The "Deep Intelligence AI+ Real Estate Ecosystem Conference & 2026 New Product Launch" was held in Shanghai on May 27, 2026. Themed "Enter That Door: The Modular Resonance of Real Estate," the event focused on innovative applications of AI technology in the broader real estate industry, including property development, senior living, housing rentals, and property services.
The conference's highlight was the global debut of the world's first AI real estate agent, "E-House・Xiao Xin." Yi Ren, Chief Scientist at CRIC Deep Intelligence, stated that the core purpose of this AI agent is to solve a key industry challenge: "How can AI in real estate evolve from answering a question to facilitating a transaction?" Unlike existing basic Q&A tools in the market, E-House・Xiao Xin is built upon the real-world scenarios of frontline agents, distilling high-value professional capabilities to create four core service systems, termed the "Four Doors": Professional Consultation, Precise Matching, Smooth Communication, and Service Companionship.
Yi Ren summarized that E-House・Xiao Xin accurately addresses industry pain points such as significant information asymmetry, inefficient matching, communication breakdowns, AI tools that only answer questions without driving execution, and uneven agent competency. The product's positioning achieves a triple upgrade: it is not only a professional AI real estate agent but also a transaction execution task system, representing a fundamental industry shift from simple matchmaking to full-cycle, companion-based service. The product has officially entered internal testing and will undergo continuous iteration.
The launch of E-House・Xiao Xin's internal testing also marks the initiation of the "E-House Commission-Free Model," which is exploring a novel business model for the world's first neutral AI real estate agent.
Zhou Xin, Chairman of the Board of E-HOUSE ENT and Chairman of CRIC Deep Intelligence, stated during the launch that his decision last year to halt related business was not due to technical challenges but was constrained by a distorted industry process: "The process for real estate intermediary services in China is excessively long; I couldn't unravel the entire real estate process." After in-depth review, he deconstructed the industry's transaction chain, pointing out the true state of affairs: the four core processes of real estate intermediation—information, matching, deal-making, and service provider recommendation—account for only 40% of the entire transaction process. The remaining 60%, a lengthy procedural tail, exists entirely for the sake of "commission."
"To earn commission, the intermediary industry has spawned a series of redundant actions like fake listings, bait-and-switch displays, and repeated property viewings for confirmation," Zhou Xin directly addressed the root cause of industry chaos. The traditional intermediary model suffers from inherent role flaws; agents represent neither the buyer nor the seller, working solely to close a deal and earn a commission, inherently lacking impartiality. This is the fundamental source of industry disputes, information asymmetry, and opaque services.
Leveraging the disruptive nature of AI technology, Zhou Xin officially launched the industry-revolutionizing "Commission-Free Model," proactively overturning the rules of the industry he helped establish 30 years ago with "Shang Fang Exchange." "Thirty years ago, the Shang Fang Exchange model set the rules for China's brokerage industry. Today, I am revolutionizing my own logic, adding the word 'impartiality' to the original model," he stated. He defined the new model: AI handles intermediation, transactions are commission-free, services are based on professionalism, and compensation is tied to work performed, making real estate transactions more impartial, simpler, and more cost-effective.
The new model splits real estate transactions into a two-tier system, achieving a complete separation of decision-making and execution responsibilities. The intelligent decision-making layer is fully managed by the E-House・Xiao Xin AI agent, which freely handles neutral intermediary tasks such as information queries, property matching, deal facilitation, and service provider recommendations. Leveraging AI's inherent lack of profit motive and extremely low marginal cost, it completely solves the issue of human intermediaries' lack of neutrality. The fulfillment and execution layer is assigned to socialized professional personnel, realizing a novel division of labor: "AI thinks, humans act."
Based on reviews and summaries from the CoWork platform, Zhou Xin outlined five revolutionary values of this model: It is not merely an AI efficiency tool but a deep transformation of industry production relations; leveraging AI's zero-commission inclination and ultra-low marginal cost enables structural neutrality unattainable by human agents; it completely separates decision-making and execution work; it transforms the industry's scarce trust relationships into structured, model-based capabilities for long-term sustainability; the breakthrough in the real estate brokerage model can be replicated and extended to all categories of intermediary economics in the future.
Simultaneously, Zhou Xin candidly acknowledged five major challenges for implementing the new model: eliminating the industry's core commission-based cash flow; facing opposition from entrenched industry interest systems; the cold-start problem for both property listings and client sources; shifting user trust towards AI; and building socialized fulfillment capabilities. He stated that within the trillion-yuan secondary housing transaction market, eliminating hundreds of billions in commission costs is an inevitable trend for AI to empower the industry and benefit consumers. Although the path ahead is difficult, the direction is firmly correct.
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