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illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day. Read the full piece on The Wall Street Journal or enjoy below:
🗞️ Driving the news: Celebrity real-estate entrepreneur Ryan Serhant, known from Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing, is betting big on AI to transform luxury real estate. His brokerage’s in-house platform, S.MPLE, automates administrative tasks that typically consume up to 80% of an agent’s time — from drafting client emails to creating market analyses and updating CRM systems
• Developed by Serhant Technologies with $45 million in venture funding, the tool is used by more than 90% of the firm’s 1,300 agents across 13 states
🔭 The context: Real estate has historically lagged in tech adoption, relying heavily on personal relationships and manual workflows. But as AI matures, brokerages are building proprietary tools or integrating open platforms to boost productivity
• S.MPLE connects directly to backend systems using open-source standards like Model Context Protocol (MCP) and large language models such as GPT and Anthropic’s Claude
• Since launch, it has handled over 12,000 automated actions, saving an estimated 15,440 hours of work and supporting $5 billion in closed sales volume in early 2025, despite high interest rates
🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Though not designed as a sustainability tool, S.MPLE’s efficiency model underscores AI’s potential to reduce wasted time, travel, and resource use in industries dependent on in-person operations
• By consolidating multiple platforms and automating repetitive processes, AI-enabled systems like this one could pave the way for leaner, more energy-efficient workflows in real estate and beyond.
⏭️ What’s next: Serhant says the app’s goal is to “give agents their time back” — either to improve work-life balance or to sell more. Early adopters report significant performance gains: one Florida agent saw 133% sales growth this year. The firm plans to expand the platform’s use cases while keeping human relationships at the core of luxury sales.
💬 One quote: “The tech has caught up to the types of challenges, workflows, ways of working that exist in the space.” — Alex Wolkomir, Partner, McKinsey
📈 One stat: More than 90% of Serhant’s 1,300 agents actively use S.MPLE, an adoption rate rare even among AI-driven enterprises
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