Real Estate Insights: How agentic artificial intelligence could disrupt real estate?

Purpose The real estate industry has traditionally relied on conventional operating models that limit efficiency, transparency and strategic decision-making. This study explores how agentic Artificial intelligence (AI) could disrupt the real estate industry, its current and future applications, associated challenges, strategic implications and future research directions. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts an exploratory qualitative approach based on a comprehensive review and synthesis of literature, industry reports and theoretical studies. It explores how agentic AI and related digital technologies are transforming industries and evaluates their potential implications for the real estate sector. Findings The study identifies agentic AI as transforming the real estate value chain by automating knowledge-intensive tasks such as property valuation, investment analysis, underwriting, facilities management, leasing, customer engagement, sustainability, decision-making, forecasting, brokerage, document processing and environmental, social and governance reporting. However, physical inspections and complex professional judgement remain largely human-led. The study also identifies fragmented data, implementation costs, interoperability, cybersecurity risks, algorithmic bias, regulatory uncertainty and ethical concerns as the main barriers to adoption. Practical implications The real estate industry is evolving at a fast pace across all real estate operations, including real estate brokerage, real estate management, real estate finance and investments, and real estate development. This study examines one such change in agentic AI and how it would disrupt what we know to be conventional real estate. The adoption of agentic AI in real estate is of particular importance to real estate stakeholders, as this introduces the possibility of increased efficiency resulting in the possibility of less errors as well as reduced time in performing tasks, therefore the potential of cost-cutting. Originality/value This study offers a timely perspective on the disruptive potential of agentic AI in the real estate industry. It offers practical insights for real estate professionals, facilities managers, investors, developers, policymakers and researchers navigating the transition towards smart and integrated real estate ecosystems.