Picture an agent at a six-person Kingston brokerage on a Tuesday night, pressing the new summary button on a client file (a hypothetical, but a common one). Ontario’s real estate regulator now treats that button as a client consent question, and someone in your office has to answer it by Friday.
Yes, RECO AI guidance reaches the software your agents already use every day, along with public chatbots like ChatGPT. The Real Estate Council of Ontario applies its five vetting factors to AI that shows up later in board and CRM software, and it wants brokerages to put the question to each vendor. Few brokerages have put that question in writing yet, because the features arrived in routine updates. That makes the approved tool list the first job, and a Broker of Record can draft it in an afternoon.
Key points
Which two client data rules look alike in the RECO AI guidance?
RECO’s page has two client data lines that a busy agent could read as one. The first keeps a client’s personal, money and deal details out of public AI tools entirely. The second, in its list of practical steps, calls for “explicit, written consent” before a client’s details or contract terms go into any AI platform. That line has no word “public” in front of it.
For your office, that means two rules, not one. Client data never goes into a public chatbot. Every other AI tool, including the summary button in your CRM, the listing writer in your board system and the email assistant that drafts follow-ups, waits for the client’s signature. If your brokerage reads the second line more narrowly, write that reading down and ask RECO or your counsel to confirm it.
Your agents already know this habit from the Code of Ethics regulation: no client secrets to an outside party without written agreement, and an AI vendor is an outside party. The guidance simply names the new place the information goes, much as consent for AI call recording had to catch up with tools that transcribe and summarize.
Who owns the approved tool list under RECO AI guidance?
The Broker of Record owns it. RECO lists Broker of Record approval as one of its five vetting factors, and section 16 of the Code of Ethics already makes the broker of record responsible for the brokerage’s compliance. The RECO guidance on artificial intelligence wants each brokerage to set its own AI policy, train its agents and keep a list of approved tools.
In practice the work splits three ways. The Broker of Record signs the list. An office lead or admin collects vendor answers, because they already hold the logins and invoices. Each agent tells the office which tools they use on their own phone. Our earlier look at Ontario’s AI hiring rule inside applicant tracking systems found the same pattern: the AI feature arrived in a routine update, and nobody at the business switched it on.
What should a brokerage ask its CRM vendor?
Ask each vendor five written questions, one for each factor in the RECO AI guidance, and keep the replies on file. RECO names data privacy, security measures, real estate fit, vendor accountability and Broker of Record approval. The card below turns each factor into a question a vendor can answer in an email, plus what a usable answer looks like.
Five vendor questions, one per RECO factor
Factors from RECO’s AI guidance page, modified October 22, 2026. Questions and pass notes are our own.
A vendor that cannot answer question 1 has answered the approval question too. The tool can stay on the list for work with no client data, such as drafting a market newsletter, until the vendor replies.
An afternoon audit to finish by Friday, November 13
Book three hours with the Broker of Record and the office lead before Friday, November 13, 2026. The goal is one page that applies RECO AI guidance to your own office: every tool agents use, whether it has AI, and one of three statuses. Count today’s tools first, because that number is your baseline, and the pass mark is a status and a written vendor answer for every tool with an AI feature.
- List every paid tool from the last three months of invoices: CRM, board and listing systems, e-signature, email marketing, photo and virtual staging apps.
- Send agents one question by email: which apps do you use for client work that the brokerage does not pay for?
- For each tool, mark whether it has an AI feature. If you are unsure, ask the vendor, as RECO suggests.
- Send the five questions above to every vendor with an AI feature. Give them five business days.
- Give each tool a status: approved for client data with written consent, approved for work without client data, or not approved.
- Add one line to your client consent form that names the approved AI tools, so the written consent RECO asks for exists before the first upload.
Two checks belong with the list, because RECO spells them out. AI listing descriptions get checked against the property documents and the physical facts before they go out, and any photo changed by virtual staging or AI editing is labelled as altered. Both are cheap to build into the listing sign-off you already run.
When is the full audit more than a small brokerage needs?
A brokerage of three agents that bans client data from every AI tool can skip most of this. If nobody enters personal details or contract terms into any AI feature, the written consent line never triggers, and the list can be one sentence long. That is a real option for a small office with simple workflows.
It is harder to keep than it sounds. The ban only works if agents know which features count as AI, and the CRM vendor may add one next quarter. RECO AI guidance asks brokerages to review the criteria regularly because terms change. A five-line list reviewed every quarter is still less work than explaining a client complaint. Vendor data promises got the same treatment in our reading of Calgary AI startups’ privacy pages, where storage location and AI processing turned out to be separate questions.
FAQ
Does RECO AI guidance apply to AI features inside my CRM?
Yes. RECO says its five vetting factors also cover AI features that vendors add to existing board or CRM systems, and it asks brokerages to check with each vendor whether AI has been built in.
Can Ontario real estate agents use ChatGPT for listings?
RECO allows AI for support, such as drafting, if the agent verifies the content against property documents and follows TRESA advertising rules. Personal, financial or confidential client data must not go into public AI platforms.
Do I need written client consent before using AI?
RECO’s guidance calls for “explicit, written consent” from clients before their personal details or contract terms go into AI platforms. Section 12 of the Code of Ethics regulation already bars sharing confidential client information with a third party unless the client agrees in writing.
Who approves AI tools at an Ontario brokerage?
The Broker of Record. Approval is one of RECO’s five vetting factors, and section 16 of the Code of Ethics makes the broker of record responsible for the brokerage’s compliance. RECO also asks brokerages for an approved tool list and training.
Checked November 3, 2026 against RECO’s guidance page and the Code of Ethics regulation under TRESA. We have not tested any CRM or listing tool, and nothing here is legal advice. More ways to set rules for AI at work are on our guide to running AI in a Canadian business.
