Your Next Client Will Come From AI

Your next client will come from AI.

Buyers, sellers, and renters are asking AI about markets and professionals before calling a REALTOR® or loan officer. If AI cannot find you and explain why you are worth calling, you may never get the lead.

Last week, I delivered my keynote, “Win with AI: The Real Estate & Lending 2026 Playbook,” for Gershman Mortgage at the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum outside Omaha. Jeff Ogden, Senior Vice President of Production, opened the event.

According to Realtor.com, 82% of buyers, sellers, and renters use AI for real estate research (October 2025).

According to the National Association of REALTORS®, 32% of REALTORS® had not tried AI in their business, and only 1 in 5 used it daily (September 2025).

If you are a REALTOR®, real estate broker, or loan officer and missed my keynote, here are three things you need to know.

1. Make sure AI can find you

AI is becoming your new referral partner.

When someone asks AI who the best real estate professional is for a specific market or service, it looks for public signals that help it answer. Start with your main website. Add and verify it through Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools so Google and Bing can crawl and index it.

Then check the digital breadcrumbs around your business. Your Google Business Profile, LinkedIn profile, articles, directory listings, reviews, and community discussions should consistently show who you serve, where you work, what you specialize in, and the proof behind it.

User-generated content matters. Ask satisfied clients for specific reviews. Participate in relevant conversations on Yelp, Reddit, local forums, and other communities where people discuss real estate professionals. 

AI cannot cite proof you have never put online.

Audit Your AI Search Visibility (prompt)

Copy this prompt below into Claude or ChatGPT, fill in your details, and press enter to discover your digital gaps:

Act as a digital visibility expert specializing in local search, Google Maps, and AI recommendation engines (like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude).

OBJECTIVE: Audit my online footprint, create an action plan, and proactively help me execute the fixes directly or step-by-step so AI search engines consistently recommend my business and send me leads.

### ABOUT MY BUSINESS
- Business Name: [e.g., Premier Austin Realty]
- What I Do & Who I Serve: [e.g., Helping families buy and sell homes in Austin, TX]
- Main Goal: [e.g., Phone calls, Home valuation requests, Website form fills]
- Core Links:
- Website: [INSERT URL]
- Google Business Profile: [INSERT LINK OR WRITE "NONE"]
- Social Media Links: [INSERT LINKS]

### HOW TO EXECUTE (Run in 3 Phases — STOP after each phase)

Evaluate my online presence across 3 areas: Search Ranking, AI Answer Readiness, and Business Trust/Consistency. Do NOT guess; mark unverified links as [NEEDS MANUAL CHECK]. Explain all technical concepts in plain English.

PHASE 1: THE AUDIT & TOP GAPS
1. Let me know if you have live internet access to browse my links.
2. Tell me the top missing pieces preventing AI from finding, trusting, and recommending me.
3. Show me a simple "Top 5 Fixes" table ranked by Priority (High/Medium/Low) and Difficulty (Easy/Hard).

[STOP & ASK: "Type 'SHOW ME THE PLAN' to see exact fixes, or tell me which item in the table you want to focus on."]

PHASE 2: YOUR STEP-BY-STEP FIX PLAN
1. Profile & Bio Updates: Give me rewritten, AI-optimized copy for my Website, Google Business Profile, and Social Bios.
2. AI Answer Blocks: Write 3 common questions my ideal clients ask AI, plus the exact text blocks I should add to my website so AI cites me as the answer.
3. Name/Address/Phone Sync: List anywhere my business info looks inconsistent across the web.

[STOP & ASK: "Type 'FIX IT FOR ME' to move to execution, and tell me what platform your website is built on (e.g., WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Custom)."]

PHASE 3: AGENT AUTOPILOT & GUIDED FIXES
1. Interactive Capability Check: Ask me what tools, permissions, or connectors you currently have access to (e.g., file system access, CMS plugins, Google API, Make/Zapier, Claude Cowork, Custom GPT actions).
2. Autonomous Execution (If Connected): If you have the right permissions/connectors, walk me through a quick 1-click confirmation and apply the updates directly (e.g., updating files, pushing schema, drafting posts).
3. Guided Setup (If Not Connected):
- Tell me in 2 simple sentences how to connect you or give you access so you can do it for me next time.
- For any manual tasks left, give me copy-paste assets (Schema code, Bios, FAQs) with exact "click-here, paste-there" instructions for my specific website platform.

About these terms:

• SEO, or search engine optimization: Helps search engines find and understand your website.
• AEO, or answer engine optimization: Helps AI answer direct questions using your content.
• GEO, or generative engine optimization: Helps AI cite and recommend you when it generates an answer.

Treat AI search like your newest 24/7 referral partner: optimize your digital footprint today to increase your chances of AI recommending you tomorrow.

2. Pick one agentic work platform

The biggest breakthrough in AI during the past six months is the move from simply chatting with AI to delegating business work to AI agents.

For three years, we asked AI questions, got some pretty cool answers, then copied, pasted, organized, and finished the work ourselves.

Now you can delegate the outcome. Give the AI agent a goal, files, context, rules, and boundaries. It handles the steps and returns finished work for review.

My recommendations are Claude Cowork first and ChatGPT Work second.

If you want to accelerate the setup, join my live Claude Cowork Workshop for Real Estate Professionals on August 11.

3. Give AI relevant context about your business

Context separates generic AI slop from work that fits your business.

Share information about you, your business, clients, local market, voice, rules, trusted sources, desired outcome, and approved examples. For larger assignments, set constraints and approval points.

Claude Cowork can work from selected folders, follow standing instructions, and use your business memory. You do not have to repeat the same background in every conversation.

Same AI. Same question. Different context. Different answer.

Speed matters in AI adoption

After the keynote, Gershman hosted lunch under a huge SR-71 Blackbird aircraft. How cool is that? It is not every day you get to have lunch under an aircraft like that.

The Blackbird carried no defensive weapons because its defense was speed. It could outrun the missiles fired at it.

Think about AI adoption the same way. Speed matters. Start now while others are still waiting.

Protect the work clients remember

Delegate work AI can do faster, cheaper, and better. Protect your time for:

• Judgment when a transaction gets complicated
• Creativity when the obvious answer does not work
• Empathy when a client feels anxious or overwhelmed
• Professional connections with trusted lenders, inspectors, attorneys, contractors, and other providers

If you want AI to become your next referral partner, delegate work off your plate, and move faster without wasting months testing random tools, you have two ways to start.

Start free and do it yourself

Download my free 2026 AI Toolkit for Real Estate Professionals. It includes 15 vetted and tested tools for lead generation, marketing, and operations.

Fast-track it with me

Join my live Claude Cowork Workshop for Real Estate Professionals on August 11. In two hours, I will help you set up Claude Cowork as your AI agent, organize your business context, install the right skills, connect your tools, and delegate your first task.

I have trained more than 500 real estate professionals to use AI and built 16 AI Assistants for Real Estate. You can put them to work across listings, market reports, follow-up, contracts, content, planning, and SOPs.