The National Association of REALTORS® surveyed thousands of agents about how they’re using technology right now. The results reveal a profession fracturing along a single fault line: those who are building AI into their daily workflow, and those who are watching it happen from the sidelines. The NAR 2025 REALTOR® Technology Survey, published in October 2025, is the most comprehensive industry-wide benchmark available — and for agents entering the spring 2026 cycle, it’s essential reading.
The headline numbers are compelling on their own: 46% of agents are generating AI-powered listing content, 20% use AI tools daily, and 44% of agents are spending more than $250 per month on individual technology tools. But what those numbers actually reveal is a profession in the middle of a generational shift — where agents who are building systematic, AI-augmented workflows are pulling decisively ahead, while the 32% who haven’t touched AI are no longer the cautious majority. They’re the trailing edge.
Where Real Estate Agents Actually Stand on AI Right Now
The 2025 NAR Technology Survey provides the clearest industry-wide snapshot available on agent AI adoption. Among the key findings:
- 46% of REALTORS® use AI-generated content — listing descriptions, marketing copy, social captions
- 20% use AI tools daily; 22% use them weekly; 27% a few times a month
- 32% have not yet used AI in their business at all
- 33% of agents say AI has had a moderately positive impact on their business
- 17% say AI has had a significantly positive impact
- 46% say AI has had no noticeable impact yet
- Top AI tools in use: ChatGPT (58%), Gemini by Google (20%), Microsoft Copilot (15%)
The critical interpretation: 68% of agents are using AI at least occasionally, but the majority are still in an “exploring, not systematizing” phase. The agents reporting significantly positive impact — the 17% — are the ones who have moved beyond ad-hoc prompting to embedded, repeatable workflows. The 46% reporting “no noticeable impact” aren’t experiencing a technology failure; they’re experiencing an adoption-stage dynamic. Occasional ChatGPT use produces occasional results.
The comparison from outside NAR’s membership is instructive: Real Brokerage’s February 2026 Monthly Agent Survey found 86% of agents reporting regular AI tool usage — a divergence that reflects NAR’s broader membership base, which includes a large segment of less-tech-active agents. Among production-focused agents in active markets, near-universal AI adoption is already the baseline.
The Tools That Define Today’s Competitive Tech Stack
The survey’s most important signal is in which tools have achieved critical mass — and which categories are still open for differentiation.
Core tools by adoption rate:
- eSignature: 79% — the universal baseline; DocuSign, Authentisign, and equivalents are effectively table stakes
- Social media: 75% — organic and paid; Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for listing promotion and prospecting
- Drone photography/video: 52% — significant adoption for listing visual packages
- AI-generated content: 46% — listing descriptions, email sequences, social content
Lead generation sources (where clients are actually coming from):
- Social media: 39% of agents cite it as their primary lead source
- CRM: 23% cite CRM-managed relationships as primary
- Local MLS: 17%
Reading this landscape for 2026: eSignature is infrastructure — the 21% not using it are outliers, not a cautious majority. Social media is dominant for both marketing and lead generation, which means AI tools that produce social content compound their value across both functions simultaneously. Drone photography at 52% establishes the visual media benchmark — but that also means 48% of listings aren’t yet receiving full visual treatment.
The AI content adoption figure — 46% — sets up the next major frontier clearly. Nearly half of all agents are already using AI for written output. The logical next layer is AI for visual output: virtual staging, listing video production, floor plan rendering. For agents already deploying AI for copy and social, an AI virtual staging platform like RealEstage.ai is the natural visual equivalent — it transforms listing photos the same way ChatGPT transformed listing descriptions: faster, more consistent, and scalable across every property in the portfolio.
What $50 to $500+ a Month in Tech Actually Buys
The NAR survey’s technology spending data puts concrete numbers on where the profession sits financially:
- 34% of agents spend $50–$250/month on individual technology tools
- 20% spend $251–$500/month
- 24% spend over $500/month
- Combined: 44% of agents are investing more than $250/month in tech for their own practice
This benchmark reframes how to evaluate any new tool. If the median active REALTOR® is already spending $250–$500+/month, a $59–$99/month AI tool isn’t primarily a budget question — it’s a competitive positioning question. The question isn’t whether to invest in technology. It’s whether current spending is well-allocated.
Agents in the $50–$250/month range represent the highest opportunity cost in the current environment. They have a budget. They have intentions. But they’re frequently over-investing in tools with low direct revenue impact (generic CRM features they don’t use, redundant marketing platforms) while under-investing in tools that directly affect listing velocity and sale price.
The Delta Media 2026 Real Estate Leadership Survey adds a brokerage-level data point: 97% of brokerage leaders say their agents are using AI, and the top organizational challenge is agent productivity (cited by 54%). That isn’t a coincidence — brokerage leaders know that AI adoption is the primary lever on productivity, and they’re actively looking for agents and tools that move the needle.
The 82% Signal: What Clients Are Telling the Data
Perhaps the most actionable single finding in the 2025 NAR survey:
- 82% of agents say their clients responded positively or very positively to technology integration in the buying and selling process
- 45% said clients responded very positively
This is the permission structure every agent hesitating over a new tool needs. Clients aren’t just tolerating technology — they’re expecting it, and rewarding agents who demonstrate fluency with it. The risk calculation has fundamentally shifted:
Old mental model: “Introducing new tech to my clients might feel impersonal or gimmicky.”
2025 data model: “Not introducing technology is what clients notice — and it shows up negatively.”
Specific implications for listing presentations: Virtual tours, AI-staged listing photos, digital CMAs, drone footage — clients don’t experience these as “tech additions” layered onto the transaction. They experience them as professionalism signals. The agent who arrives at a listing appointment with a polished visual package, including AI-staged renderings of the property, is communicating competence before a word is spoken.
