Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.
Barcelona-based computer vision software firm Restb.ai expanded its reach to 17 new multiple listing services in New York, Rhode Island, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Minnesota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, California and British Columbia during the first half of the year, growing its reach to more than 720,000 MLS members across the U.S. and Canada.
Dominik Pogorzelski | Credit: LinkedIn
“Hundreds of thousands of real estate agents and brokers can now leverage the magic of Restb.ai computer vision to create richer and more complete property listings,” Restb.ai General Manager Dominik Pogorzelski said in a prepared statement. “This new tech they are deploying will help sellers sell homes faster and help buyers better find the home that matches their personal needs, wants, and desires.”
Founded in 2015, Restb.ai enables agents to add listings to the MLS quickly through artificial intelligence and computer vision models that glean key property information from photos and generate descriptions within seconds.
The computer vision models can identify interior room types and detect features such as marble countertops, stainless steel appliances, high ceilings, stone fireplaces, and hardwood flooring. For the exterior, the computer models can identify outdoor features including in-ground pools, decks, patios and firepits.
After identifying all of the home’s key features, Restb.ai generates listing descriptions, image captioning, and alt-text/metadata in more than 50 languages. Agents can manually edit the captions and descriptions, or use Restb.ai to adjust the text with several preset writing tones, including descriptive, playful, standard, professional and simple.
In a phone call with Inman, Pogorzelski said Restb.ai’s expansion has been partially fueled by its relationship with CoreLogic, ICE (formally Black Knight), Rapattoni, FBS, dynaConnections, and several other key vendors who’ve been able to showcase the benefits of Restb.ai’s tech.
“We have a lot of these partnerships where our technology is already integrated or being integrated,” he said. “So, oftentimes, it’s a joint effort with our partners to obviously kind of showcase the benefits MLSs and their members get by adopting this AI technology, which is increased efficiency, better data completeness, better compliance for the MLSs.”
Pogorzelski said feedback from Restb.ai’s newest cohort of MLSs has been “largely positive” as agents continue to push past their initial concerns about integrating AI into their businesses.
“As [with] any new technology, there are always a group of people who are a bit more hesitant to change. You’ll have the early adopters and you’ll have the late adopters,” he said. “It’s the same way when Google comes out with a new interface on Gmail; some people will get frustrated and prefer things to be the old way, even though the new way is better, faster and more efficient.”
With this in mind, Pogorzelski said Restb.ai has been laser-focused on distributing communication kits and hosting training sessions that help enthusiastic and hesitant adopters alike navigate the platform with greater ease. These kits and sessions, he said, have been key to not only helping agents understand Restb.ai but also the ins and outs of how AI and computer vision work.
Nathan Brannen, Restb.ai CPO
“It’s been great to show that there’s a face behind the AI, and there are humans who are helping to make this as accurate, as fast, as helpful as possible,” he said, while noting Restb.ai’s team does weekly updates to the more than 20 models it utilizes. “A lot is running under the hood to make everything work right … and make everything on top look seamless and as smooth as possible.”
Now that Restb.ai has reached a milestone of 50 MLSs across the U.S. and Canada, the team is working hard to keep the momentum going. Although Pogorzelski declined to share a specific goal — “I don’t want to jinx it or speak out of turn,” he said — he and Chief Product Officer Nathan Brannen said the industry will be seeing much more of Restb.ai as they continue to improve the platform.
“By deploying these cutting-edge solutions, they are elevating industry efficiency. And this is just the early stages of AI with more exciting — and valuable improvements — to come,” Brannen said in a written statement. “MLSs are among the first to bring practical and valuable AI-powered solutions en masse to real estate professionals.”
