Will Brokers Be Replaced By AI?
Gosh, I sure hope so!
I met a new friend this week, Colette Kemp. She’s smart, funny, and also happens to be a new business broker. The day I met her she was giving a presentation to a bunch of brokers in suits about how to use Chatgpt in their brokerage practice. Naturally, during the Q&A someone asked if this new technology was going to replace business brokers. My first reaction to this was, “Awe, how cute that anyone would find us so important that we’d fret over being replaced”. But that question has stuck with me. Of course not I thought, we’re irreplaceable!
Before we get into the pros and cons of broker-bots, we’ll need to address the shift of power leading up to this moment. Back in the old days (like the 80’s) when my dad started his business, brokers had ALL the power. The average person didn’t have access to the available listings, resources, and training that brokers did. Knowledge is power, right? The buyers and sellers of that time actually depended on brokers. But over the last 40ish years A LOT has changed. Now, we all have access to the same information. I remember my dad commenting on this, “the buyers and sellers today are more educated and sophisticated than they used to be”. To a broker, this was seen as a threat - not a triumph. We went from an industry shrouded in mystery and tweed blazers to an era where buyers and sellers can pretty much navigate a transaction without us. The student has surpassed the teacher.
So back to AI. Will it replace us? Here are five ‘actually happened in real life’ reasons why I think we’re here to stay:
A bar manager walks away with four 60” TV’s the night before a closing and a broker hunts the guy down at his house early the next morning and takes the TV’s back to the bar ahead of the pre-closing walk-through. Can chat gpt do that?
At the last minute, the buyer and seller decide to reduce the sales price by 50k. After wiring the remainder of the money, the buyer shows up at closing with 50k in cash hastily stuffed into a brown paper bag. Would the Closing Attorney-Bot immediately notify the IRS or call the cops?
Things get heated at the closing table - the seller threatens to walk away from the deal. Things get even more heated, men stand up and threaten to punch each other in the face. Our heroic broker steps in between the two men and puts them in separate rooms for the rest of the closing. What would AI broker do in this situation?
A broker tallied up time spent on the phone with a particularly difficult client. Over a year and a half, 52.9 hours were spent talking this seller out of his erratic deal-killing behavior. How could ChatGPT have supported that business owner in the same way?
A broker has a listing an hour from her house. She and the seller have a good relationship, so when the seller gets called out of the country on a job, he pressures the broker to buy the business. She does and spends the next 5 years killing herself on this “opportunity” she didn't have the money or bandwidth for. AI is not capable of buying its own listing and wrecking its life.
Ok, there you have it folks - brokers are here to stay!
But wait…all of these examples have a similar vibe, don’t they?. They’re all examples of brokers being shady, putting themselves in danger, and/or being taken advantage of. That’s not cool! To an outsider, these things probably sound insane - and they are. My only explanation is this: business brokerage is a straight-commission career and it changes the way your brain is wired. It will cause you to do things that the salaried folks would never dream of AND make you feel like a hero for doing so.
Back to the original question - should business brokers be replaced? I’m starting to think that we need to be put out of our misery and let the broker-bots with healthy boundaries and unflappable ethics take over. Who’s with me?! Tell me how you feel below!
Do you feel like AI is a threat to business brokerage as we know it?
