Most broker-owners have heard some version of the same conversation in their office this year. One agent has found a new tool that writes listing descriptions, another is paying for two apps that overlap, and someone else stopped logging leads in the CRM months ago because keeping it updated took longer than the follow-up itself. Everyone is trying to serve clients better, and many of them are doing it on their own time and their own budget.
The National Association of Realtors' 2026 Realtors Technology Report, released September 22, 2026, puts numbers to that experience. Agents say they adopt technology mainly to save time and improve the client experience, and the biggest obstacles they report are the learning curve and the cost. For broker-owners, the findings suggest agents are already willing to use new tools, and what holds many of them back is how much effort those tools take to learn, pay for and keep connected.
What the report found
According to NAR, 81% of agents said saving time is their primary goal in adopting new technology, up from 66% a year earlier, and 71% cited improving the client experience, up from 64%. AI in particular has become routine for a large share of agents, with 23% using it daily and 25% using it weekly. Only 12% said they aren't using AI and have no plans to.
The report is just as clear about what gets in the way, with sixty-three percent of agents said the learning curve is their biggest challenge with new technology, and 59% pointed to cost. Real Estate News reported that 44% also cited the difficulty of choosing from too many options. On spending, HousingWire reported that 22% of agents spend more than $500 a month on technology.
Agents also appear to be moving past content writing. Real Estate News reported that interest in AI-backed CRM tools reached 51%, followed by AI-powered lead generation and follow-up at 48% and marketing automation at 34%. The results agents are seeing are mixed, since the share of agents reporting a positive impact from AI rose to 55% from 50%, while the share reporting a negative impact rose to 11% from 4%.
Why the learning curve is steeper than it looks
The tools agents say they want most, including CRM, lead follow-up and marketing automation, all depend on the same thing, which is complete and current information about each lead and client. When that information lives in a phone's contacts, a separate lead inbox, an email thread and a spreadsheet, every new tool has to be learned separately and fed separately. An AI assistant that sits outside all of it can only work with whatever the agent copies into it, which adds a step to the process the agent was hoping to shorten.
That is part of why the learning curve and the cost show up together in the report. Many agents are learning several products that don't share information with each other while paying for each of them, often out of their own pocket. For a brokerage, that affects the client too, since scattered lead and client records make it harder for agents to respond quickly and consistently.
NAR's own framing of AI is useful here. Inman reported that NAR said AI should complement an agent's professional judgment and local expertise rather than replace it, and that members remain bound by the Code of Ethics regardless of which tools they use. That places responsibility for what reaches the client with the agent and the brokerage, whatever tool produced it.
Where broker-owners can start
The report points toward practical steps a brokerage can take without asking agents to learn yet another product.
List every technology tool the brokerage pays for and ask agents which ones they pay for on their own, so overlapping costs become visible.
Map where lead and client information actually lives today, from first inquiry through closing, and note each place it has to be entered by hand.
Pick one workflow, such as lead follow-up, and check how long the last ten inquiries waited for a first meaningful response.
Set a firm-wide standard for which AI uses need review before anything reaches a client, separating low-risk drafts like social posts from higher-stakes work like pricing, contract terms or disclosures.
Give agents one clear expectation for where client records should be kept, so the tools they adopt later have complete information to work from.
Taken together, these steps give agents a consistent standard for how client work gets handled across the brokerage and give the broker a clearer picture of where time is actually being lost.
Key Takeaways
NAR's 2026 Realtors Technology Report, released September 22, 2026, found 81% of agents adopt technology mainly to save time and 71% to improve the client experience.
Nearly half of agents use AI daily (23%) or weekly (25%), while the learning curve (63%) and cost (59%) remain the top obstacles to adopting new technology.
Agent interest is shifting toward AI-backed CRM, lead follow-up and marketing automation, all of which rely on complete and connected client information.
Reported negative impacts from AI rose to 11% from 4%, alongside a rise in positive impacts to 55%.
Broker-owners can start by auditing tool costs, mapping where client information lives and setting a firm-wide standard for reviewing AI-assisted work before it reaches clients.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many real estate agents use AI in 2026?
According to NAR's 2026 Realtors Technology Report, 23% of agents use AI daily and 25% use it weekly. Only 12% said they aren't using AI and have no plans to.What is the biggest challenge agents report with new technology?
In NAR's 2026 report, 63% of agents said the learning curve is their biggest challenge, and 59% pointed to cost.Does using AI change an agent's ethical obligations?
As reported by Inman, NAR said AI should complement rather than replace professional judgment and that members remain bound by the Code of Ethics regardless of the tools they use. EasyDigz's read is that brokerages benefit from setting clear review standards for AI-assisted work that reaches clients.Where should a brokerage start if agents feel overwhelmed by tools?
EasyDigz's view is that the most useful first step is an inventory of what the brokerage and its agents are paying for, followed by a map of where client information lives, before adding anything new.
Want fewer tools and more time back for your agents? Talk it through with EasyDigz.