Adoption of Virtual Assistants Application to Estate Surveying and Valuation Practice in Nigeria

The Estate Surveying and Valuation practice in Nigeria has come a long way and has been facing various kind of challenges one of which is its inability to keeping up with technological trends in facilitating the efficiency of its operations. The need to subscribe to the trends in technology has now become more important than ever before. One of such technologies is the application of Virtual Assistant to real estate services which has become household tool in developed economy but which has received little attention in developing countries such as Nigeria. It is in view of the aforementioned that this study is set to examine the application of virtual assistants in the estate surveying and valuation practice especially in the area of property marketing in the Abuja Metropolis area of Nigeria. Data for the study was obtained with the aid of questionnaire administered to sixty (60) randomly selected estate surveyors and valuers practicing Abuja Metropolis of Nigeria with a response rate of 100%. Descriptive statistical tools such as frequencies, percentages, and Relative Importance Index (RII) were used to analyse the data obtained. The study revealed that the greatest factor mitigating the application of virtual assistants to be lack of knowledge regarding its utilization and benefits. The study recommends creation of awareness about the inherent benefits in the application of virtual assistants to the estate surveying and valuation profession be vigorously embarked upon at professional workshops and seminars to be the most plausible measure to be taken towards ameliorating the inherent problems to the application of virtual assistants.   Received: 4 April 2022 / Accepted: 3 February 2023 / Published: 6 March 2023