Real Estate Brokerages Rapidly Adopt AI, Holdouts Disappear

Real estate brokerages are demonstrating a near-universal commitment to adopting artificial intelligence (AI), with a mere 1.9% of firms reporting no plans for AI integration in 2026. This finding stems from a three-year analysis conducted by the Delta Media Group Real Estate AI & Leadership Survey, which tracks AI adoption trends across the industry. The survey indicates a substantial decline in resistance to AI technologies, with the gap in adoption rates between mid-sized brokerages and the largest industry firms having effectively vanished. Michael Minard, CEO and owner of Delta Media Group, noted that the focus has shifted from 'who is trying AI' to 'who still has not,' with the latter group now representing a negligible portion of the market. Three years ago, non-adoption was a distinct category, but today it is a 'rounding error,' and mid-market brokerages have caught up to industry leaders in AI implementation. The proportion of brokerages with no AI adoption plans has decreased significantly, falling from 10.6% in 2024 to 4% in 2025, and further to 1.9% in 2026. Concurrently, the percentage of brokerages reporting no AI usage at all has dropped from 24.8% in 2024 to 11.9% in 2025, and to 3.9% in the current year. Brokerage leaders are also elevating the perceived importance of AI. In 2026, nearly half of respondents (47.6%) assigned AI an importance rating of 8 or higher on a 10-point scale, a notable increase from 28.7% the previous year. Delta's analysis highlights that mid-sized brokerages, defined as those employing between 101 and 500 agents, have now achieved parity with the largest firms in terms of AI adoption. In 2026, both of these segments reported 100% agent AI usage. The smallest independent brokerages, those with fewer than 10 agents, remain the sole segment exhibiting inconsistent year-over-year adoption rates. Furthermore, brokerage leaders are increasingly favoring AI capabilities integrated within unified technology platforms over standalone AI tools. The perceived value of comprehensive marketing platforms that incorporate AI and automation rose to 7.3 out of 10 in 2026, marking the highest score recorded throughout the three-year survey period. More than half of the surveyed respondents (51.5%) rated these integrated platforms an 8 or higher, an improvement from 41.6% in 2025. This trend suggests a strategic shift towards leveraging AI through consolidated technological solutions for enhanced efficiency and market reach within the real estate sector.