Zillow turns 20: Real estate giant relies on AI to make home buying less expensive

When Jeremy Wacksman joined Zillow Group in 2009, his first job was to get the first real estate site on the iPhone. Now, amid advances in AI, the CEO says the next platform shift is even bigger for Zillow than mobile — and so are the company’s ambitions.

“It’s going to make all of our services smarter and smarter and more personalized,” Wacksman told GeekWire. “And I think it’s going to help us solve a problem that we’ve been chasing forever: how do we do digital transactions, and how do we actually consolidate and eliminate all the red tape and paperwork and the errors and pain of transactions?”

Zillow built its brand by allowing people to buy homes and by making money by advertising to real estate agents. More than 200 million people visit Zillow’s apps and sites every month. But now, as Zillow celebrates its 20th anniversary on Monday, its leaders are aiming for something bigger: “remote control” that keeps buyers, agents and lenders inside Zillow for every home purchase.

It’s part of a “best real estate app” strategy the company began rolling out a few years ago, following a failed attempt to build Zillow Offers, its “Buying” home flipping business. Zillow remains focused on finding ways to streamline the way people buy homes beyond the search and reduce what can be a stressful process.

“More than half of consumers report crying during the transaction process,” notes Wacksman.

While Zillow’s advertising business still makes up the bulk of its revenue, it has made big moves in mortgages — which grew 36% year-over-year through the third quarter of 2025 — and real estate, which grew 41%. Zillow, which reports fourth-quarter results this week, is also exploring foreclosure services.

The switch marks a deliberate move away from a model where Zillow makes money when the consumer raises their hand, to one where they participate in — and try to simplify — every transaction.

Executives see AI as central to the larger application game. Zillow CTO David Beitel, who has led the company’s technology efforts since 2005, said the new capabilities for major languages ​​feel “very good.”

He said AI models have advanced so much and so quickly that there is no area of ​​the business where Zillow is not exploring how to use it.

“It’s really starting to change the way we think about presenting information and change the way we interact with our customers,” Beitel said.

Long before Zillow launched an app within ChatGPT, the company has used AI in some form since its early days. It used machine learning to create the “Zestimate” home value tool and later developed computer vision tools to improve listings.

The company is now using AI to improve CRM tools for real estate agents – summarizing calls, writing follow-up messages, preparing next-step checklists, and reducing repetitive data entry. Zillow says agents have sent millions of AI-assisted messages, and that those tools are improving conversions.

Within the walls of Zillow, the change can be even more dramatic.

Beitel said software teams are shipping more code for the same amount because of AI-assisted improvements — in some cases, up to a 15% productivity improvement. The company also uses internal backups that sit on top of documents, Slack chats and email, allowing employees to ask natural language questions against Zillow’s data. Recruiters are using AI to help schedule interviews and connect with candidates.

Just two years ago, Beitel said, the company had “very high expectations for our team in terms of adopting these tools and using them in their day-to-day operations.” Zillow encourages testing but stops short of endorsing specific tools across teams, letting managers decide how to adapt LLMs to their workflows.

Both executives emphasized that, with all the automation, they don’t see AI replacing real estate professionals. Instead, they’re introducing technology as the next step in a long evolution that began when agents were the gatekeepers of listings and guides in a world where buyers already know what’s on the market.

“It’s going to take away all the manual work, all the office work, all the coordination, all the data collection — everything a machine can do — to let a human do the good job of being your guide,” said Wacksman, who was named CEO in 2024, taking over from founder Rich Barton.

All of this is happening in the face of a housing market that Wacksman describes as “jumping down.” Existing home sales remain below pre-pandemic values; accessibility is still difficult in many markets; and even optimistic forecasts call for limited improvement this year. That puts pressure on Zillow’s bet that it can eventually grow revenue at a double-digit clip by capturing a bigger slice of every transaction, even if there aren’t many other transactions.

At the same time, the company is facing heightened questions from regulators and competitors about how much control a single platform should have over digital pipelines in the real estate market. Zillow is a defendant in a high-profile antitrust lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission and several states over the sale of multifamily rental listings with Redfin — a lawsuit that alleges the system stifles competition in the rental advertising market. The firm is also defending brokerage Compass’ lawsuit challenging Zillow’s privacy listing policies and a separate copyright infringement lawsuit from rival CoStar over the use of listing images.

Wacksman said it hasn’t changed the core street — or Zillow’s room to grow. He said the company still accounts for a single-digit portion of U.S. retail sales. “We can grow our business no matter what happens to it [the] macro, and whether the clouds come from outside forces,” he said.