‘You’re the Bacon’: A blunt warning to Realtors about AI

More and more real estate professionals are turning to AI tools to automate rote tasks, manage their client relationship management systems and generate marketing collateral. According to the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) 2026 Realtors Technology Report released in September, nearly half of agents now use AI daily (23%) or weekly (25%), while 31% are experimenting occasionally. Only 12% said they are not using AI and do not plan to, down from 32% who had not yet tried AI in 2025. And while AI may help agents save time or create more sophisticated looking marketing, as Mike Woodward, NAR’s director of data science, put it, quoting Spider Man “With great power, comes great responsibility.” In a session at NAR’s 2026 NXT conference on Sunday, Woodward explored what AI can do for real estate professionals and the housing industry, as well as what it could do to agents and the industry if not used without proper caution and guardrails. ‘If you’re not paying for it, you are the product’ Woodward began by exploring the business model used by AI companies, because, he argues, you cannot understand the risk until you understand how AI companies make their money. “There ain’t no su...