Real estate brokerage AI adoption hits a tipping point as holdouts disappear

Real estate brokerages are rapidly embracing artificial intelligence (AI), with just 2% reporting no plans to adopt AI in 2026, according to three-year analysis from the Delta Media Group Real Estate AI & Leadership Survey.

The report found that resistance to AI continues to shrink across the industry, while the adoption gap between mid-sized brokerages and the largest firms has disappeared.

“Every year we run this survey, the story is less about who is trying AI and more about who still has not,” said Michael Minard, CEO and owner of Delta Media Group. “That second group is nearly gone. When we started tracking this three years ago, non-adoption was a real category. Today, it is a rounding error and the brokerages in the middle of the market have fully caught up to the industry giants.”

The share of brokerages with no plans to adopt AI declined from 10.6% in 2024 to 4% in 2025 and just 1.9% in 2026. Meanwhile, the percentage reporting no AI use at all fell from 24.8% in 2024 to 11.9% in 2025 and 3.9% this year.

Brokerage leaders are also placing greater importance on AI.

Nearly half (47.6%) rated AI’s importance as an 8 or higher on a 10-point scale in 2026, up from 28.7% a year earlier.

Delta’s analysis found that mid-sized brokerages with 101 to 500 agents have now matched the industry’s largest firms in AI adoption. In 2026, both segments reported 100% agent AI usage.

The smallest independent brokerages, those with fewer than 10 agents, remain the only segment where adoption has been inconsistent from year to year.

Brokerage leaders are increasingly favoring AI capabilities delivered through unified technology platforms rather than standalone tools, researchers added.

The perceived value of all-in-one marketing platforms that include AI and automation rose to 7.3 out of 10 in 2026, the highest level recorded in the three-year survey.

More than half of respondents (51.5%) rated these platforms an 8 or higher, up from 41.6% in 2025.

“Brokerages are not just adopting AI piece by piece anymore,” Minard said. “They are consolidating around partners who can deliver it as part of one connected platform. Soon, we will reveal what that will look like for Delta customers.”

The analysis is based on responses from more than 100 brokerage leaders surveyed annually between 2024 and 2026.

This article was generated using HousingWire Automation and reviewed by a HousingWire editor before publication.