AI adoption inside a brokerage is rarely about the technology alone. It hinges on trust, usability, and how people feel once the tool becomes part of daily work.
In a recent video interview, Dean Rouso, Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Baird & Warner, shared what the first months with REMI, the brokerage’s AI-powered support assistant, actually looked like on the ground. The video is worth watching in full.
Early Access Built the Foundation
Rouso did not flip a switch and hand AI to 2,800 agents. He gave managers 30 days of access first and asked them to help train the system. That approach matters. Staff who have been fielding the same questions for years are the ones who know which answers matter most. Bringing them in early transformed skeptics into advocates before the broader rollout began.
The payoff was immediate. Staff who once fielded repetitive questions began to see their workdays change. Rouso points to a familiar operational challenge that any brokerage leader will recognize: constant interruptions derail productivity.
“Every time you’re interrupted, it takes you 17 minutes to get back on track, if you can,” Rouso said. With routine questions routed through REMI, staff could focus on higher-value work. Agents got faster answers. Support teams got their time back.
What Brokerages Get Wrong About AI Partnerships
Here is what we see consistently in our research: brokerages that treat AI as a vendor relationship tend to get vendor-level results. The ones that demand a true partnership get something different. Rouso was direct about his expectations from the start. “I want a partnership, not a vendor,” he said.
That expectation shaped everything about how Baird & Warner worked with BrokerBot, the technology behind REMI. When Rouso asked for a change to the AI’s voice and tone, it happened fast. When new needs emerged, new capabilities followed.
“They keep on launching new pieces of it, new things,” Rouso said. That kind of responsiveness is not common. It is also not an accident. It comes from choosing a partner whose success depends on yours.
The Takeaway for Brokerage Leaders
AI does not replace people. Used well, it reduces friction, absorbs repetitive questions, and gives agents reliable answers at any hour. The brokerage’s institutional knowledge, the policies, training materials, and expertise built over decades, becomes accessible on demand rather than buried in someone’s inbox or filing system.
What Baird & Warner built with REMI is a practical model for any brokerage serious about AI adoption. RE Technology published a full case study detailing how they did it, what they built, and what results followed. If you are evaluating AI tools for your organization, it is worth reading before you make a decision.
Read the Baird & Warner BrokerBot Case Study on RE Technology.
The post Getting AI Adoption Right Inside a Brokerage appeared first on WAV Group Consulting.
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