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It has long been clear that digital, sci-fi-esque renderings of human beings are no longer the stuff of fantasy. But, as with any technology, digital avatars needed to pass through an awkward — or uncanny, in this case — realm of being almost but not quite advanced enough to be useful.
That has now changed. Digitally rendered avatars that are genuinely lifelike are available on the open market for the first time, and real estate brokerages may just be among the beneficiaries.
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How so? Digital avatars are one more means of communication — and an effective one, at that. Brokerages can simultaneously enjoy the heightened engagement of human or human-like communication and the practical convenience of digital platforms. Such communication can have manifold applications, of course, but here are four of the most glaring opportunities digital avatars present to real estate brokerages.
Customer service representatives
Online customer service portals can be quite lifeless — and with good reason. The vast majority of customer issues are resolvable via answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs), and cannot justify the full-time attention of an employee. Still, navigating issues with the selling or buying process can be frustrating for clients, and can lead to business losses if the process is not seamless.
With digital avatars, customer service can be made personal without the time and energy costs of employing a representative. With tools like D-ID, brokerages can develop virtual agents for their customer service portal. These avatars can then be empowered with generative artificial intelligence (AI) to provide preset or customized answers to written questions from the customer. These virtual agents have the added benefit of being on call 24 hours a day, even when the office may be closed.
Presenters
Presentations are another case where a labor-intensive process—agents physically presenting or filming ahead of time — can only be avoided by sacrificing the engaging human element. Mere on-screen text or voiceover cannot compete with a face when it comes to the emotional impact a good presentation is meant to have on the audience.
This is why presentation platforms like PowerPoint and Canva are already accommodating virtual presenters that offer natural-looking personability with the convenience and transmissibility of an email attachment. These avatars can be equipped with stock voices — available also from D-ID — or even with custom audio.
Companies like ElevanLabs have developed realistic large language model voices that can perform text-to-voice transcriptions. Agents can even clone their own voices, allowing the avatar to quite literally speak on their behalf.
Instructors
Learning without an instructor is generally a dreadful process, as many real estate agents who have been digitally onboarded will be able to attest. Long, unengaging documents followed by faceless examinations are not exactly conducive to the emotionally driven human learning process. Once again, however, employing staff to consume and reissue information in a palatable and case-specific manner is very costly indeed.
An avatar instructor solves this problem by delivering content the same way a human would, without requiring preparation or compensation. Brokerages can use this sort of avatar for onboarding new agents to the firm, for instance, by converting written policy into video. Such instructors would be duplicable and could accommodate a diverse range of language options at the push of a button to reduce the cost of instructional content creation.
Social media personalities
In today’s digital marketplace, it is difficult to effectively market without making use of social media. In order for social media marketing to work, though, quality content must be produced and posted prolifically. This poses a significant challenge for real estate professionals, who rarely have time to film marketing content daily or even weekly.
By utilizing a digital avatar clone, agents can eliminate the bulk of time and effort required for content creation. Softwares like HeyGen allow agents to carefully construct an avatar that closely resembles themselves both visually and audibly. When this one-time design is finished, they can begin to upload scripts, sit back, and watch the software generate content for their social media platforms.
Until recently, digital avatars were a promising work in progress that might one day be of real use. Now that day has come, and those who ignore the opportunities that technology can provide do so at their peril. Real estate brokerages have a chance to reimagine their sales, marketing and instructional processes, bringing the human touch to their content without the costs it would usually require.
The firms and agents who can harness this vision may just find themselves — or their avatars — at the forefront of tomorrow’s market.
Curtis Williams is a land investment professional with National Land Realty, the nation’s fastest-growing real estate land brokerage. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
