As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to reshape industries, real estate professionals are exploring new ways to integrate it into their daily workflows, with one of the most promising areas being property listings.

From generating written descriptions to enhancing photos and producing virtual staging, AI tools are helping agents create more visually engaging and time-efficient listings. While the technology is not without its challenges, early adopters are beginning to see its potential, as long as there’s careful human oversight.

Parikshat Chawla, Global Head of Operations at Chestertons, shares that the company is in the early stages of adopting a property-focused AI marketing platform, Coraly. The platform can generate descriptions based on property photos, enhance poor lighting or colour tones, and even add virtual furnishings for vacant spaces.

“We’ve found this is a great tool to save agents a lot of time, especially sales and lettings agents,” says Chawla. “It enables them to focus more on what matters most, client relationships and closing deals.”

But efficiency isn’t the only consideration. Maintaining accuracy and trust is just as important. “We also looked at it from an ethical perspective,” Chawla notes. “We're not positioning the property in a manner that's unrealistic. We're not repainting everything or giving it an industrial look if it's an old cottage next to the forest.”

Like many early users of generative AI, Chestertons Global team initially encountered limitations with repetitive language and overly generic descriptions. “The first batch of listings started to sound a little too similar, repeated phrases, recycled adjectives,” Chawla explains. “We had to prompt the system to sound less like AI and more like a real person.”

While some view AI as a potential threat to jobs, Chawla sees it differently. “I personally don't think that AI is going to take away too many jobs,” he says. “The smart businesses will figure out that we're always going to need people, we might just need them in a different way.”

Ultimately, AI is proving to be a powerful assistant, not a replacement. It can streamline the listing process and improve marketing materials, but it still needs the experienced eye of a human to ensure accuracy, authenticity, and emotional connection. In property, where trust and personal relationships still reign supreme, that human touch remains irreplaceable.

Based on original reporting by Mark Williams for Modus, RICS