Fears that AI will make letting agents obsolete are, for the most part, overstated. Its capacity to automate repetitive tasks and improve operational efficiency, however, is real, and could fundamentally change the role of the property professional and what landlords and tenants expect from their agents.
That is the view from Propoly, a lettings platform that has examined the areas where AI in lettings is already beginning to take effect.
Tenancy progression
One of the clearest opportunities is in tenancy progression. Referencing, fraud checks, document reviews, compliance, rent protection and professional support have traditionally been handled across multiple systems and teams. AI can bring that information together, identify potential risks and recommend the next action, potentially compressing work that once took hours or days into a process completed in minutes.
For agents, that could mean less administration and more time for the parts of the role where human judgement matters most.
AI-generated complaints
AI is also changing how tenants interact with agents, not just how agents work. Tenants can now produce lengthy complaints and legal arguments almost instantly, which can give consumers greater access to information but can also create additional workload for agents when those arguments contain inaccurate, outdated or irrelevant legal references.
In a highly regulated sector, the accuracy of a complaint and any response to it depends on a range of factors, including jurisdiction, tenancy type, commencement dates and changes in legislation. AI-generated information needs careful verification before being relied upon, particularly where getting it wrong carries significant consequences for an agent, landlord or tenant.
Maintenance
Maintenance is another area where AI could deliver practical gains. The technology can assess incoming reports, identify missing information, triage cases, categorise issues and direct them to the appropriate contractor. It can also summarise lengthy email chains, giving property managers the key facts without requiring them to work through every message. For tenants, that could mean faster responses; for agents, less time spent on administration.
Bias and oversight
A common assumption is that AI will make property decisions more objective. Propoly pushes back on that. Where AI is used for tenant selection, referencing or risk assessment, existing biases within data or decision-making processes could be reproduced or amplified. Human oversight becomes particularly important when AI influences decisions about whether someone secures a home.
That distinction matters because the technology's role can move quickly from administrative assistance to something with real consequences for consumers. There is a meaningful difference between using AI to write a property description and using it to help decide who should rent a property. AI can support income verification, fraud detection, affordability assessments and risk analysis, but property professionals still need to understand the reasoning behind a decision rather than treating an automated output as definitive.
Smaller agencies
Generative AI could give smaller businesses access to capabilities that have traditionally required dedicated teams, helping individual negotiators and property managers handle communications, administration and data more efficiently. Propoly's view is that the most effective model will be AI-assisted rather than AI-controlled property management.
An agent might use AI to summarise a 30-email maintenance thread but should still make the judgement on liability. AI might flag an anomaly in a tenant application without automatically deciding the applicant should be rejected.
Speed and expectations
The most significant shift may be in pace. As AI makes it possible to produce an email, answer a question or summarise information in seconds, tenants and landlords may become less willing to accept long waits for responses. What was once considered an acceptable response time could start to feel slow.
The competitive advantage, Propoly suggests, may not belong to the businesses using the most AI, but to those that integrate it effectively while maintaining accuracy, accountability and good service.
Sim Sekhon, group chief executive of Propoly, said: "AI isn't going to make letting agents disappear. It is going to make waiting disappear.
"The technology is exceptionally good at handling the repetitive work that slows people down, whether that's reviewing documents, checking information, summarising communications or identifying the next action in a tenancy.
"Take referencing. What has traditionally involved information being spread across different systems and processes can increasingly be connected and assessed in minutes rather than hours or days. That's where AI can make a real difference to property professionals.
"But there is an important distinction between using AI to help make a decision and allowing AI to make the decision for you. In property, a confident answer isn't necessarily a correct one, and the consequences of getting something wrong can be significant.
"The winners won't be the agents who hand everything over to AI. They'll be the ones who use it to become faster, more informed and more responsive, while keeping people firmly in the loop."
