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ERA Brand President Alex Vidal talks negotiations, relationships and how leaders can ensure their agents maintain a high emotional IQ amid the rise of artificial intelligence.

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What’s the spice of life?

For ERA Brand President Alex Vidal, it all boils down to relationships — a truth that seems to be getting buried amid the rapid digitization of everyday life.

To make his point, Vidal points back to an ongoing 90-year-old Harvard study of men and their relationships. The first group, who’d grown up weathering the brutal streets of Depression-era New York City and Newark, said their lives would be made richer through, well, riches. And maybe some fame. Or access to the latest gadgets and gizmos of the day.

Alex Vidal

However, the researchers found that the happiest men were the ones who’d gone on to build robust relationships with their families, friends and community members. That takeaway remains the same today, as the university continues to study the descendants of the first group.

“What they found was that happiness had nothing to do with how much fame or money they had, and had to do with how deep their relationships were with their significant others, their friends, their family, their kids, etc,” he said. “I think that that’s something that we’re hopefully as a society, we don’t lose, is this ability to have these real, deep, meaningful conversations. Because ultimately, that’s what connects people.”

Vidal said he’s been driving that point home through his wildly popular ERA coaching sessions, hoping his affiliates — which total nearly 50,000 globally — don’t lose their human touch as AI weaves deeper into real estate.

“AI may help you start the relationship, but it’s going to be that dialogue back and forth that’s going to allow you to keep it,” he said.

Inman spoke with Vidal shortly before the end of 2025. Here is that conversation, edited for clarity and brevity.

Inman: We spoke a couple of months ago about AI and its impact on real estate in the coming year. Now, we’re only a few days from 2026. Is that the thing that’s still at the top of your mind?

Vidal: Yeah. It’s just become such an integral part of everybody’s life, particularly mine. I’m going through a major remodel inside my house, and I can take a photo of my bedroom and tell [AI] to remove all the furniture, add some items I saw at West Elm, and give me a mock-up of what my bedroom would look like if I bought those items.

My twins turn 16 next week, and we’re buying two cars. Having [AI] has helped me in the negotiation process.

So, [AI] is in every facet of my life. Last year, I don’t even think it was on my radar, and if it was, it was minimal. So AI was the big trend for ’25.

I’ve definitely embraced AI more this year as well. Last year, ChatGPT and other large language models were the main obsession, and this year, I think people have been more thoughtful and creative in the way they leverage AI. What are some of the most innovative ways you’ve seen AI used?

We look at AI through the lens of how agents are using it to connect to the consumer. I think some of the biggest leaps are just understanding how AI even goes about sourcing its answers, and then cracking that code. And then once they’re able to crack that code, then you’re able to have a richer AI experience.

For example, there’s a great program called Answer. You can go to Answer and ask, ‘What are the questions most homebuyers are asking today?’ And it will literally tell you, from Google to different AI programs to social media platforms like TikTok, what the commonly asked questions are, how many times people are asking the question, etc. And then some people use that to create content, sometimes with the help of AI, and when someone goes to an AI platform to ask a question, that content shows up.

But, I think you’re right. Marian. The automated chatbot, the ‘Hey, we’re open 24/7, ask your question here’ use of AI is cool. But we’re moving beyond that. You’re seeing some unique ways that AI is being used to study consumer behavior, identify early trends and help fill that gap.

Which poses an interesting problem, which, I don’t know if you’re gonna ask me about ’26, but if you’re gonna ask me…

You beat me to the jump. Tell me more.

I’m going to give you a real-life example. My twins turned 16 on Dec. 30. We bought one a used car — he wanted an old F-150 with 150,000 miles for $12,000. Easy. For my other son, we’re leasing a car. I’m pretty familiar with how leases work, just because I’ve done it before, and I’ve always been a student of how things work and negotiating.

But the long story short is that I went in, visited the dealer, told him what I was looking for, and left with an offer. I used AI to figure out the best way to reach other dealers in the marketplace, present the offer I had in front of me, and have these dealers bid for my business.

I used AI to structure what I wanted to say in a non-emotional, very strategic business reply. I’m an emotional guy, and I wanted to remove the emotion from it.

So then I finally get this one dealer to agree on something, and I go in to sign the paperwork, and we’re sitting in the finance office and the guy starts trying to sell me all these different things, and I had to have this negotiation with him back and forth where I literally got up and said, ‘Well, that’s a deal breaker.’ And I was able to get up and walk away from the deal. And I’m waiting to hear from them today.

But that was a time that I couldn’t be like, ‘Hey, you know, David, hold on a second. Let me see what AI tells me to reply to you.’ I had to use my own skillset of negotiating a transaction, my own ability to get up and have an unemotional attachment to the vehicle, walk away and be able to have that kind of interaction with someone.

Now, what does this have to do with real estate? Agents are relying on AI to write emails, create social media content, write blogs, etc. But there’s going to be a time when the AI runs out, and they have to be in front of the consumer. So, I think the biggest trend to keep an eye on next year is going to be whether agents are going to lose their cognitive ability to have those real conversations when it counts, when you can’t look at your phone to answer the question.

You’re not the only one to have that concern. I’ve seen plenty of articles about the decline in reading comprehension, media literacy, etc. among kids, teens and adults, and it’s, to be honest, alarming. So, what do you think brokerage leaders should be doing to keep agents sharp?

Yeah, there are two ways they can go about that. Education and coaching. I look at ERA’s coaching program, and yes, we spend a lot of time on technology, and we spend a lot of time talking about AI. But at its core, the program is still based on having deep, meaningful conversations with people.

Ultimately, the only way people are going to work with you is because they like and trust you. That doesn’t happen because of AI. That happens because they can have a real conversation with you.

So, I would encourage people not get away from what is the core of our business, which is still a relationship business. AI may help you start the relationship, but it’s going to be that dialogue back and forth that’s going to allow you to keep it. It’s a lost art, honestly. So don’t get away from that.

Email Marian McPherson

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