Forum: Property agents must use AI in responsible way that does not mislead consumers
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We refer to the Forum letter by Mr Felix Gao, “ Property agents concerned about guidelines on using AI”
The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) agrees with Mr Gao that artificial intelligence (AI) can improve productivity and competitiveness across sectors, including the real estate agency industry.
CEA does not prohibit the use of AI by property agents. In fact, the real estate agency industry has been actively investing in AI tools to help property agents save time on routine tasks such as generating drafts of property listing descriptions and marketing collaterals.
This has allowed agents to spend more time on other valuable tasks which AI cannot do, such as building relationships with clients by understanding their property needs, offering professional advice and assisting their clients with negotiations. What is important is that property agents must harness AI in a responsible manner that does not mislead consumers.
For example, CEA has received complaints of property advertisements containing images altered or enhanced by AI without sufficient disclaimers that these images were AI-enhanced.
Such practices present risks to consumers, who may form a wrong impression that these images portray the actual property.
While we recognise the opportunities presented by the use of AI in property advertisements, there is a need to protect property consumers from inaccurate or misleading advertising.
Where property agents use AI to enhance photographs in their advertisements, they are to highlight to consumers that the images have been enhanced or generated by AI.
Joseph Kiong
Director, Investigation and Inspection
Council for Estate Agencies
