This Industry Still Runs on Phone Calls and Paperwork—Zillow's Using AI To Change That
"We are already piloting AI tools for the real estate agent and for the loan officers, so that it can listen to calls and summarize calls, and it can suggest next steps, and eventually will be able to proactively schedule those next steps," he said.
Introducing The ‘Super Listing’ Experience
Wacksman shared how Zillow is building immersive, AI-powered home listings that go far beyond static photos. "We call it a super listing," he said. "It is an AI-powered, machine-learning-generated listing where you take the photos and the panoramas that a real estate photographer would do, and we actually generate a full walk-through."
Buyers can view interactive floor plans and 360-degree visuals. "We now have drone flyovers that 360 spin around the house from a drone photographer. So this is us trying to create really a way for you to virtually tour the home," Wacksman told Fortune. "And so that's just one example of us using technology to create a more immersive, more digital real estate experience."
AI for Real Estate Professionals
AI is not just for the consumer side. Wacksman said Zillow is focused on enabling professionals behind the scenes to manage deals more efficiently.
"It takes so much time and effort and process and busywork, and, frankly, waste work," Wacksman told Fortune. "You're hiring a real estate agent who's managing their business and flowing data, and meeting with clients. You're hiring a loan officer to get you your mortgage, and they're doing the same thing."
Wacksman emphasized the potential for AI to offload this burden. "That is all incredibly ripe for not just an intelligent layer of technology to become proactive and fill in the gaps, but an agentic layer to actually maybe do the work for them, to make it more delightful."
Connecting Both Sides Of The Deal
"If you want to make the buying and selling process easier, you have to build great software for one side of the screen," Wacksman told Fortune. "But it only works if you actually also build software for the professionals that are helping power that on the other side of the screen."
According to Wacksman, this dual-facing technology strategy is essential. "You can't just ecommerce it and fix one side of it," he said. "You have to actually plug everyone into a digital experience so that we can all have the experience we all want."
Digitizing Pain Points—And Reducing the Tears
"Half of all homebuyers and sellers cry during the process of buying and selling a home," Wacksman told Fortune.
Zillow's BuyAbility tool offers personalized financial insights—like credit score estimates and real-time budget fit—to help users make more informed decisions. "They don't cry because of the window-shopping part," Wacksman said. "They cry once they push the ‘I need help' button, and they have to go make three offers before they buy the house."
"We're trying to build this integrated transaction," he said, adding that Zillow's digital platform aims to ease that stress by guiding users from browsing to closing.
Elevating the Agent Role With AI
Wacksman said generative AI will help real estate professionals become more efficient. "Gen AI, I think, will do that further," he told Fortune. "The more that you can do as a buyer and seller on your own, the more educated you're going to be, and the more discerning you're going to be at hiring the best professional."
He added that real estate agents are no longer gatekeepers to information, but trusted advisors. "Real estate agents, those that still do a great job and have built businesses, they're local experts, they're negotiators, they're counselors."
Why This Matters For Zillow's Future
"One thing we found over the 20 years is anytime you can bring technology to the process, people will consume it. They will become more educated and empowered," Wacksman told Fortune. "They will spend more time with it, and that does lead to a happier experience."