OnTheMarket Launches AI Powered Natural Language Search and Agent Listing Tools

The British property portal company OnTheMarket has become the latest to announce the deployment of a series of AI-powered tools.

The majority agent-owned firm has debuted its 'Otiem' virtual search assistant which was successfully launched at the start of July and, according to a company release, allows users to "enter their searches in the same way they would describe their ideal property when speaking to an agent or a friend".

The tool, which is a play on the company's abbreviated name, matches criteria from the user's spoken search to existing filters and OnTheMarket’s ‘Wish List’ sort function.

In addition to the natural language search capabilities, the portal has also revealed AI-powered tools to help its agent customers with listings.

Agents can now generate fresh listing descriptions using AI or paste pre-existing descriptions from their own websites. The AI assistant will quickly pull out the features, fields and room names of the property, which will then be presented to the agent in list form. Agents will then be able to approve or untick the features generated by the AI assistant, saving valuable time on each listing.

Speaking about his company's latest product development, Chief Executive Officer, Jason Tebb said:

“We’re proud to be the first major UK property portal to leverage the advantages of AI natural-language technology to enhance the search experience for our consumers. Searching for your dream property should be a fun and easy process, and Otiem will help ensure users have more time to spend looking at properties. Once our AI-powered agent tools go live, agents will be able to work more efficiently and save valuable time on their day to day processes when interacting with our portal.

Real estate marketplace companies around the world have been in a rush to develop, deploy and announce AI-powered applications so far this year.

While many are concentrated on trying to improve the searching or matching aspect for end users, few have announced back-end product updates to improve search meta-data.

Real Estate Marketplace AI Applications