Discovery Dilemmas

If you’ve spent any time recently in the company of proptech folk (or listen to straight-talking podcasts like our Property AI Report), you’ll know that AI search is the new darling of the digital property scene. The chatter is relentless: how do you get your agency website ready for the coming wave of agentic search, and what does it actually mean for your business? With a raft of businesses out there all touting their wares, it’s easy to feel like you’re at the start of a gold rush – only no one’s quite sure where the gold is buried, or if it's actually just AI'd pixels with some very fetching paint.

Let’s be clear: AI search isn’t just another passing fad. The way consumers articulate their property needs is changing. No longer are they content with ticking boxes for “three beds” and “near a station”. Instead, they’re waxing lyrical to ChatGPT about wanting “a family home with a south-facing garden, within walking distance of a decent sourdough bakery and a school that won’t make the kids miserable”. The machines are listening – and, crucially, they’re learning.

So, what’s an agent to do? Well, the basics still matter. If your website hasn’t seen a new blog post since Theresa May was in Number 10, you’re not exactly screaming “authority” to the algorithms. Things that are important remain important – reviews, well-structured listings, local area guides; these are the bread and butter of both traditional SEO and the newfangled “generative engine optimisation” (GEO). One of the benefits of Generative AI is that (you guessed it) it’s great at generating content. You don't have to have the fear factor of how much time you / your team is going to spend on it – it’s relatively straightforward to get something going regularly (and reach out if you’re getting stuck!)

There’s a wild west element to all this, of course. No one outside the likes of Google, OpenAI or Anthropic really knows how these algorithms work – and it’s debatable whether even they could give you chapter-and-verse on it. The advice from the experts is to focus on what you can control: make sure your website is technically sound, your authority locally is clear and your content answers the questions people (and AIs) are actually asking. If you want to be “the best agent in Basingstoke”, say so – and back it up with testimonials and evidence, right there on your branch page.

Some of the new data enrichment services are genuinely helpful, pulling together your listings and local data into a format that’s easier for AI to digest. But don’t be tempted to bolt on shiny new tech if your fundamentals are still wobbly. There’s little point paying for enrichment if your own site is a digital ghost town.

And if you’re feeling overwhelmed? Ask the machines themselves. ChatGPT and its ilk are surprisingly good at auditing your site and telling you what’s missing. Schema.org markup, APIs, conversion tracking – these are the things that will help you stay visible, both to humans and to the bots that increasingly shape their decisions.

The bottom line: AI search is coming, and it’s coming fast. Make sure your digital house is in order, or risk digging for client gold in the algorithmic dust.