Artificial intelligence is here to stay.
Using it can be an incredible time-saver.
It can make life a whole lot easier.
But for estate agents, overusing it can make them sound boring, samey and predictable – especially ChatGPT.
We use ChatGPT in our working days among our team. It’s like a turbo-charged Swiss Army knife, given all the different jobs you can use it for.
We use it for research, organisation, idea generation, planning, double-checking and carrying out simple tasks.
But we don’t rely on it to write articles – that’s down to our team of writers.
We will never use it to write personal welcome messages (this happened to us when we joined a new supplier; it was obvious AI had written it).
The trouble with over-relying on it is that it may speed things up but at the price of becoming impersonal, which in a people business like estate agency, is a big mistake.
The sad goodbye
The worst example of this was an email I received from a past member who was cancelling their membership.
We’d done a lot for these guys over the years – a lot more than the monthly subscription included.
Their cancellation email was long-winded, cold and clearly written by AI (the Americanisms and tone were a dead giveaway).
We’ve no issue with people leaving our membership; that’s life, and we never harbour any hard feelings.
But these guys would have saved themselves time and a bit of reputational damage by simply writing out a couple of personal lines, especially as we had a close working relationship, to make us aware of their decision.
Don’t overdo it
I’m seeing more and more agencies make mistakes using AI and ChatGPT.
They’re often swapping speed for sincerity, efficiency for emotional intelligence and step-by-step watering down what makes their agency different.
We’ve created a list of words and phrases that AI (ChatGPT) overuses.
Don’t get me wrong; some words and phrases naturally happen when people write.
But what follows is a list of telltale AI words and phrases our proofreader created for you to be mindful of.
She works across many industries, sees a lot of AI-generated content, and can spot a ChatGPT-generated piece a mile off.
Like anything in life, maintain moderation and balance, especially when using technology and AI.
Thanks for reading.
Jerry