By: Sherry MacLeod
Managing Broker, Cape Breton Realty
Artificial Intelligence is changing almost every industry at record speeds, and real estate is no exception.
Much of the discussion around AI has focused on marketing, social media content, virtual assistants, and administrative tasks. While those applications are certainly useful, I believe one of the biggest changes is happening quietly behind the scenes—in negotiations.
The reality is that many buyers and sellers are already using AI in negotiations.
Before viewing a property, writing an offer, or responding to a counteroffer, consumers are asking ChatGPT and other AI tools questions about pricing, negotiation strategies, market conditions, and how to deal with real estate professionals. Increasingly, agents are using these tools as well.
As a preparation tool, AI is impressive. But as opinions go, it tells you what it believes you want to hear.
It can analyze market data, compare sales, summarize documents, identify trends, draft correspondence, and generate potential negotiation strategies in seconds. Tasks that once took hours can now be completed in minutes.
That is the good news that we all need to take advantage of, and make ourselves work smarter, not harder.
The challenge is that negotiation is not simply an exercise in gathering information.
Negotiation is a human process and skill.
It involves emotions, personalities, timing, trust, and understanding what motivates people to make decisions. A computer can tell you what similar properties sold for. It cannot tell you whether a seller is emotionally attached to a family home, whether a buyer is nervous about stretching their budget, or whether a deal is likely to fall apart over a seemingly minor issue.
Those things are often discovered through conversations, experience, and careful observation.
AI also has a tendency to sound very confident, even when it is wrong.
A strategy that might work in Toronto, Calgary, or Vancouver may not be appropriate in Cape Breton or Northeastern Nova Scotia. Real estate remains a local business, and every market has its own characteristics, challenges, and opportunities.
Our region is unique.
Many of our transactions involve waterfront properties, family land, farms, estates, and buyers from other provinces and countries. Some deals involve multiple family members, inherited properties, or emotional decisions that have little to do with market statistics.
No artificial intelligence program can fully understand those dynamics.
That is why I do not believe AI could or will replace skilled negotiators.
What it will do is expose average ones.
The agents who simply relay information from one party to another may find themselves competing with technology. The professionals who bring local knowledge, experience, judgment, and problem-solving skills to the table will continue to provide tremendous value.
The best negotiators will use AI as a tool rather than viewing it as a threat.
They will use it to analyze market conditions, prepare for meetings, explore possible solutions, and identify risks. Then they will apply something AI cannot replicate: human judgment.
For consumers, this means access to more information than ever before. That can be a good thing, provided the information is interpreted correctly.
Having more information does not automatically lead to better decisions.
In fact, as AI becomes more common, the ability to separate useful information from poor advice may become even more important. This will be a bigger factor than people see today.
As more Ontario, American, and European buyers discover Cape Breton through online research and AI-powered tools, local expertise becomes increasingly valuable. AI can tell someone the assessed value of a property or provide general market information. It cannot tell them what it is like to spend a winter in a particular community, whether a road is maintained year-round, or how local market conditions may affect future value.
Technology has transformed our industry many times over the past three decades. Each change has created new opportunities and raised expectations.
Artificial intelligence will do the same.
The future does not belong to those who ignore AI, nor to those who blindly trust it.
It belongs to those who combine technology with experience, data with judgment, and information with wisdom.
When it comes to negotiations, the human element will become more valuable than ever.