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Zillow Rentals, the #1 most visited rental network in the country,1 drives a high volume of qualified renter traffic to multifamily listings every day. The opportunity for operators is making sure their teams can keep up with it. With leasing agent turnover running at 32.7% annually (NAA Data), the teams responsible for converting that demand are perpetually stretched. And EliseAI platform data shows 30% of all inbound calls to leasing offices go unanswered, with only 7% of those calls receiving call backs.
EliseAI, the multifamily industry’s leading AI platform, and Zillow Rentals set out to solve that problem by embedding EliseAI’s powerful AI lead nurturing technology directly into Zillow’s online listings.
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Adding AI at the Point of Conversion
Zillow AI Assist, powered by EliseAI, embeds an AI leasing agent directly into Zillow’s Renter Inbox. So when a prospect messages a property while actively browsing listings and comparing units, they get an immediate and intelligent response in real time. No more forms. No more after-hours missed calls.
The AI can provide helpful answers to unit-specific questions, including availability, pricing, pet policies, and amenities, pushing toward a tour booking while the prospect’s intent is highest. Tours are scheduled directly onto leasing agents’ calendars, with automated reminders sent to reduce no-shows.
In light of changing consumer behaviors and the need for “on demand” service, the Zillow Rentals and EliseAI offering makes perfect sense. AI Assist engages the renter on the platform they’re already using, at the moment they’re most engaged, with zero friction or redirect. The AI does the work that an onsite agent would do, with no delay, no time off, and no “call again tomorrow morning.” It all sounds good… but what does the data show?
What the Data Shows
EliseAI and Zillow Rentals analyzed performance data across their mutual portfolio of multifamily communities with instant touring enabled, comparing leads from AI Assist-enabled properties against those without, with a dataset covering October 2025 through April 2026.2 The results speak for themselves: AI directly integrated into Zillow listings lifted conversion rates across the entire leasing funnel.
At the top of the funnel, AI Assist drove a 19% increase in lead-to-tour booked conversion. The key is AI-powered instant responses deployed at the first point of friction in the leasing funnel, ensuring prospects stay warm and intent turns to action. As the EliseAI-powered AI actively warms and qualifies prospects before they ever walk through the door, operators can turn more raw Zillow leads into confirmed tours. By responding instantly and keeping the conversation going when onsite teams can't, AI Assist helps convert those tours to applications.
From there, the conversion lift accelerates. Renters who engaged with AI Assist converted to applicants at a 43% higher rate, representing the single strongest driver of conversion rate improvement in the data. This is where AI-powered lead nurturing does its heaviest work: following up after the tour, keeping prospects engaged through the decision-making window, and converting intent into applications before momentum fades.
That momentum carries all the way through to signed leases. Leads that engaged with AI Assist converted from lead-to-lease at a 24% higher rate, showing that the upstream qualification work directly translates into occupancy impact. The overarching pattern is consistent across the dataset, showing clearly that leads that engage with AI Assist convert at higher rates at every stage of the funnel.
What This Means for the Modern Multifamily Marketer
The math here is straightforward. Operators already pay for ILS traffic. The question is how much of it they’re actually capturing.
A 18% improvement in lead-to-tour conversion on existing Zillow traffic means more tours from the same spend. A 43% improvement in lead-to-application conversion, driven by AI-powered post-tour lead nurturing, translates prospect intent to action. And a 26% increase in lead-to-lease helps tie it all to impact on the bottom line. Switching on AI Assist on your Zillow Rentals listings offers an opportunity for structural improvement of your leasing funnel without buying more leads or adding headcount.
The highest impact move multifamily marketing teams can make today isn’t buying more leads, but instead ensuring they’re well equipped to nurture the leads that do enter the funnel. This analysis simply shows how meeting renters exactly where they want to be met, at the precise moment they’re ready to convert, translates to revenue.
Get in touch with us today to learn more about activating AI Assist on your Zillow Rentals listings (for operators with greater than 450 units live on the ZIllow platform).
1 Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform: Custom-defined list: Zillow Rentals Expanded Network, Apartments.com Network, Apartmentlist sites, and Zumper Inc, Total Visits, Apr 2025 - Mar 2026, U.S.
2 Internal data, mutual Zillow and EliseAI buildings, comparing leads from AI Assist-enabled buildings where AI Assist was engaged vs. leads from buildings that do not have AI Assist enabled, October 2025–April 2026.