Technologies / Artificial Intelligence

Congress must support a federal artificial intelligence (AI) policy framework that replaces a confusing patchwork of state laws; protects data privacy, fair housing, and copyrighted real estate content; and holds AI developers responsible for the systems they build and control.

AI is reshaping real estate by enhancing customer service, marketing, and productivity through tools such as generative AI, predictive analytics, lead generation, photo enhancement, and fraud detection.

However, key risks remain. Real estate professionals must navigate:

• how to use AI tools while complying with existing state and federal laws governing real estate and a growing patchwork of state AI laws;
• how to oversee AI tools and respond when a commercially available tool produces inaccurate, misleading, or discriminatory results; and
• how listing data, photos, and other content may be scraped, altered, and used to train AI models.

NAR supports a uniform, light-touch federal AI framework that replaces a confusing patchwork of state laws, includes fair housing, data privacy, and copyright protections, and keeps transparency and liability obligations with the developers who have knowledge of and control over AI systems, rather than shifting them to end users.

Some argue that businesses using AI tools should share liability for harms, including hidden defects in the tools. Businesses should remain responsible for how they use AI, which is already governed by existing laws. But shifting more responsibility to end users who lack knowledge of how these "black box" systems are built, trained, or tested will not protect consumers. Instead, it will place undue liability on small businesses using AI to improve efficiency and customer service.

The Administration is advancing a national AI framework to replace the patchwork of state laws with uniform federal standards, with certain exceptions. Meanwhile, Congress is considering a range of AI legislative proposals addressing development, regulations, and safety, including:

• FRONTIER Act (H.R. 9925): Would provide federal oversight of the largest AI developers, including risk-management, independent audit, and transparency requirements focused on catastrophic risks. The bill would preempt certain state laws on AI model development but preserve state authority to regulate how AI is deployed and used.
• TRAIN Act (S. 2455 / H.R. 7209): Would provide a process for copyright owners to find out whether their works were used to train AI models.
• SANDBOX Act (S. 2750) and AI Security and Innovation Act (H.R. 9363): Would enable flexible testing of AI systems and advance recommendations from the bipartisan House AI Task Force. The House Science Committee advanced H.R. 9363 along with nine other bipartisan AI bills.

In December 2025, the White House issued Executive Order 14365 supporting national AI legislation to preempt or replace most state AI laws, with limited exceptions for areas such as child safety, copyright, censorship, and community protections.

On September 26, 2025, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a request for information on barriers to AI adoption and innovation. NAR submitted comments supporting a balanced federal approach that protects consumer data privacy, promotes fair housing, and preserves copyright protections for real estate content.

On August 14, 2026, in response to a request for information from House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine Waters, NAR urged Congress to adopt a light-touch federal AI framework. NAR recommended that the framework preempt state AI laws, keep existing consumer protection and fair housing laws in place, require transparency from AI developers, and not create a new private right of action. NAR also urged that liability rest with the developers who build and control AI systems, not with the real estate professionals and businesses that use them..

NAR will continue to advocate for responsible AI development, use, and innovation while minimizing regulatory uncertainty and protecting consumer and real estate data and copyrights.

• H.R. 9925 - FRONTIER Act 
• S. 2455 – Transparency and Responsibility for Artificial Intelligence Networks (TRAIN) Act
• S. 2750 – SANDBOX Act and H.R. 8516 - American Leadership in AI Act