Executive Summary
German real-estate platform Scout24 has launched "HeyImmo," a new conversational search assistant powered by OpenAI's GPT-5. The feature aims to transform the property search experience by acting as an expert "sparring partner" that guides users with clarifying questions, tailored summaries, and relevant listings. The company prioritized quality and reliability by building a custom evaluation framework and conducting extensive internal testing before launch, in close collaboration with OpenAI's solutions team.
Key Takeaways
* Product: Scout24 has integrated a conversational search assistant named "HeyImmo" into its platform.
* Technology: The assistant is powered by OpenAI's GPT-5 model and utilizes function calling for a simplified and fast architecture.
* Core Functionality: It provides a guided search experience by asking users clarifying questions, surfacing listings, summarizing options, and adapting its answer format (e.g., bullet points, summaries, image previews) to user needs.
* Quality Assurance: Scout24 developed a custom evaluation system based on the OpenAI Evals framework to define, measure, and ensure the quality of the assistant's responses.
* Development Process: The product underwent extensive internal "swarm testing" with company employees to refine the user experience and identify edge cases.
* Future Vision: The company plans to expand the AI assistant's functionality across its entire ecosystem to serve landlords, homeowners, and agents, aiming to create deeper network effects.
Strategic Importance
This launch demonstrates how a major online marketplace can leverage generative AI to fundamentally enhance its core product, shifting from a transactional search tool to a guided, advisory experience to increase user engagement and platform value.