AI search is revolutionizing how buyers find agents—and most realtors are missing the window to optimize before competitors catch on.
Part 1 of 3 of the 60 Minutes to Autopilot Series. Based on a conversation featuring Jason Pantana, Barry Jenkins, Gabe Cordova, and Juefeng Ge.
Jason Pantana got on a webinar with Barry Jenkins, Gabe Cordova, and Juefeng Ge from Ylopo a few weeks back. Hundreds of Ylopo users showed up.
What came out of that session? Honestly, every agent should probably hear it.
What's happening with AI search right now isn't theoretical. Most agents have no idea how much it matters.
Seth Godin's wake-up call
Marketing guru, Seth Godin, said something recently that Jason kept coming back to during the webinar.
AI is a bigger change than electricity.Bigger than the internet. Which sounds extreme until you think about what's shifting in how people search for information, and more specifically, how they're starting to search for agents.
Jason put it plainly:
"AI is the biggest technological change any of us, no matter our age, has ever lived through."
Though what matters more than the technology itself is what he said next.
AI won't replace agents. But agents who figure out how to use it effectively?
They're going to leave everyone else behind. That part's already starting.How some agents pull ahead while others fall behind has everything to do with how people are searching now versus how they searched six months ago.
The search-to-ask revolution
Cornell University did research on this. Turns out people search totally differently when they're using AI versus when they're Googling something.
Instead of typing "best realtor Virginia Beach" into a search bar, they're asking ChatGPT full questions. Like:
"I need a realtor who specializes in VA loan assumptions, has experience with first-time buyers, and knows the specific neighborhoods near Town Center in Virginia Beach."
That's a conversation, not a search query.
And when someone's having a conversation with AI about finding an agent, all your old SEO tactics don't mean much anymore.
The platforms consumers are transitioning to operate in a different manner than Google. That is why you cannot utilize them in the same manner.
More importantly, what AI systems cannot view matters more than you might believe. This creates a level of fairness in a way you may not expect.
AI can't read reviews (yet)
ChatGPT cannot browse your Google reviews. None of the other AI platforms such as Gemini, Perplexity, or Google's AI Overview either.
Reviews from Google, Zillow, Yelp, Facebook? Blocked from AI crawlers as "dynamic content."
Take a minute to grasp the concept of this.
Your competitor who resides a few blocks away with 300 five-star reviews? Invisible in AI search.For many years, reviews have been the ultimate form of credibility and social evidence that distinguishes top agents from all other agents within traditional search results.
Ylopo has assisted agents in developing large online presences largely due to the significance of reviews.
There exists a window of time (it may not exist forever; however, it presently exists) in which those hundreds of reviews will not affect AI suggestions at all.
Jason described it in the following way:
"AI is providing perfectly phrased, confident responses to consumers; however, it is recommending based upon what it can view and what it can view is extremely limited."
That limitation generates the space. To comprehend what AI can view, is to begin to perceive how to utilize it.
What AI can see (and how Ylopo users can leverage it)
Turns out AI platforms pull agent recommendations from specific places. Not everywhere.
Just certain sites where the content is accessible to their crawlers:
Realtor.com and Zillow listings
Blogs and articles
Agent bios on brokerage websites
Directories like Fast Expert and HomeLight
Facebook business pages
Personal websites
AI looks at text. Your bio.
Your blog postings. Listings you have described.
It evaluates that content to determine if you meet the requirements of the consumer's inquiry. Can't review your ratings, can't assess your standing in the way humans do.
However, AI can parse language and associate particular demands with specific agents based on how you define yourself and your capabilities. Many agents include biographies that state generic statements.
"Committed to assisting families in discovering their dream residences."
"Prioritize my clientele."
Statements similar to those above provide AI no useful information. Too vague.
When someone requests ChatGPT for an agent who is familiar with VA assumptions or new construction in a particular school district, generic biographies will not match that inquiry.
The Tammy Price example illustrates precisely why this is essential.
What Happened to Tammy Price
Jason shared an example from Tammy Price, who's part of AI Marketing Academy. She sent him a message:
"My last four buyer clients came to me after ChatGPT recommended me. One closed today, two under contract, got a listing."
Four buyers. All from ChatGPT recommendations.The specific detail that stuck out? Tammy was getting recommended as an agent familiar with VA loan assumptions.
That level of specificity means she'd optimized her online content in ways that AI could find and match to those queries. Most agents haven't done that yet.
Tammy did. She's closing deals because of it.
Those four deals are what made Jason lean into something Barry immediately picked up on.
The gold rush moment for Ylopo users
"There's never been a more impressionable moment for your own search visibility online than right now. This is an Oklahoma land rush, a California gold rush moment."
