Weekly Radar #341: AI Learns To Be Useful, Proptech Index Down 0.58%, The Last Compass Straw, KW And Stone Point
In this Weekly Radar, we cover:
- Productive AI and HouseWhisper streamline real estate CRM workflows via voice automation, avoiding the complexity of physical AI assistants.
- Compass faces criticism for blocking Drew Meyers' dissenting opinion means they no longer have a say in the conversation and thus have zero ability to correct opinions being informed by incorrect facts. The decision reinforces that the company prioritizes controlling its narrative over engaging in open industry discussions.
- Keller Williams' deal with Stone Point Capital suggests a strategic distribution play rather than a high-return investment.
- The GEM Proptech Index decreased 0.58% from the previous week.
As always, links surrounded by the ❇️ emoji indicate exclusive GEM Diamond content. If you would like to have access to all links, please consider GEM Diamond membership.
PS: We have a few spots left at the upcoming GEM Proptech Getaway in beautiful Central Oregon from April 1st-3rd. Reach out if you're interested.
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Transmission Recap:
Last week, Drew Meyers examined how Real Brokerage is using banking and rewards to transform into a financial services company. Most recently, Drew Meyers explored the Tesla-ification of motorhomes, with a new wave of fully electric, luxury vehicles and towables led by Lightship and Pebble coming to market.
BIZ INTEL
PROPTECH INDEX WEEKLY
By: Community Relations
Consisting of 28 stocks, the GEM Proptech Index had a combined market cap of $248.936B, a decrease of .58% from the previous week.
This week, Matterport was removed from the index following the completion of its acquisition by CoStar, a deal initially announced in April 2024.
REAL ESTATE
AI LEARNS TO BE USEFUL
By: Logan Nagel
As AI assistants face off against complaints that they return inaccurate information or are cumbersome to use, the easier it is to feed an AI product useful, consistent data and requests, the more successful the platform will be. Sometimes that comes via embedding AI tools within familiar applications like Gmail or Excel, and sometimes this means tying the AI into narrow but repetitive use cases, like updating CRM records or setting appointments. This latter approach is the tack taken by real estate-oriented products Productive AI and the recently announced Zillow alumni-founded HouseWhisper, which has already been used by “more than 4,000 agents.” Both sync with existing CRMs; Productive listens in on phone calls to set appointments, reminders, and take notes while HouseWhisper eschews a visual interface in favor of control via chatbot text or voice call.
Unlike AI assistants Humane’s AI Pin and rabbit’s r1, which tried to ❇️streamline AI deployment by implementing a physical device capable of collecting and displaying data from the real world❇️, Productive and HouseWhisper function without adding device clutter that requires learning gesture controls or costs several hundred dollars just to play ball. They lean into a core feature of LLMs—listening—to remove inefficient CRM workflow steps in the most natural way: speaking. Expect other AI standouts in the future to pare down their implementation cases while emphasizing ease of use as well.
THE LAST COMPASS STRAW
By: Drew Meyers
❇️My opinions❇️ on ❇️Compass' CCP crusade❇️ are very, very clear.
After yet another CCP spin post on Linkedin by Robert Reffkin, I left the following comment on a re-shared thread by Eileen Romito based on Reffkin's original post...
Robert Reffkin, or the PR team that controls his profile, solved my problem for me: they blocked me. Which means I can no longer see the spin Compass/Reffkin puts out. Win for me.
When I try to access his profile, I am now redirected to a 404. I realized what happened after Linkedin was throwing constant errors when I tried to click notifications for likes on my comment. All my comments remain (I'm still getting notifications for likes/comments), but I can no longer view the thread or my comments using my own profile.
For added context, here's the longer comment thread (which, again, I can't access from my own account)...