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Independent, tech-forward brokerage Radius Agent has built an artificial intelligence assistant for its agents and staff, the company announced Tuesday.
Called Mel, the new interface is designed to assist users with an array of common business tasks and has been taught federal and state laws and regulations to assist agents with questions about compliance, fair housing, representation and other critical legalities that determine how agents can operate, according to the March 19 announcement. It’s also been given access to MLS data and has been taught marketing collateral design to assist in brand outreach and listing marketing.
“Mel is not just technology; it’s an agent’s secret weapon,” said Biju Ashokan, founder & CEO of Radius Agent, in a statement. “By automating tedious tasks and providing real-time compliance guidance, Mel empowers agents to focus on what truly matters — building relationships and delivering exceptional client service.”
The company describes itself as a full-service, modern brokerage that provides real estate professionals and their teams with the support and tools needed to grow their business and operates in California, Texas, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Georgia and Florida.
Radius Agent was first launched as an agents-only social network community where agents could exchange ideas and ask each other questions. One of the biggest use cases that came out of it was exchanging referrals, Inman reported in 2020. The company stepped into brokerage after a $2 million funding round to launch the brokerage first in California and Colorado. Funding was led by NFX, a venture capital fund founded by Pete Flint, the co-founder of Trulia.
It raised another $13 million in November 2023.
Through a series of web-based training deliverables, custom software and its communal expertise model, and now its AI assistant, Radius Agent functions equally as an ever-present adviser, as does a traditional broker. Its tech stack covers transaction management, digital contracts, and document automation and performance tracking, among other systems.
The uncommon model is resonating. Radius states that 2023 was a record year for growth, with an increase in agent count of 293 percent that augmented revenue growth by 330 percent.
AI assistants are becoming more common for brokerages as a way to improve agent workflow, keep agents informed of company happenings, empower marketing efficiencies, smarten home search and better qualify leads.
San Francisco-based Avenue 8, “a brokerage for the modern world,” rolled out its Sidekick assistant last year.
“Even if you’ve been working in the industry 20-30 years, the ability to quickly generate, analyze, and assemble information across a variety of modalities is incredibly challenging. It’s not about having a personality or a face or a name — it’s about functionality and speed,” Avenue 8’s co-CEO Michael Martin told Inman.
The Real Brokerage, too, has an enterprise-level AI assistant called Leo, which is tasked with helping users quickly pull information on deal status post-contract, where consistent client communication is at its most critical. It will be programmed to answer “complex queries,” the company stated, and like other iterations of AI, will improve as its use increases.
Real’s Leo has also allowed the company to employ fewer transaction coordinators as a result of how quickly it can collect and disburse pertinent deal data.
Redfin announced it’s started a beta test of its own AI, too, a search tool called Ask Redfin.
Radius sees its release as an initial step on a long road of innovating how the industry functions, according to Sam Kasle, Radius COO.
“Our strategy has always been prioritizing solutions that simplify operations, expedite transactions and elevate the client experience. Mel is just the beginning of a lineup of products we expect to unveil in 2024 to accomplish this goal,” Kasle said.
