the documentation procedure of property registration to completely online, making it less time consuming, easily accessible, yet secured.  
• The onboarding of concierge and other facilities of property on virtual interface would ease the process and make it uniform and easy to maintain the quality of services
• The unified payment front can be adapted individually for businesses. Customized payment flexibility, loan facilities, EMI calculations as per eligibility can be embodied
• Data driven elements like “transactions in past 5 years”, “average price of locality” etc. can be streamlined to make the process more informative.

It is definitely not an end but just the beginning of the integration process.