Errol Samuelson, chief industry development officer, and Josh Weisberg, senior VP of AI, discuss Zillow’s new app built along with ChatGPT, a platform with over 800 million weekly users.
Weisberg, who leads AI across Zillow and has a background in early-stage technology from Apple and Microsoft, explains that OpenAI views ChatGPT as an “operating system” that can run specialized apps, much like an iPhone. Samuelson emphasizes that Zillow was honored to be asked to be an early partner to demonstrate this new capability.
Most importantly, they give a first look at the future of “Agentic AI” and how it will transform property search.
Highlights
First, they address the significant industry “freak out” regarding MLS compliance head-on. Detailing the painstaking process they undertook, which involved internal experts (including former MLS CEOs) and external MLS attorneys, to ensure the app respects all IDX display rules and protects data.
Samuelson and Weisberg emphasize a core agreement with OpenAI, saying Zillow will not share any data to train its models. The experience is contained within a Zillow-controlled app, which makes it analogous to running the Zillow app on an iPhone. They are not sharing MCPs (AI equivalent of an API) to their data with other AI companies to prevent misuse.
Weisberg also provides a fascinating look at the future of search, explaining that they are moving from AI that just answers questions to “Agentic AI” — AI that can reason, coordinate actions and act on an agent’s behalf. This technology can do things like automate personalized client messages (Smart Messages in Follow-Up Boss) and create interactive property experiences like SkyTor, which uses drone video to create a dynamic, video-game-like exploration of a home’s surroundings.
They also reveal how Zillow open-sourced its Fair Housing Classifiers, a series of AI models designed to monitor and flag potential fair housing violations in search prompts, and they used those potential violations to build the fair housing guardrails within the app.
Samuelson and Weisberg agree with the hosts that the industry must ask if its current MLS policies are inhibiting innovation. They stress that the pace of technology is only accelerating, and if the industry doesn’t adopt and streamline its rules, it risks getting lapped by consumers already using these new tools.
They conclude by reinforcing that the MLS is the trusted gold standard for data integrity, and the goal is to responsibly embrace new mediums like ChatGPT to give those 800 million users access to that gold standard.
Example prompts for the Zillow App in ChatGPT:
- Find me homes in West Seattle, 3 beds, 2 baths, under 800k
- Find me homes in West Seattle, 3 beds, 2 baths, under 800k and within 2 miles of West Seattle High School
- I need help finding a nice place to live that’s 2 hours from New York City. I like a community-minded place that’s friendly.
Further reading:
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James Dwiggins is the Co-CEO of NextHome, Inc. and co-host of Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered.
Keith Robinson is the Co-CEO of NextHome, Inc. and co-host of Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered.
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