Most agents say CMAs will become more relevant, despite AI growth

New comparative market analyses (CMA) survey data points to growing demand for technology — and a continued need for professional judgment, market knowledge and persuasive listing presentations. Real estate agents are increasingly embracing artificial intelligence (AI), but findings show they aren’t ready to hand over the business of pricing homes to algorithms. The 2026 Survey of Best Practices for CMAs and Listing Presentations, conducted by Giant Steps Advisors in partnership with Lone Wolf Technologies, collected responses from 2,165 U.S. real estate professionals between November 2025 and February 2026. Nearly 90% of respondents — 89.6% — said CMAs will become more relevant in the future, up from 67% in 2020. At the same time, 83.2% said they were very or somewhat likely to use AI-assisted CMA tools. For Greg Robertson of Giant Steps Advisors, who co-founded W+R Studios, the company behind Cloud CMA, results reinforce the importance of the agent’s role as consumers encounter an expanding array of automated home valuations. He said the growing availability of automated estimates may help explain why agents see greater value in a CMA. “I made a joke and said once, ‘Zillow can’t ...