What the Rise of AI Like OpenClaw Means for Real Estate Professionals, and the Secret Reality We’re In No One Wants to Address Out Loud.
Something happened in the tech world a few weeks ago that most real estate professionals probably missed.
A software project called OpenClaw became the fastest-growing open-source project in history. To put that in perspective, more developers are building on OpenClaw today than on the Apple App Store. Within days, hundreds of thousands of people were using it. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, moved quickly to acquire its creator.
And the real estate industry should be paying very close attention.
So what is OpenClaw? In plain language, it’s a personal AI assistant that doesn’t just answer questions, it actually does things. It can read your emails, manage your calendar, send messages on your behalf, browse the internet, create documents, and carry out multi-step tasks while you sleep. You talk to it through the apps you already use:
WhatsApp, text message, Slack, or others. It’s always on, always available, and it remembers everything you’ve told it.
If that sounds like a capable assistant, that’s because it is. And that’s exactly why it matters to our industry.
Why Real Estate Should Care.
Let’s be honest: most realtors and brokerages are still figuring out how to use ChatGPT effectively. Many haven’t moved beyond asking it to write a listing description or a social media caption. And there’s no shame in that; the technology has moved faster than anyone expected.
But OpenClaw represents a fundamentally different kind of AI. This isn’t a tool you open when you need something. It’s a digital worker that operates in the background, around the clock. Imagine an assistant that automatically follows up with leads who haven’t responded in 48 hours. One that monitors new listings in your target neighbourhoods, and alerts you before they hit the MLS. One that drafts your weekly market update
email, personalizes it for different client segments, and sends it, all without you lifting a finger.
That’s what AI can do. Not in five years. Right now.
Are We Ready? Honestly, Not Quite.
Here’s where I want to be real with you. The technology is exciting, but our industry has some significant hurdles to clear before most professionals can take advantage of it.
The first is the trust gap. Real estate is a relationship business. Clients trust us with the largest financial decisions of their lives. Handing any part of that communication to an AI (even a brilliant one) requires guardrails that don’t fully exist yet. An AI that sends the wrong follow-up message or misreads a client’s emotional state could damage a relationship that took years to build.
The second is the skills gap. OpenClaw, in its current form, requires a fair amount of technical setup. You need true technical skills to install software, configure integrations, and understand how to set boundaries on what the AI can and cannot do. That’s a tall order for professionals whose core expertise is negotiation, market knowledge, and client relationships, not programming.
And the third is the security gap. These AI systems need access to your email, your contacts, your MLS portal, and business data to be useful. Security researchers have already found vulnerabilities in OpenClaw deployments. In an industry that handles sensitive financial information and personally identifiable data, that’s a serious concern.
But Here’s the Opportunity.
None of these challenges are permanent. They’re speed bumps, not roadblocks.
Companies are already building simplified, industry-specific versions of this technology that don’t require a computer science degree to use. The security issues are being addressed rapidly, and its AI models themselves are getting better at knowing when to act and when to check in with a human first.
The real estate professionals who will thrive in the next three to five years are not the ones who master every new AI tool. They’re the ones who understand a simple truth, AI is shifting from being something you use to being something that works alongside you. The realtors who embrace AI as a partner, not a replacement, not a threat, but a partner, will be able to deliver a level of service that simply wasn’t possible before.
Think about it this way. The best realtors already have assistants, transaction coordinators, and marketing support. What the tech industry is calling “AI agents” is the next layer of that team. They handle the repetitive, time-consuming tasks so you can focus on what only a human can do: building genuine relationships, reading a room, and guiding someone through one of the most emotional decisions they’ll ever make.
The Bottom Line.
You don’t need to set up OpenClaw tomorrow. But you do need to understand that the world is moving in this direction, fast. The question isn’t whether AI agents will transform how real estate professionals work. It’s whether you’ll be ready when they do.
Start small. Stay curious. And remember: the goal was never to replace the human touch. It’s to give you more time to use it.
SOURCE, By RAZ ZOHAR, FOUNDER MAVE
To learn more, visit MAVE
