A survey of lettings professionals has identified five core areas where human expertise remains essential, despite the growing adoption of artificial intelligence in the property sector.
Research conducted by Propoly found that letting agents consider relationship building with landlords, handling difficult conversations or disputes, dealing with sensitive tenant circumstances, assessing situations with no clear-cut answer, and building relationships with tenants as tasks least suited to AI automation.
Additional areas flagged by respondents included resolving complaints, advising landlords on pricing and strategy, and making final decisions on tenant selection.
Administrative applications
The survey revealed that agents see greater potential for AI in administrative functions. Compliance administration ranked as the area where AI could provide the most assistance, followed by processing and reviewing documents, fraud detection, and summarising lengthy email or message chains.
However, trust in autonomous AI operation remains limited among letting professionals. Only 19% of respondents said they would be comfortable allowing AI to draft a routine email without review, whilst 14% would trust the technology to review a document for missing information.
Just 12% would trust AI to produce a property description independently, with the same proportion willing to rely on it to flag potential issues in tenant applications. This cautious approach contrasts with ongoing pressures in the rental market, where administrative efficiency could help agents manage high volumes of enquiries.
Time allocation priorities
When asked how they would utilise five hours freed up each week through AI assistance, 21% of agents said they would use the time to improve work-life balance. A further 14% would spend more time speaking to tenants, whilst another 14% would focus on solving complex problems. An additional 12% indicated they would concentrate on winning new business.
The findings suggest a model where AI supports rather than replaces letting agents, handling repetitive administrative tasks whilst leaving decisions requiring context and experience to human professionals. This approach may prove particularly relevant as regulatory changes continue to affect the sector.
Sim Sekhon, Group Chief Executive of Propoly, said: “AI has the potential to remove a huge amount of friction from property management, particularly when it comes to repetitive administration and processing information. But the purpose of that technology should be to give agents more time to do the things that technology cannot replicate as effectively.”
He added: “Lettings is ultimately about people. A difficult conversation, a sensitive tenant situation or a decision where there isn’t an obvious right answer cannot always be reduced to a set of instructions. These situations require context, experience and sometimes compassion.”
The survey indicates that whilst AI adoption in the lettings sector continues to develop, agents maintain that technology should enhance rather than replace human judgement in complex or sensitive situations. The research highlights an emerging division between routine administrative functions suitable for automation and relationship-driven tasks that require human expertise.
