As tech tools change, Roland Kampmeyer writes, the real estate professional must double down on the things that only humans can do with service and sensitivity.
I start every year by attending Inman Connect in New York. I’ve been attending since 2011. This year, the conference celebrated its 30th anniversary. I’ve personally witnessed roughly half of that history.
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What has drawn me to New York for 15 years is the chance to broaden my perspective. The exchange with international colleagues, the direct contact with the tech industry, the impulses from speakers in entirely different fields — all of this helps me recognize trends earlier and see things differently.
Back in 2017, I called the experience “double exhilarating” on these pages — and that hasn’t changed. Inman Connect isn’t an obligation for me; it’s a deliberate way to start the year. And this year, the message was clearer than ever.
AI is no longer a tool. It’s a question of mindset
Brad Inman presented a thesis in his keynote that has stayed with me. He positions artificial intelligence as the fifth industrial revolution — after steam power, electricity, computers and the internet.
Inman’s core message is surprisingly sober: AI amplifies what’s already there. Those who work responsibly and with substance will get better. Those who don’t will become irrelevant faster.
He drew a parallel to the first Inman Connect in 1996, when just 1 percent of all listings were online. Back then, there was the same mix of skepticism and excitement that we’re seeing with AI today. Inman called it “joyful intelligence” — the ability to meet technological change with curiosity rather than fear.
It’s not about whether we use AI. Most of us already do. It’s about the mindset with which we use it. AI doesn’t save broken business models. But it can elevate solid work, genuine market expertise and strong client relationships to a new level. That’s the mindset question our industry needs to ask itself.
From text machine to digital team member
The dominant technology theme of the conference was the next concrete step: agentic AI. Until now, most of us have used AI as a single-purpose tool — give ChatGPT a task, get a result, refine it. This first wave of generative AI remains reactive.
The second wave works fundamentally differently: autonomous, goal-oriented systems that independently execute multi-step tasks, adapt to context and deliver results with minimal human oversight. The pace is staggering:
- OpenClaw, a personal AI agent that went from a solo developer’s side project to 195,000 GitHub stars in weeks, was just acquired by OpenAI.
- Anthropic’s Claude Code lets developers delegate entire coding workflows from the command line.
These aren’t prototypes, they’re products.
What that means in practice: Instead of generating individual texts, an AI could soon orchestrate an entire acquisition process from data matching to initial outreach to structured follow-up. Several proptechs showcased first platforms at the expo that promise exactly this. The industry in the U.S. is visibly moving from individual AI tools toward AI-powered operating systems for real estate firms.
At KAMPMEYER Immobilien, we’re working on similar approaches: an AI-powered acquisition coach for our advisors, an intelligent database that learns from 30 years of client and transaction history, and AI-driven processes for listing creation and property search.
The challenge isn’t the technology itself but how to integrate it without losing what defines our work at its core: personal, substantive consulting.
When AI searches instead of Google
Jeff Lobb of SparkTank Media presented a startling finding: 37 percent of U.S. consumers already use AI-powered search instead of traditional search engines when looking for services. Instead of typing “Best real estate agent in my area” into Google, clients ask ChatGPT — and get a curated recommendation. If you don’t appear in that answer, you lose potential clients without even knowing it.
AI scans everything digitally available about a company: websites, blog articles, social media profiles, reviews. A single negative phrase can appear more prominently in the AI-generated summary than a hundred positive entries.
Lobb’s warning was unmistakable: Those who don’t adapt risk the same fate as BlackBerry. This shift hasn’t hit every market with the same intensity yet. But the question isn’t whether, but when.
The more AI, the more important the human
Amid the technology enthusiasm, the conference had a clear counterpoint. The marketing leaders of eXp Realty, Keller Williams, and Compass International Holdings agreed: AI is a good starting point, but no substitute for the human advisor. Ryan Serhant put it in a memorable formula: AI should multiply agents, not replace them.
The insight that ran through the entire conference was this: The more powerful the technology becomes, the more valuable what it cannot do becomes. Building trust, understanding complex life situations, striking the right tone in difficult negotiations — these remain core human competencies.
The best real estate professionals of the future won’t just be executors. They’ll be orchestrators who deploy AI strategically to focus on what truly matters: the relationship with the client.
AI doesn’t make the advisor obsolete. It makes the mediocre advisor obsolete. Those with substance will become stronger through AI.
And now?
When I first attended Inman Connect in 2011, David Carr of The New York Times gave a keynote called “When the Future Moves in Next Door.” His core message: The tools change, but the craft and its values remain. Nobody talked about artificial intelligence back then. Fifteen years later, Carr’s message is more relevant than ever.
This transformation is an opportunity for those willing to combine technology with substance. As I wrote in my AI manifesto last fall: doing nothing is not an option, but blindly chasing every technological trend isn’t either. Inman Connect 2026 confirmed that conviction.
Brad Inman’s message for the fifth revolution is simple: Technology rewards those who use it with responsibility and substance. That’s true in New York. That’s true everywhere. And it’s true right now.
Roland Kampmeyer founded KAMPMEYER Immobilien in 1995 and has since built one of his region’s leading residential brokerages with offices in Cologne, Bonn and Düsseldorf, Germany. Connect with him on LinkedIn.