ONE of the jobs that has recently taken a hit from the surge of artificial intelligence is that of real estate agent. A brand new plugin developed by Zillow to be integrated with ChatGPT, is currently being tested in order to help users in their search for a home, using exchanges of messages in natural language.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, recently announced the launch of plugins that allow the chatbot to access new, fresh and tailored sources of knowledge available online.

This opens the door to new and highly specific types of uses, accessible directly through the ChatGPT interface. Among the first to take the plunge is Zillow, a well-known real estate search portal in the United States.

Zillow has developed its own ChatGPT plugin, specially dedicated to real estate. Currently in a test phase with select "eligible users," it allows these clients to chat with a conversational robot in order to obtain the search results that correspond the most with their expectations.

There are plans to open up wider access to the plugin in the future.

Here, lucky testers can ask questions about current real estate listings, based on details such as location, price range, or even the number of bedrooms and bathrooms.

The idea is to really interact with a virtual real estate agent, who will send you links to listings that match your preferences at a given time.

Zillow's goal is to roll out a "super app" that offers its customers a unique experience in buying or selling a property. After launching natural language search queries on its various platforms in January, this ChatGPT plugin should help refine and improve users' experience, based on these interactions.

Thanks to the integration of the technology of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, the answers generated should correspond closely with users' expectations.

Specific, tailored plugins have also been developed by other service industry players such as online travel agency Expedia, food delivery service Instacart, travel price comparison site Kayak, restaurant reservation platform OpenTable and collaborative work platform Slack.

OpenAI itself already hosts two key plugins a web browser and a code interpreter.

Only a small number of developers and users of ChatGPT Plus (its paid version) can currently test these plugins which, if they prove satisfactory, will then be rolled out on a larger scale