The hottest tools to add to your AI toolbox in 2023

This is part two of a three-part series running this week in Inman.

Would you be willing to give up Siri, Alexa, AVMs like Zillow and Realtor.com, Box Brownie, Waze, or Amazon’s recommendation feature? You may not realize it, you have already integrated a wide variety of AI in both your business and personal life. ChatGPT is only a sliver of what’s already available in this space. Here’s a roundup of some of the hottest AI applications you’ll want to add to your AI toolbox. 

Kendall Bonner, the team leader of the Kendall Bonner team at RE/MAX Capital Realty in Tampa, Florida, moderated the jam-packed ChatGPT breakout session at ICNY. A self-proclaimed data geek, Bonner’s journey into AI began over four years ago with a company called First.IO which was a predictive analytics company. She began using Jarvis (now Jasper), a ChatGPT paid alternative, to assist her in creating content two years ago.

Two crucial points about all AI

Bonner emphasized these two key takeaways about all AI: 

• “Your input directs your output.” In other words, the more precise you can be in the questions you ask and the parameters you give the AI, the better its responses will be. It is absolutely imperative that you edit whatever these AI systems generate. 
• Always read the reviews. Most of these technologies are in their infancy. It’s important to identify where the issues are and whether the AI is worth the cost.

Synthetic media

(Click here for a list of the top synthetic media companies)

“Synthetic media” refers to AI-created content. Another term for this is “generative.” Because all AI makes decisions based on the answers that have the highest probability of being correct, it is often laden with mistakes, misinformation, and a host of other issues. Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT select the next most probable word to put together what seems like a human thought — it’s not.

The four primary categories of AI

Bonner explained that synthetic media falls into four broad categories: voice, text, images, and video. 

This content can come in many forms including AI voice-generated text, AI-generated video, and AI-generated images. Did you (also) know that AI is generating music and technical users are using it to generate coding? There are so many use cases for it. For non-technical users, we can use synthetic media to enhance our businesses and our communications with customers, which is really cool. 

Voice tools

AI Voice tools take video, audio, or spoken content and turn it into written text. This category also includes voiceovers, as well as apps that do subtitles, closed captioning, and language translation. 

One of my personal favorites is Otter.ai. Import your audio or video into Otter and it will generate a transcript. You can also record directly into the application. While Otter consistently gets my name and company name wrong, having access to both the text and the audio make it a powerful tool that can easily be crosschecked for accuracy. 

Where Otter.ai shines is how it summarizes what is on the transcript and provides the time stamp telling you where to locate that information. 

You can also do “text to speech” using AI Voice Generators. MURF.AI allows you to take what you have written and turn it into audio. You have 120 different voices from which to choose. Wellsaid also allows you not only create voice to text, but also to create an exclusive avatar for your brand and content. You can also clone your own voice if you would like. 

Text—the hottest AI application right now

ChatGPT and Jasper are both classified as “Text AI,” as are Microsoft’s Bing which is in beta and Google’s Bard that is expected to launch soon. 

Jasper is a paid subscription alternative to ChatGPT that also allows you to change the tone of your communications (professional, funny, informative, etc.) Although it’s more complex to use, their training videos do an excellent job explaining how to best utilize it. (Pro-tip—start with Jasper’s chatbot—it works essentially the same way as ChatGPT but is more generic as compared to ChatGPT). 

A major issue with ChatGPT is that it is only trained on events up to 2021. Bonner recommends Chatsonic (WriteSonic) as an alternative. Chatsonic (see video) is powered by and trained on Google Search. 

Chatsonic responds to voice commands and can chat with you in real time about current events and trending topics. It can also write video scripts, emails, text messages as well as generating images, paraphrasing content, and creating landing pages. You can test Chatsonic for free or subscribe to their basic service for $12.67 per month. 

Image tools

BoxBrownie.com is one of the most popular types of AI in the real estate industry. It can create twilight photos, remove items from your photos, brighten dark rooms, furnish both indoor and outdoor areas, and much more. Another great example is Iscape. This lets you landscape and see the results in real time. 

Bonner also recommended the Photoleap app that does “text to image.” You describe the image you want, and the AI creates it for you. They have also recently integrated the “Motionleap app” into Photoleap, allowing you to add animation to your photos, create fun GIFs and videos, all from the ease of your mobile device. 

DALL-E 2 is an AI model developed by OpenAI (the developer of ChatGPT) that can generate high-quality images from natural language descriptions, including images of objects and scenes that do not exist in the real world.

Video

In terms of the types of AI that are being most used in real estate, video tops the list. In 2023, online video is expected to account for 82.5 percent of all web traffic. Bonner explains:

Our younger generations prefer to watch and listen rather than read. (In terms of communication) seven percent of communication is the actual words you are saying, 38 percent is your tone, and 55 percent is your body language. Video allows us to implement all three in a single platform that is scalable, duplicatable, and can reach the masses. Video can be watched 24/7 and enhances those opportunities to deepen relationships and grow our audience. 

Regardless of the type of video you are making, Bonner says using closed captioning is a MUST. Verizon reports that 92 percent mobile users in the U.S. view videos with the sound turned off. As a result, both Facebook and YouTube have already incorporated closed captioning tools. Bonner recommends the BIGVU teleprompter app that also provides closed captions. 

An even better option for putting together highly professional videos in only a few minutes that also includes closed captioning is Synthesia.io. By the way, if you hate the thought of being on camera, this is the app for you. The product demo shows how you can create your own avatar that can be customized into 120 different languages.

You can also use their avatars to create videos from plain text as well. Synthesia is being used by over 40,000 companies outside or real estate to educate hundreds of thousands of employees, saving them massive amounts of money. Programs start as low as $30.00 per month. 

Bonner predicts that Video AI will soon surpass what text-based AI like ChatGPT does. 

Bonner’s final piece of advice to real estate professionals comes from Alvin Toffler, the author of the classic book, Future Shock. 

The illiterate of the 21st century are not those that cannot read and write, but those that cannot learn, unlearn and relearn. 

Bonner believes: 

The future of AI is that it’s going to become normalized. It’s going to bridge the gap between skill sets, and enhance, not replace people. 

It’s important that we use AI ethically, safely, and respectfully because it’s such a powerful too. Not only do end users need to be concerned about this, but so do the companies that create it. When companies can be trusted to do that, more people will use those companies as well. 

Are you ready for practical tips and strategies on how to use ChatGPT to be more efficient and effective in your business? If so, be sure to check out Part 3 of this series called “How to Put AI to Work to Make More Money in Your Real Estate Business.”