Machine learning is a big buzzword in business right now. You probably know that Roy Dekel is the CEO of SetSchedule, a company that uses machine learning, but do you know what machine learning is and why it’s so important? And that you probably benefit from it on a daily basis?

Machine Learning Use Case: Image Search

Does your smartphone have an image search function? Or have you ever used it in a photo cloud? It’s a great way to find that one cute picture you took of your dog last month, searching for “dog” so you can skip past all the photos you’ve taken of your kids and your food. But have you ever wondered how it works?

Image recognition is powered by machine learning. Developers “train” an algorithm by showing it a variety of images, and telling it which ones are a “dog” and which are not. Then they give the algorithm a new set of images, and ask it to identify which ones are dogs. They tell the algorithm which ones it got right, and which it was wrong about. After many rounds of this, the program now has a very strong idea of what is and is not a dog, and can recognize dogs in pictures it has never seen before.

This is a simple explanation of an incredibly complex bit of programming that makes our lives easier. We could just scroll through our images until we find a picture of our dog, but thanks to a lot of clever programmers, we can simply type “dog” and the algorithm will likely show us every picture we’ve ever taken of our dog.

SetSchedule Taught Machines About Real Estate

Machine learning isn’t only for image recognition, however. Machines are great at all forms of pattern recognition, which makes them ideal for analyzing large amounts of data. SetSchedule is a real estate marketing tool that uses machine learning to analyze vast amounts of real estate market data to predict which houses are most likely to go on the market soon. This helps real estate agents target their marketing, approaching homeowners when they are most likely ready to sell their current home and buy a new one.

This sort of data analysis was previously out of reach to most real estate agencies, as it would have required a team of analysts to pore over local real estate records. It would be hard for any agency to be able to generate enough income from such analysis to justify the salaries for such a team. A machine learning algorithm, on the other hand, always has access to the most up-to-date data and does the math quickly and efficiently, predicting which leads will be the most valuable and relevant. SetSchedule makes cutting-edge market analysis available to everyone from solo agents to large agencies, leveling the playing field by giving everyone access to some of the 21st century’s most revolutionary technology. The future of real estate is here today, and SetSchedule is leading the way.