Barry's response?
"That's a statement right there. If you're listening to this, that is a statement."
Because think about timing. If you're already investing in Ylopo (paying for Dynamic Ads, using AI² for lead nurturing, building out your digital infrastructure), you're already ahead of most agents in your market.
But if AI search is where consumers are starting their agent hunt, and most of your competitors haven't optimized for it yet, that's a compounding advantage. Ylopo's AI² handles the follow-up once you have leads.
Nurtures them, qualifies them, keeps them warm until they're ready to transact. But before any of that happens, consumers need to find you.
AI search is increasingly where that discovery happens. Get in front of that traffic before everyone else figures it out.
Jason broke down how to actually do that. Three things you can start on today.
Jason's 3-step action plan
Not complicated, just specific.
1. Optimize your bio for AI search
Your bio needs keywords that AI searches for. Not keyword-stuffed garbage that reads awkwardly.
Natural language that contains the phrases and words people utilize when explaining what they want in an agent. Terms and phrases such as "Best Realtor in [your city]" should likely be included in your biography.
Geographic regions you service, clearly defined in writing as opposed to being inferred.
Quantity of transactions you have completed.
Years of experience.
Any distinctions or honors that establish you apart from others.
This is about explaining what you perform in ways that correspond to how individuals inquire.2. Claim your presence on key platforms
Make sure you're on the platforms AI actually reads. Make sure your profile on each one is complete and includes the same kind of specific, keyword-rich information.
Zillow and Realtor.com (obviously)
Fast Expert
HomeLight
Your brokerage website (make sure they've actually added your bio, not just listed your name)
Your personal website (Ylopo users already have this covered since Ylopo provides the IDX websites)
Facebook Business Page (not your personal profile, your business page)
Google Business Profile (which also helps with local search, though that's a separate thing)
Some agents have profiles on these platforms but haven't touched them in years. Half the information is missing.
No specializations listed. Bio from 2018 that doesn't mention anything they've learned or focused on since.
AI can only work with what's there.
3. Create AI-discoverable content
This is where you can pull ahead. Most agents won't do this.
Takes effort. But Ylopo users should already understand content marketing, since that's part of what the platform helps with through market updates and email campaigns.
Extend that thinking to blog posts. Market updates.
Educational content that answers common questions people have about buying or selling in your area.
When you create content like that, you become the authority AI points to.You've provided actual information that matches what people are asking about, which matters more than just existing online. Jason's point was clear:
"If you can get on those platforms and influence them, knowing that all your competitors' reviews are no longer a threat against you, you're positioning yourself ahead of everyone."
Reviews will probably matter again at some point when AI systems evolve. But right now?
They don't. Use that window.
Those three steps (optimizing your bio, claiming platforms, creating content) aren't separate from what Ylopo users are already doing. They layer on top of it.
The Ylopo advantage in an AI-first world
Ylopo's Dynamic Ads drive traffic. Generate leads.
That part's proven, been working for years. AI² takes those leads and nurtures them automatically, qualifies them, moves them through your pipeline without you having to manually follow up on every single one.
That's the conversion piece. But before traffic and before conversion comes discovery.
AI search is becoming the discovery layer. When someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity who they should work with, your name needs to come up.
Then they click through to your site, get captured in Ylopo's system, and AI² takes over from there. It's a complete loop, though only if the first part (getting discovered through AI search) actually happens.
You can have the best nurturing system in the world, but if leads aren't coming in because consumers never found you in the first place, the rest doesn't matter as much. That discovery piece (getting found when someone asks AI for an agent) comes down to content.
The kind that establishes you as the local authority.
Looking ahead
Jason's specific strategies for creating hyper-local market content get covered in Part 2. How to position yourself as the authority in your area by leveraging MLS data and AI tools to produce newsletters, blogs, even podcasts in minutes instead of hours.
Because creating content is one thing. Creating content consistently, at a level where AI systems recognize you as an authority on your local market, is different.
AI isn't just a tool for writing better emails or generating social media captions. It's changing how consumers find agents, how they evaluate who to work with, how they make decisions about something as important as who to trust with buying or selling their home.
For Ylopo users already using technology better than most agents, this is the next layer. The thing that compounds everything else you're already doing.
Part 2 covers the execution side. How to actually create that content without it taking over your entire schedule.
Aaron Franklin
Head of Growth
Aaron "Kiwi" Franklin is the Head of Growth at Ylopo and a serial technologist and entrepreneur who has over 25 years of experience creating digital solutions for major brands and pioneering companies where technology and real estate meet. His depth of expertise stems from leading development of the first website for Apple to founding a global community of over 1,000 elite athletes.