How Agents Use AI to Create More Time for Relationships

Kasey Jorgenson, founder and broker of Jorgenson Real Estate in Round Rock, joined host Rajeev Sajja on episode 127 of Real Estate AI Flash, the podcast from Bright MLS's chief AI officer. The two met at an industry event in Austin in May 2026 and sat down to talk about one idea: AI should take the busywork off agents' plates so they have more time for the thing that actually wins business, their relationships with clients.

Key takeaways

• The easiest place to start with AI is a scheduled daily task: have an assistant review your email for anything urgent and draft replies you can tweak and send.
• Using AI only as a search engine is where everyone begins, but connecting it to your email, calendar and notes is where it starts saving real time.
• When JRE evaluates any new system now, the first question is whether it connects cleanly to everything else.
• Agents shouldn't have to log into five tools. The goal is one place that says, "Here are the 10 things to do today to move your business forward."
• JRE built its own AI assistant, Claire, to replace generic drip emails with timely, personal follow-up.
• AI multiplies what JRE's staff can do. It isn't a reason to eliminate people's jobs.
• Whatever changes with technology, relationships come first.

How did a Navy rescue swimmer end up in Central Texas real estate?

Kasey grew up as the son of a homebuilder, working as what he calls "free labor" on his dad's job sites in Ohio. Right out of high school he joined the Navy and spent six years as a rescue swimmer and helicopter crewman. His enlistment ended in 2009, in the middle of the housing crash, and he wanted to build a business with no ceiling. Real estate fit.

He learned the ropes interning with a husband-and-wife team in Southern California, where at the time almost every listing was a distressed sale. Then he researched which parts of the country were set to boom as the economy recovered. That pointed him to Central Texas. He visited once, bought a house and started his business. "I'm one of the original migrators," he joked. Today he has been in the business for almost 17 years, and at the end of 2025 JRE became an independent brokerage.

When did AI click for Kasey?

Kasey's early business ran on search. When he started in Austin, many agents weren't paying attention to SEO, so he built a search-friendly website that brought in a lot of organic traffic. Four or five years ago he saw the next shift coming: people would start asking AI tools to recommend professionals. "We need to make some changes to position ourselves to be the one that all of these large language models are recommending," he said. JRE has been working toward that for years, and it's why so much of this website is detailed, factual guides, from our neighborhood guides to our real estate FAQ.

What's the simplest way for an agent to start using AI?

Kasey described a coaching call that morning with an agent who was the busiest he'd ever been, and things were slipping through the cracks. They opened Claude together and set up a scheduled task: at the end of every day, review the inbox, flag anything urgent, whether it's a business opportunity or anything else, and draft replies to tweak and send. It takes no technical skill and it keeps things from falling through the cracks.

Rajeev described a similar habit: a weekly 30-minute block where he asks his AI assistant to review the past week and preview the next one, pulling from his email, calendar and meeting notes through connectors. He called those connectors "a USB hub for AI." Both agreed that most people stop at using AI as a search engine, and the real value starts when it can see your actual work.

Why does JRE want agents in one place instead of a dozen tools?

For years, real estate teams chose every tool based on whether it plugged into their CRM. Kasey thinks that era is ending. "I don't want them having to access all these different tools to do their job," he said. Instead, he wants each agent to get one email or one login that says what to do today, including who they haven't talked to in months, with a suggested note already drafted from past conversations.

That's also why the first question JRE asks any software company now is how well it connects to everything else, and to see the documentation. Most agents, Kasey said, find all of this overwhelming, and they should. "Agents don't want to spend all this time doing this. They want to spend time making sales and building their relationships and giving good experiences." Handling that setup behind the scenes is part of what the brokerage does for them.

What is Claire, JRE's AI assistant?

Claire is the first AI agent JRE built, and Kasey built it himself using Claude and Claude Code. He describes himself as someone who knows "enough to be dangerous" with technology, not a developer. The AI walked him through the whole process, from choosing where to host it to setting up the accounts.

Claire's job is to replace old-fashioned drip emails. Instead of sending the same scheduled message to everyone, she can notice what a person is actually looking at and follow up personally: here's more on the home you viewed, here are two similar ones, would you like to see them? When someone is ready for an appointment, the agent gets an email with their availability. As Kasey pointed out, Texas has made cold calling much harder in recent years, so thoughtful, personal email matters more than ever.

Is AI replacing people at JRE?

No. Kasey was direct about it: "I am not of the opinion that people should be eliminating people's roles to be taken over by AI." JRE uses AI to help review agreements and draft internal documents (it doesn't replace an attorney), to speed up marketing, and it's working toward AI help with contract compliance review. The point is to give the team more capacity and faster turnaround, not smaller headcount.

Which AI tools do JRE agents use?

JRE's agents mostly use three. ChatGPT is the all-around writing helper for emails and newsletters. Claude is where Kasey points agents who are ready to connect AI to their email and calendar for productivity. Gemini comes with the Google Workspace that runs the brokerage and is handy for quick creative marketing. JRE keeps the list short on purpose so agents aren't overwhelmed.

What books and advice does Kasey come back to?

Two books came up. The CEO Only Does Three Things reminds Kasey that his job still comes down to culture, people and numbers, AI or not. The Second Mountain by David Brooks has helped him and the agents he coaches through the reset after Central Texas's boom years, when many successful people had to rebuild.

His advice to new agents was simple. "The relationships have to come first," he said. Technology can make the work efficient, but the phone call to check on someone after a loss, the time on the golf course, the face-to-face conversation can't be replaced. Rajeev summed it up: automate the ordinary so you can personalize the extraordinary.

If you'd like to work with an agent who gets the technology right and still puts the relationship first, find your JRE agent or reach out to Kasey. For more conversations like this, listen to Kasey's own podcast, Real Estate, Straight Up.

Listen to the full episode

Watch episode 127 on YouTube or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. More from Rajeev Sajja at realestateaiflash.com.