NAR’s newest technology report just confirmed AI has gone mainstream among agents, but the fine print shows most of that usage is going toward writing, not converting. The ai powered follow up messages real estate agents could be sending right now are sitting largely unused while agents pour that same AI into listing copy and social posts instead.
NAR’s 2026 Report Shows AI Use Climbing, but Concentrated in One Place
NAR’s 2026 technology report finds that 48% of Realtors now use AI weekly or daily, up sharply from prior years, with only 12% saying they have no plans to use it at all, down from 32% in 2025 (see HousingWire’s coverage of the report). But the breakdown of what agents actually use AI for tells a narrower story: 75% use it for listing descriptions, 56% for social media posts, and 52% for emails and follow-ups, which is the only one of the top three that touches lead conversion directly.
Why This Gap Matters More Than the Adoption Number
An agent using AI to write a listing description saves time on a task that happens once per property. An agent using AI to run follow-up touches on every active lead is applying it to the task that happens dozens of times a week and directly decides whether a lead converts. NAR’s own report found 81% of agents adopted AI primarily to save time, yet the biggest time sink in most agents’ week, chasing leads that need a third or fourth touch, is the use case getting the least AI investment of the top three.
What AI Powered Follow Up Messages Real Estate Agents Are Leaving on the Table
The ai powered follow up messages real estate agents skip are usually the ones that require reading context, a lead who viewed three listings this week gets a different message than one who has gone quiet for a month. AI built for follow-up does not just draft a generic email, it pulls in what the lead actually did and times the message to when they are most likely to respond, which is a different job than generating a caption for a new listing photo.
Tools Built Specifically for AI Follow-Up, Not Just Content
BoomTown generates behavior-triggered follow-up messages that reference a lead’s actual browsing activity rather than a generic template. LionDesk uses AI texting that starts within seconds of a new lead and adapts its follow-up cadence based on how the lead responds. Follow Up Boss layers AI-assisted messaging on top of its lead routing so a follow-up touch goes out the moment a lead is assigned, not whenever an agent gets to it.
Related Reading
For the full step-by-step on setting this up, see our automated follow-up walkthrough. And for how fast that first follow-up actually needs to be, our CRM speed-to-lead breakdown covers the timing side of the same problem.
Final Thoughts
Widespread AI use is not the same thing as AI use that closes deals. Agents applying AI powered follow up messages real estate agents actually need, not just AI-written listing copy, are turning the same time savings NAR’s report describes into more converted leads, while everyone else is just writing faster.
