Zillow CEO argues AI agents won't replace human home searching

The human element of home buying

Zillow Group CEO Jeremy Wacksman recently shared a specific perspective on the future of AI agents during a quarterly earnings call. He argues that while people are increasingly comfortable letting AI handle small, repetitive tasks, they will likely resist letting robots handle major life decisions. He believes that the process of finding a home is fundamentally different from a simple chore.

Wacksman compared the experience of house hunting to watching a movie or playing a game. He noted that people do not want an AI to do these things for them because the enjoyment of the activity is the primary goal. In his view, the emotional weight of searching for a home makes it a personal journey that users want to navigate themselves.

The CEO emphasized that choosing a home is a high-stakes milestone that people want to live through. He stated that finding a home is not a chore to hand off to a robot. This philosophy suggests that the human desire for agency and personal experience will act as a barrier to full automation in real estate.

The threat of automated shopping

The discussion around AI agents stems from a concern that these tools could eventually bypass platforms like Zillow entirely. If an AI agent can search for properties, compare prices, and coordinate with sellers, it could potentially cut out the middleman. This would impact Zillow's primary revenue streams, which come from fees paid by partner real estate agents and its mortgage lending business.

The rise of personal AI agents, such as Meta’s Muse, has brought these concerns to the forefront of the tech industry. Muse was designed to perform tasks like booking travel and making purchases on behalf of the user. However, its rollout has faced hurdles, including Amazon blocking the agent from shopping on its site because it did not identify itself clearly.

Legal battles are also emerging as companies try to protect their ecosystems from unauthorized AI activity. Amazon is currently suing Perplexity over a shopping agent in its Comet browser. These conflicts highlight the tension between the convenience of automated agents and the desire of platforms to maintain direct relationships with their customers.

Zillow's current AI strategy

Despite the potential for AI to disrupt the market, Zillow reports that it is not currently seeing significant traffic from AI platforms. The company currently directs 80% of its traffic directly to its own site. To stay competitive, Zillow is actively integrating its technology with major AI providers, including OpenAI, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic.

The company has already launched a conversational search feature known as Zillow’s AI mode. This tool allows signed-in users to interact with the platform using natural language to find what they are looking for. Since March, the company reported that more than 2.5 million people have used this feature to ask a total of 8.5 million questions.

Zillow is also deploying AI to assist the professionals who work on the platform. Their Follow Up Boss software for real estate agents now includes AI that identifies leads requiring attention. These tools recommend specific next steps for the agents, who then have the final authority to approve and execute those actions.

Internal tools and financial health

Beyond consumer-facing features, Zillow is using AI to improve its internal engineering workflows. Wacksman noted that the company's engineers are using AI to ship 60% more changes to production than they did in 2024. This indicates that while the company is cautious about how AI interacts with customers, it is aggressively using the technology to increase its own operational speed.

The company's financial results for the third quarter showed a 7% revenue increase to $724 million. This figure fell short of the company's own forecast, which had predicted a range between $745 million and $760 million. The shortfall was largely attributed to a sharp rise in mortgage rates, which has slowed down the overall pace of home sales.

Zillow also reported a net loss of $158 million for the quarter. A significant portion of this loss was tied to a settlement regarding a shareholder lawsuit over Zillow Offers. That business was the company's previous home-flipping venture, which has since been defunct. These figures provide a backdrop of a company navigating both technological shifts and a cooling housing market.