Interview with CEO & Founder of Price Hubble Dr Heitmann
AIAG: Dr. Heitmann, PriceHubble has long been an established player in the market. What role does AI play for you today?
Dr. Heitmann: AI has now become an integral part of our product solutions and is indispensable for us. This has become even more pronounced since the beginning of 2025. What matters here is that we are not just talking about internal efficiency or isolated AI features, but about customer-facing application solutions in which AI has become an integral part of our products.
AIAG: What is the core of what PriceHubble offers today?
Dr. Heitmann: We are working on highly advanced semi-autonomous and fully autonomous AI workflow solutions for the banking, finance, and real estate industries. These solutions essentially cover the entire lifecycle of a property—from the initial phase in which someone is considering housing or ownership, through purchase and financing, all the way to use, investment, transfer, or inheritance. Our goal is to support our customers in making this journey more successful for their end customers.
AIAG: So PriceHubble is much more than a valuation tool?
Dr. Heitmann: Exactly. A valuation is only one possible building block. At the core, our focus is on supporting customers through workflows. These workflows can be deployed as individual process modules or used as a connected solution across longer process chains. Ultimately, we help our customers acquire more clients, better support existing clients, advise them more individually, and unlock additional sales potential.
AIAG: Why is AI so relevant in this context?
Dr. Heitmann: Because in the real estate industry, we are not talking about a short process, but about long periods of time—often years or even decades. That is exactly where purely human support reaches economic limits. No company can employ an unlimited number of people to stay in close contact with customers continuously over such long periods. As a result, customers often experience their bank or other professional players only at isolated transactional moments. Our ambition is to turn these isolated contacts into genuine, continuous support—with the property as the anchor point. AI is a key enabler for this.
AIAG: The term AI agents also came up in our conversation. What role do these systems play for you?
Dr. Heitmann: A very concrete one. We have now combined agent-based systems with our product and valuation systems into integrated solutions. These include onboarding agents, information agents, or underwriting agents for transaction-related phases. There are also agentic systems that communicate with other AI agents, for example in CRM systems and digital environments. AI is therefore no longer just background analysis, but has become an integral part of the product and customer interface.
AIAG: In practical terms, what do these AI agents do?
Dr. Heitmann: They help professional users as well as end customers better understand, calibrate, and interpret data points. They support onboarding, information processes, and decision-making phases. At the same time, they enable a much more individualized and scalable form of customer support. Especially in an industry with long cycles and large customer bases, this is an enormous advantage, because it creates customer proximity that would hardly be feasible through human staff alone.
AIAG: Your work is strongly centered on data. What makes the biggest difference in valuation accuracy?
Dr. Heitmann: First of all, it has to be said that every real estate market—especially the residential market—is local, which means that in every country in which we operate, we need its own data foundation. Data processing, data cleansing, and machine-based data analysis methods can be transferred; data points themselves cannot simply be transferred. The quality and availability of these data vary greatly from country to country. Unfortunately, Germany is a market with comparatively unsatisfactory data availability. This affects the work of all market participants equally. However, AI helps us close data gaps, apply image recognition, and better capture certain environmental factors or property-specific characteristics.
AIAG: Can you give examples?
Dr. Heitmann: Yes—for example image recognition, environmental factors, or certain property-relevant characteristics such as roof pitches or location factors, such as proximity to water. Such aspects can be relevant for risk, location quality, and valuation. In all of these areas, AI is becoming increasingly important for us internally.
AIAG: You are active in several countries. Where do you see the biggest differences?
Dr. Heitmann: The differences are not only in the data, but also in the openness of the markets. In many respects, the U.S. is faster and more open in its handling of agentic systems and AI-supported customer interaction. Many things are already more embedded in daily life there. In Europe, we also see a great deal of movement, but naturally under different regulatory and cultural conditions. So technology alone is not the limiting factor—market acceptance, consumer protection, and regulatory frameworks are equally decisive.
AIAG: Is this already changing the daily work of banks and real estate companies?
Dr. Heitmann: Yes, absolutely. In my view, anyone who has not yet engaged with this topic is underestimating the transformative and disruptive power of this technology. In the real estate, banking, and insurance industries in particular, it will become impossible to imagine the future without it. We will see significant changes in professional roles and industry practices—much faster and more radically than many people are used to from the past.
AIAG: Will the traditional real estate appraiser still exist in five years?
Dr. Heitmann: In Germany, yes, also because many roles are embedded in normative and regulatory contexts that do not change overnight. But the question is already very concrete today: how are appraisal firms complementing their traditional physical expertise with digital and AI-supported capabilities? In other markets, we are already seeing intensive work being done on exactly that. So this is not only about displacement, but also about expansion and repositioning.
AIAG: What is your vision for PriceHubble?
Dr. Heitmann: To achieve global leadership in customer-centric, “AI-first” workflow solutions in the financial industry. The greatest opportunity for us lies in transforming what is often still a very transactional relationship between professional providers and their end customers into a much more intensive, genuine relationship. Today, many advisors support hundreds or even thousands of customers. Under these conditions, true closeness is hardly possible. With AI and scalable, learning technologies, this relationship can become significantly better, more continuous, and more individualized. That creates more transparency, higher advisory quality, and greater customer proximity—for both customers and advisors. We want to play a major role in that future.
AIAG: Project developers are particularly interesting for AIAG. What opportunities do you see there?
Dr. Heitmann: Major opportunities. Today, the relationship between a project developer and a buyer or tenant often ends very early—frequently, in practical terms, with a bouquet of flowers and the handover of the keys. In my view, that is too little. Why not also provide the customer with a digital asset around their property? In other words, a digital companion that helps them better understand the property, recognize developments, and receive relevant insights—for example about value, the surrounding area, or personal changes that might later make another property a sensible option. Why should project developers not create not only physical assets, but also digital loyalty and closeness to their customers? That is precisely where there is major potential for project developers: sustainable relationship management instead of purely isolated, manual handover.
AIAG: What does this mean strategically for the industry?
Dr. Heitmann: It means that real estate companies, banks, and project developers need to rethink their relationship with the customer. AI and AI agents make it possible for the first time to provide ongoing, individualized, and economically scalable support over long periods of time. Those who make good use of this opportunity can create a new quality in advice, service, and customer loyalty for customers—and pave the way for enormous financial added value.