The Resimpli data on real estate video puts a related number on this: 73% of homeowners are more likely to list with an agent who uses video for property marketing. The 82% positive tech response and the 73% video preference are measuring the same underlying dynamic — clients are pre-qualifying their agents on technological sophistication, and the bar keeps rising.
AI-staged listing photos are among the highest-visibility places clients encounter their agent’s technology investment. The before-and-after visual transformation that RealEstage.ai’s AI staging platform produces — shown at a listing presentation or included in a pre-market package — is exactly the kind of tangible technological capability that drives the 82% positive response the NAR survey documents.
The 32% Gap: What Non-Adopters Are Up Against
The 32% of agents who haven’t yet used AI are no longer the cautious majority waiting for technology to mature. They’re a minority operating without tools that 68% of their peers have already integrated. Here’s the practical competitive picture:
What the non-AI cohort faces in spring 2026:
- Competing against 68% of agents producing faster, more consistent written content
- Competing against 46% generating AI-powered listing descriptions that outperform manually written ones on readability and SEO
- No AI-powered social content pipeline — which cuts off the #1 lead generation channel at its most scalable point
- More time spent on tasks that peers are automating — time not available for prospecting, client relationships, or additional transactions
The compounding cost: Every listing cycle without AI content represents an accumulating productivity gap against AI-using competitors. The 33% reporting “moderately positive” AI impact are likely occasional users. The 17% with “significantly positive” impact are systematic users. The distinction isn’t tool quality — it’s consistency of application.
The addressable opportunity: The NAR survey finds that 59% of REALTORS® “use some emerging technology but are still learning.” This is the largest single adoption cohort — not averse to technology, not yet systematic about it. The 21% who have “heard of” AI tools but haven’t tried them are the trailing edge. The 59% who are still learning represent the agents most primed to accelerate.
For context on the driving motivations: 66% of agents embrace new technology primarily to save time; 64% to enhance client experience. Both motivations are addressed simultaneously by systematic AI adoption — which is part of why the agents who’ve moved beyond occasional use report significantly better outcomes.
Auditing Your Stack Against the NAR Benchmarks
Use the survey data to evaluate where your individual technology investment stands relative to peers. The clearest framework is a three-tier structure:
Tier 1 — Baseline (the table stakes that serious agents treat as infrastructure):
- ✅ eSignature — 79% penetration; agents not using it are statistically outliers
- ✅ Social media presence — active on at least Instagram and one additional platform (75% adoption)
- ✅ CRM for relationship management — 23% cite it as primary lead source
Tier 2 — Active adopters (the current competitive standard among production-focused agents):
- ✅ Drone photography and video for listing packages (52% adoption)
- ✅ AI-generated listing descriptions and marketing copy (46%)
- ✅ AI tools used at least weekly — daily and weekly users combined represent 42%
Tier 3 — Differentiators (the significantly positive impact cohort, the 17%):
- ✅ AI integrated into a daily, repeatable workflow — not ad-hoc prompting
- ✅ Visual AI: virtual staging, AI-enhanced listing video, floor plan rendering
- ✅ Systematic AI social content that consistently feeds the primary lead channel
- ✅ AI for CMAs and market analysis beyond generic language model queries
Where AI staging sits in this framework: It’s a Tier 3 tool in terms of current adoption — most agents haven’t yet systematized visual AI. But it carries Tier 2 directness-of-revenue-impact, because visual presentation directly affects days on market and the list-to-sale ratio. Tools like RealEstage.ai turn a Tier 3 capability into a workflow that’s straightforward enough for consistent deployment across every listing — which is precisely what moves agents from “exploring AI” to “AI producing significantly positive results.”
What the Survey Can’t Capture — and What’s Coming Next
The 2025 NAR survey was conducted mid-year and reflects the state of the industry before the current spring 2026 cycle. Several trends have accelerated meaningfully since:
AI tool consolidation: ChatGPT’s 58% dominance is real, but it’s narrowing as agents shift from general-purpose LLMs to purpose-built real estate AI platforms. The transition from “using ChatGPT for listings” to “using a platform built specifically for real estate workflows” is the current migration.
Visual AI as the next adoption curve: The survey captures AI-generated content (written) effectively but doesn’t yet measure AI visual tools — staging, video enhancement, floor plan rendering — as a distinct adoption category. Given drone photography’s trajectory to 52% adoption, the next visual adoption curve is predictable. The 2026 NAR Technology Survey will almost certainly show AI staging and visual tools at 30%+ adoption — mirroring exactly how drone photography moved from differentiator to standard practice in three years.
Rising client expectations: The 82% positive client tech response will increase, not plateau. Digital-native millennial buyers — who represent 29% of all buyers per the NAR 2025 Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends Report — don’t experience technology as an added service. They experience its absence as a signal of disorganization. As millennials continue to represent the largest single buyer cohort, and as Gen Z buyers enter the market in larger numbers, the technology fluency floor will rise with each cycle.
Spending trajectory: With 24% of agents already spending $500+/month on technology, and brokerage leaders citing productivity as their top challenge, the tools that demonstrably improve listing performance will see accelerating adoption. The agents who invest in AI staging now are building a visual production capability that will be industry standard within two annual survey cycles.
The 2025 NAR data isn’t just a snapshot — it’s a leading indicator. The agents who read the benchmarks clearly, identify where their current stack sits in the tier structure, and make the specific upgrades that move them from Tier 2 to Tier 3 are the ones who will show up in the “significantly positive impact” column when the 2026 survey publishes.
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