The agents who will win next year are not the ones grinding harder. They are the ones who drew a line between what their brain handles and what AI handles. A study by Chief and The Harris Poll released in April surveyed 1,768 leaders and found that 80% of senior women leaders are actively shaping AI strategy in their organizations (Chief, “Beyond Speed: How Women Are Defining the Human-Agentic Workforce,” April 7, 2026). Not following instructions. Not catching up. Leading the implementation.

That stat should stop every real estate professional in their tracks. Why? Because 66% of REALTOR® members are women, and the median age is 57 (according to the National Association of REALTORS® 2024 Member Profile). The people running this industry are the same people the Chief study says are already redesigning how AI gets built into workflows.

Why this matters to your GCI

The Chief study found that 78% of these women leaders have already built personal criteria for what stays human versus what gets outsourced to AI. They are not adopting every tool. They are choosing which tasks deserve their judgment and which ones AI handles better, faster and more consistently.

That kind of precision pays. When you stop spending two hours on listing descriptions, follow-up sequences and meeting recaps that AI can produce in minutes, you buy back time for the work that actually generates commission: face-to-face conversations, listing appointments and negotiation.

The 87% warning

Here is where most agents get it wrong. The same Chief study found that 87% of women leaders have witnessed negative outcomes when companies prioritize AI without investing in people. Forty-two percent reported that teams can execute tasks but no longer think strategically. Forty percent saw institutional knowledge disappearing.

In real estate terms: If you let AI write every email, draft every CMA and generate every social post without reviewing it through your local market expertise, you become a content machine with no competitive intelligence. The listing appointment goes to the agent who knows the neighborhood, not the one who copied a prompt from the internet.

AI should multiply your expertise, not replace it.

Build your human vs. AI line

The most useful framework I have seen this year takes 20 minutes. Open a blank document. Draw two columns. Label them “Stays Human” and “Goes to AI.”

Review your last seven days. Every recurring task goes into one column or the other. Client conversations, pricing strategy, relationship-building and negotiation stay human. Meeting notes, listing descriptions, email follow-up drafts, social content first drafts, market data summaries and scheduling go to AI.

When you complete it, you will see exactly where your hours are leaking and which AI tools will give you the highest return.

Your energy is a business asset

I speak openly about the difference Hormone Replacement Therapy made in my focus and energy. For many women in this industry, brain fog, fatigue and disrupted sleep are daily realities. Pretending those do not affect production is bad business.

AI tools like Fireflies.ai for meeting transcription and Gemini for drafting and research reduce the cognitive load during your lowest-energy hours. You need a system that captures every detail so your brain can do what it is actually good at: leading the room and closing the deal.

Do this before your next showing

Pick one AI tool and use it for a full week. Fireflies.ai for meetings. Gemini for content drafts — Grammarly for client-facing communication. Calculate your hourly value. If your GCI target is $150,000 and you work 2,000 hours, your time is worth $75 per hour. Stop doing $15 tasks manually.

Set your own AI governance. Decide what data you share, what tools you trust and where you keep human oversight. That is leadership, not paranoia.

Eighty percent of women leaders are already shaping AI strategy. The only question is whether you will build your system this month or keep white-knuckling days your business has already outgrown.

Marki Lemons Ryhal is a top real estate coach, global keynote speaker and international best-selling author. She is also a licensed managing broker and Realtor and the first African-American woman inducted into the Chicago Association of REALTORS^® Hall of Fame. She currently hosts two podcasts, “Drive with NAR” and “Social Selling Made Simple.”