Artificial intelligence: Absolutely, but..
...to create real added value for everyone.
Whether the English “AI” or the German “KI” – artificial intelligence is currently omnipresent. How its impact is assessed depends heavily on the perspective of the individual: For some, the opportunities outweigh the risks, while others primarily see risks. However, one thing is undisputed: the technology is here to stay.
For us as a digital real estate platform, an open approach to technological innovation has always been part of our DNA. With ImmoScout24 and Homegate, we have been actively shaping the real estate market for over two decades. Our principle also applies here: AI must not be an end in itself, but should act as an unprecedented “enabler”. After all, the true potential of these two letters lies in the accelerated development, smart expansion and enhancement of innovative products that can create real added value and achieve daily efficiency gains.
In the professional real estate sector in particular, the benefits of AI can be seen in its productive integration into existing, established processes. While this enables us as platforms to develop market-oriented products in a more agile way, it creates new efficiency gains for brokers and property managers in their day-to-day operations. The decisive factor is not the technology itself, but its real contribution.
Two examples from the SMG Real Estate ecosystem illustrate this:
- Our AI-based listing text creation saves an average of 14 minutes per listing. Extrapolated to an entire portfolio or a marketing campaign, this results in a substantial gain in productivity. The time saved can be invested specifically where it makes the biggest difference – in consulting, negotiation and customer relations. Anyone who instead advertises on ImmoScout24 or Homegate as a private individual can use this new intelligent function to partially compensate for a lack of marketing experience.
- The new “Insight Hub” for real estate professionals provides AI-driven answers to questions about the potential and performance of listings that were previously difficult to narrow down. Every week, real estate agents and managers receive an overview of the listings with the greatest potential for improvement, including specific recommendations for action and the expected increase in visibility.
This is just a small excerpt, plus numerous current developments at SMG Real Estate, including “Agentic AI”, a digital companion for real estate professionals in their day-to-day work – from the transcription of meeting notes to seamless CRM integration. But more on that in the near future. At the same time, technological innovation requires continuous investment – especially in cybersecurity. After all, it’s not just the right players who benefit from AI. State-of-the-art protection mechanisms, two-factor authentication, integrated access controls, etc. are essential to secure data and effectively prevent attempted fraud. Trust remains the central currency in the real estate market – especially in the digital one.
But thanks to these targeted, ongoing investments in AI applications, we at SMG Real Estate are actively continuing to shape our role as the “digital shaper” of the Swiss real estate industry. Our goal is and remains first and foremost to make real estate professionals not only more efficient, but also more successful in the long term. This is also what our vision stands for: “Next-Gen Swiss Real Estate – digital and simple.”