{"id":299,"date":"2026-08-09T18:15:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T18:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/infina.ai\/news\/declining-ai-trust-real-estate-agents\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T08:49:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T08:49:56","slug":"declining-ai-trust-real-estate-agents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/infina.ai\/news\/declining-ai-trust-real-estate-agents\/","title":{"rendered":"Homebuyer Trust in AI Just Dropped 14 Points \u2014 What That Means for Real Estate Agents"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new data point should give every brokerage pause: declining ai trust real estate agents<\/strong> and their clients now have to navigate is real and measurable. A 2026 Cotality survey, covered by HousingWire, found that trust in AI to help find a home fell to just 16% this year – a 14-point drop from 2025 – even though 75% of homebuyers still expect AI to play some role in their transaction.<\/p>\n

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The Contradiction at the Center of the Data<\/h2>\n

This is the part that should get an agent’s attention: buyers aren’t rejecting AI, they’re rejecting AI they can’t verify. The Cotality 2026 survey<\/a> found buyers assume AI is already being used by property websites (86%), lenders (80%), and real estate agents (80%) – expectation is nearly universal. What’s collapsing isn’t the assumption that AI is involved, it’s confidence that the AI involved is being used responsibly. Only 22% of Gen Z and 19% of millennial buyers say they’re tolerant of AI errors at all, and those numbers drop further for older generations.<\/p>\n

The same Cotality findings<\/a> show 68% of buyers say clear AI labeling on listings and recommendations is important or essential, and 37% think that labeling should be mandatory. Declining ai trust real estate agents now have to manage isn’t a reason to pull back from AI tools – it’s a signal that opacity is now the actual liability, not the AI itself.<\/p>\n

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Why This Is Harder for Agents Than It Looks<\/h2>\n

Every brokerage racing to show clients “we use AI too” is walking into exactly the trust gap this survey describes. A chatbot that answers instantly but can’t explain how it reached a valuation, or a lead-qualification tool that scores a buyer without any visible logic, is precisely the kind of black-box behavior driving the 14-point trust decline. Meanwhile, 46% of buyers say it’s unacceptable for AI to run an automated valuation without prior approval – a detail that matters if an agent’s AI tools are making decisions clients never explicitly agreed to.<\/p>\n

The agents least exposed to declining ai trust real estate agents are seeing across their client base won’t be the ones with the most AI features. They’ll be the ones whose AI tools are labeled, explainable, and easy for a buyer to override – because that’s the exact behavior this survey shows buyers are demanding.<\/p>\n

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Closing the Declining AI Trust Real Estate Agents Face<\/h2>\n

Rebuilding trust doesn’t require ripping out AI tools – it requires making them visibly accountable to the client:<\/p>\n