“We’re keeping an eye on AI” is becoming an expensive sentence.
This week, The Property Franchise Group put £900,000 into Enteka Ai. Moveli unveiled an AI tool it has built itself. Knight Frank reported strong interest in its self-employed model. And LightWork supplied a reminder that your customers keep making enquiries after you’ve gone home.
Put those stories together and the ground starts looking rather less solid beneath the agency that’s planning to get round to AI after Christmas.
First, TPFG. The group has taken a 25% stake in Enteka: £900,000 for 15%, plus another 10% issued upfront, subject to forfeiture conditions linked to a three-year commercial agreement. Enteka becomes its preferred AI provider. It’s already live in more than 210 TPFG offices, including Belvoir, Hunters, Martin & Co and EweMove, handling enquiries across calls, email, WhatsApp and other channels.
It's clear that TPFG - no slouch - sees enough value in the technology to want a share of the business delivering it. Enteka remains independent but proptech suppliers should notice that some customers also want to be owners.
Meanwhile, Moveli has built an appraisal and proposal tool into Moveli OS. Brokers can combine live and sold comparables, automated valuation data and local market information in a personalised webpage. They can also see when a seller opens it or comes back for another look, helping them judge when to follow up.
And look at who’s getting those tools.
Moveli has spent the past couple of years attracting experienced people from Knight Frank, Savills, Hamptons and the other blue-blood agencies. Recent arrivals include Knight Frank’s Tori Le Masurier and David Johnston, who joined after 21 years at Savills.
These people already know how to win instructions. Give them more autonomy, technology that takes work off their desks and a recognised brand behind them, and you have formidable competition for the traditional branch.
Knight Frank has spotted the opportunity too. It launched its own affiliate broker model in April and this week reported more than 170 enquiries from agents interested in joining. Its model allows expansion into new patches without needing a high street office in each one.
When even Knight Frank is rethinking how an agency should operate, “we’ve always done it this way” starts looking a little lonely.
For traditional agencies, the pressure is coming from several directions: franchises investing in AI, experienced brokers building their own businesses and established brands expanding through new models. They’re competing for your instructions and your best people.
Then there’s the bit happening after dinner.
LightWork says 43% of enquiries handled by its AI assistant between July and September arrived outside 9am–5pm, Monday to Friday. For emails and portal enquiries, it was 49%. That’s data from one supplier’s system, so it needs treating as such. It does, however, deserve a look at your own inbox.
Imagine a prospective vendor getting in touch at 9pm, once the children are finally asleep. Your competitor’s system starts a useful conversation and helps arrange an appraisal. Yours promises someone will respond during office hours.
By morning, you may already be the second choice.
An instant reply won’t automatically win an instruction. But combine responsiveness with an experienced agent and a stronger pitch, and you’re giving yourself more chances. Across a patch, those chances add up.
This is why getting AI literate now belongs on the business owner’s job description.
Understand what these systems can do, what information they need and when a human should take over. Ask suppliers to demonstrate a messy enquiry. Check the comparables behind an automated valuation. Find out what happens when the AI doesn’t know.
There is no prize for buying software you don’t understand.
So make time for it. Subscribe to more newsletters and blogs like this. Listen to podcasts (I do the PAIR podcast; other podcasts are available and different perspectives are useful). Join webinars. (We’ve got one this Thursday, 15 October, and there are plenty of others). Bring a problem from your own business and keep asking questions until the answer makes sense.
Then pick one process, test an improvement and measure it. Enquiries answered. Appraisals booked. Time saved. Something you can see in the business.
The ground is shifting whilst you’re busy running the office. You don’t need a corporate budget to start learning - but you do need to start.
An AI isn’t going to take over your patch. A competitor powered by AI is.