AI isn’t expected to replace Realtors anytime soon, but many in the industry believe it’s reshaping how agents work—and those who embrace the shift may gain a competitive edge.
That’s the view of Shemeer Ahmad, co-founder of Valery Real Estate, an AI-powered real estate brokerage that launched last September and describes itself as Canada’s first AI-powered brokerage.
Ahmad, who has a background in computer science, says the platform was developed by real estate professionals to personalize market insights and assist agents with routine tasks.
“We realized there is a far greater need for personalization, and we built the company around personalized real estate intelligence—information that’s highly curated for individuals and their personal scenarios. That’s what we think AI does very well.”
“A breakthrough in agents’ careers happens when they’re able to offload much of their work to an administrative assistant.”
AI, he says, might have helped him avoid making some bad house buying and selling choices in the past.“Had I had the right information, and the right guidance, and an unbiased source, where I could set my own data and really analyze what’s good for me, I wouldn’t have made those bad choices.”
Among other things, the Valery platform allows potential clients to get instant evaluations for any property, see price growth forecasts and talk to a chatbot to get a personalized real estate action plan in minutes.
The action plan is an almost 30-page analysis that maps how clients can achieve their real estate goals, whether they’re looking to rent, buy their first home or invest. “It helps them go through different scenarios to have a more data-driven, planned approach,” he says.
Ahmad believes delegating routine tasks through AI can free up agents’ time for higher-value client work, adding, “A breakthrough in agents’ careers happens when they’re able to offload much of their work to an administrative assistant.”
AI helps agents buy back their time
The problem is that a great assistant will easily cost $40,000 to $60,000 a year, something many agents can’t afford if they’re only earning $100,000, says David Hutchinson, vice-president of growth at Valery and founder of the Avant Group brokerage.
“You get on this rat wheel of trying to do more, but you just can’t,” says Hutchinson, who joined Valery in March.
He says Valery’s AI is designed to help agents buy back their time and focus on what makes them money by minimizing administrative time. “We offload some of those admin tasks to AI at no cost, allowing our agents to be more efficient, make more money and be better able to serve our clients.”
Hutchinson says he has two assistants who leave tedious work to AI and can now focus on bigger picture, money-making tasks.
Ahmad says one of Valery’s more popular features is its CMA tool, which in seconds provides a report that would otherwise take between 30 minutes and an hour to prepare. He says this allows agents to come to showings better prepared with comps and data that’s easier for clients to understand.
“It allows them to offer a lot more value to prospective and existing clients in a very low-effort way,” Hutchinson claims.
Valery is working on enabling its AI to draft offers and submit deals to the brokerage, features he describes as addressing “the two biggest pain points for Realtors.”
31 Realtors and growing
As of mid-May, Valery had 31 Realtors and 28 listings.
Ahmad says that because the market has slowed, Valery is dealing with less listing volume than he thought it would.
However, because it’s a slow market, agents are a lot more receptive to change. “They’re open to seeing what can help them with their careers.”
Valery’s agents are a 50-50 mix of new and experienced agents, Ahmad says. He notes that early retention has been strong, with only one agent leaving the company for personal reasons.
Now operating in the GTA, Vaughan, Ont.-based Valery plans to expand across Ontario by year’s end and into British Columbia and Alberta in 2026.
Valery has introduced Aigent Academy, an online learning platform that teaches users optimal use of AI tools and more.
For example, one of the course modules discusses how AI can be used for email management, which requires a lot of time and which many people dread, Ahmad says. He claims that using AI in this way has helped some Valery agents save several hours a week.
AI–the difference maker in brokerage training?
Every brokerage offers training, but much of it is outdated and relies on only a few instructors, which limits viewpoints, Hutchinson says. Aigent Academy relies on experts from multiple fields.
In addition to AI experts, topics include Hutchinson teaching agents how they can crack the 100 K mark, Foch giving his insights on how to better give information to clients, and videographers giving tips on how to shoot video content.
The courses are free for Valery agents and start at $47 a month for others. Modules are constantly being added as AI tools evolve.
Ahmad says the beauty of AI is that it behaves predictably, fast and cheaply. But it’s terrible at reading between the lines, understanding the nuances of human behaviour and emotions.
For that and other reasons, “I don’t see agents going anywhere for a very long time.”
He believes anything that involves talking on the phone or sitting behind a screen will be slowly automated but anything that requires interfacing with clients, developing rapports, showing properties and providing guidance, “are all at the heart of what’s human. It’s going to be the essence of what an agent does.”
How is AI changing the real estate process?
While Valery claims its AI is transforming the real estate process, Ahmad says the brokerage does not have metrics to prove that claim.
Ahmad admits there are privacy concerns with AI, and care must be taken that it does not extract sensitive information from people.
He’s optimistic that AI will lead to more work for agents, not less. For example, the AI Action plan can give homeowners daily info on how the market affects their home value, giving them a better framework to make decisions.
“That type of information is going to end up increasing the industry size.”
Danny Kucharsky is a contributing writer for REM.