Product and Services Roundup: AI Search Reaches New Heights

This week's Product and Services Roundup begins with a new toy that might be the new benchmark for AI search in real estate, while several other AI search innovations are appearing around Europe...

North America: CoStar Group releases AI search product for Homes.com

CoStar has launched Homes AI, a transformative experience powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI, fully integrated into Homes.com, and accessible to all consumers.

For the first time on a major real estate portal, consumers can engage in natural, real-time, two-way conversations—by voice or text—to search, refine, and explore homes in an interactive experience that feels less like navigating a website and more like being guided by a deeply knowledgeable, trusted real estate advisor.

According to a press release, the launch of Homes AI is the most significant product advancement in Homes.com's history.

Homes AI draws from Homes.com’s unmatched depth of property data, Matterport 3D digital twin technology, images, proprietary school data, neighborhood insights, and market intelligence to deliver bespoke guidance that empowers shoppers with the resources and confidence they need to find the perfect home.
Offered exclusively on Homes.com, this technology represents a fundamental departure from traditional keyword-based search and marks a generational leap forward in how people navigate the home search and home buying process.

Andy Florance, founder and CEO at CoStar Group, said home search will no longer be limited by "rigid, disjointed" online experiences.

"This innovation signals a shift as significant as the emergence of online search itself. Home shopping has become dynamic, consultative, and deeply personalized—mirroring the way—people naturally research and evaluate a home. We’ve spent years building the industry’s richest property data and Homes AI harnesses that foundation to transform the consumer experience in a way that feels intuitive, human and incredibly powerful.

"Just as important, Homes AI is designed to enhance—not replace—the essential role of real estate professionals. Agents remain at the center of every transaction and that will not change. In keeping with our ‘Your Listing, Your Lead’ commitment, inquiries from buyers and renters will always go directly to the listing agent, ensuring stronger connections, more meaningful conversations and better outcomes for everyone involved."

Homes AI = Microsoft speech recognition + CoStar data + Matterport

Online Marketplaces saw a demo of Homes AI while it was still under embargo. One of the core differentiators between CoStar's offering and others we've seen is the deep integration of speech recognition (built in collaboration with Microsoft), CoStar's access to deep data (including schooling) and interactive virtual staging environments powered by Matterport. This trifecta of inputs gives Homes AI a level of depth and adaptability that surpasses what has been previously expected from conversational AI search, from describing the exact dimensions of a particular room, the ability identify and remove furniture from a space, and discuss the quality of nearby elementary schools, at speed.

Andy Ventura, who leads applied AI at CoStar, told Online Marketplaces:

"We wanted to unlock the true power of search. We worked with Microsoft, who had a new speech-to-speech API, and quickly found that it was really handy. Our focus was to get the search engine segment right first. We had to build a custom model that could handle edge case scenarios that give people what they want 9.9 times out of 10. Our CEO didn't think it was real when we showed it to him!"

Online Marketplaces will publish an interview with Ventura and Livia Sponseller (Product Lead) shortly.

Zillow partners with Google NotebookLM

Zillow is partnering with Google NotebookLM to make Zillow’s home-buying guidance available in a featured notebook.

NotebookLM is a personalised AI research and thinking tool designed to help users better connect with and understand complex information. Notebook users can ask questions and get responses grounded in Zillow’s guidance, with direct citations to original articles on Zillow.com.

Notebook LM's landing page for Zillow says:

Get data-backed advice on the buying process, and transform it into audio overviews, infographics and more.

Jen Berger, Zillow’s vice president of creative and performance media, said:

“Zillow is already where most people begin their home journey. As more buyers turn to AI tools to research and plan, we want our trusted, expert-backed guidance to show up there, too. By bringing our home-buying expertise into NotebookLM, we’re meeting even more people earlier in the process with answers that are fast, clear and grounded in reliable information.”

Steven Johnson, co-founder and editorial director of NotebookLM, commented:

"When navigating a milestone as significant as buying a home, trusted information is important. This featured notebook, curated by Zillow in NotebookLM, meets home buyers at the start of their journey with answers they can trust."

Europe: Agentic AI search platform launches in France

Omny.ai has launched in France, offering targeted ads tailored to user prompts using conversational AI search.

Omny, founded by former Aviv Group VP Franck Le Tendre, operates an agentic AI that is connected to agents' inventory in France. According to a press release, Omny is "designed as an intelligent home-hunting assistant."

Commenting on the launch of the business, Le Tendre said:

"For a long time, real estate research was designed to display ads, not to help people make a decision. With Omny, we wanted to reverse this logic: to understand life projects and measure their real compatibility with housing. It is this change that allows for more relevant connections and better implementation of projects.

"Omny reconciles economic efficiency and quality of networking, for the benefit of project leaders and professionals alike."

According to Omny, 2026 will be a year of fast growth: Omny aims to achieve €1.5 million in annual turnover, distribute 60,000 qualified leads, achieve web traffic of 350,000 unique monthly visitors, and roll out its business to all French cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants.

Finn debuts AI search in Norway

Finn, part of Vend (formerly Schibsted Marketplaces) has launched an AI-first home search experience.

Finn is piloting the AI search with a limited audience in Norway, with wider rollout expected later this year.

Customer feedback during beta testing included comments that search results were faster, more relevant and a higher willingness to share more context in their search.

Kjersti Høklingen, EVP in Vend Real Estate, said:

"For us, success is defined by relevance and trust. Our early insights indicate higher perceived relevance and faster discovery of suitable homes for our users. By maintaining a proprietary data foundation, we own the learning loop—capturing how users describe their needs and make trade-offs—which ensures our AI becomes more helpful with every interaction.

"This semantic search pilot is the latest in a series of AI solutions we’ve launched across our verticals over the past year. We’re piloting this AI-first search alongside the integration of AI into our current search systems. By leveraging insights from both AI-first and traditional search across our platforms, we are iteratively enhancing the user experience to keep pace with changing user behaviors and needs.

"Early testing with our beta cohort shows a higher willingness among users to share personal context because they see the immediate value in the more relevant, nuanced results they receive. We’ve also found that users are far more flexible than our current filters allow."

United Kingdom: Rightmove says leads delivered to agents up 50% year-on-year

Rightmove says the launch of its Online Agent Valuation, which debuted in the latter part of 2025, delivered a 50% uptick in leads delivered to agents in January 2026 from the same period last year.

Online Agent Valuation helps connect agents with sellers who prefer to begin the valuation process online before arranging an in-person visit.

David Anderson, director at Rightmove, said:

"“We’ve been focusing on developing new valuation products and upgrading existing ones based on agent feedback, to enable them to win more instructions in efficient and effective ways. We’ve also been implementing AI solutions where we identify that they can enhance products and drive more value for agents, such as speeding up manual processes and better predicting potential sellers to lead to greater conversions."