Necessity is the mother of invention, and Zillow’s pivot to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic set the stage for a new, AI-powered work environment — one that’s helping the company not just survive, but thrive. At the core of this transformation is a powerful synergy: AI and Cloud HQ working together to reshape how Zillow operates, innovates, and serves both consumers and industry partners. And now, it’s creating new possibilities for how you could thrive at Zillow.
AI is the engine that drives Cloud HQ
Cloud HQ is designed to give you the autonomy to work where and how you’re most productive while ensuring that your tools, teammates and processes are aligned to support focused, high-impact work. Much more than a flexible work policy, it’s a strategic business advantage that fuels collaboration and innovation.
While Cloud HQ has become a foundational part of how we work, AI unlocks its full potential. While other companies may frown on employees using tools like ChatGPT, employees at Zillow are actively encouraged and expected to utilize approved AI tools every day. Embedding artificial intelligence in our workflows helps you streamline communication and collaboration, making your work more efficient, inclusive and impactful.
As COO Jun Choo shared at a recent Fortune event, “We’re trying to do the same thing right now with AI [as we did with mobile first] — the idea is that you’re going to use AI. It’s coming. It’s not really a choice. And the question is: Which tools are you going to use and which problems are you going to solve?”
Fostering an AI-first culture
Through Cloud HQ and AI, Zillow frees employees from the confines of the 9-to-5 and encourages creative problem-solving and impactful execution. Teams are already having success using AI to automate summaries, synthesize long email threads and edit copy.
But that’s just scratching the surface of how this technology helps you stay on the forefront of innovation in Cloud HQ.
- Product managers use AI to create working prototypes without dependencies on design and engineering resources. This accelerates the production time frame from weeks to mere hours.
- Our people team uses AI to get quick answers to data questions without having to write SQL queries. These accurate responses are delivered in seconds, which increases our data accessibility while keeping things secure and stable.
- Researchers use AI to synthesize competitive insights, user feedback and industry trends at a depth and speed that would be impossible manually, helping them identify unmet customer needs and adjust product strategy with confidence.
- Many employees utilize AI to improve strategic communication by asking tools to transform early brainstorm sessions into structured documents, suggest narrative improvements and offer thoughtful critiques.
This inclusivity reinforces our culture of excellence. “What AI does is it allows your top performers — your most valuable employees — to be more productive,” said Choo. “It’s really helped our best employees become better and extended this culture of excellence that we have.”
Debunking the negative perception of AI
We recognize the emotional response AI can trigger — fear, skepticism and even shame — so we’re focused on normalizing curiosity and making AI feel accessible. Our approach to AI goes beyond tools; it’s about mindset. From Hack Week to Prompt-a-Thons, we’ve created safe spaces for employees to explore, test and integrate AI into their daily routines.
That journey hasn’t been without hurdles. As Choo acknowledged, “The hardest blocker is actually inertia … people become very familiar with certain ways of doing things, and breaking habits is really hard.” But once employees see the benefits firsthand, he noted, “the light bulb goes off, and you’ll see the early adopters really take off.”
Building for the consumer and the industry at large
Zillow’s AI strategy doesn’t just impact your team — it’s a full-spectrum effort that touches every corner of the real estate journey. You’ll help create intelligent, human-centered experiences that help more people get home. That starts with tools like the Zestimate® — a pioneering example of predictive modeling in real estate — and continues today with innovations like Zillow ShowcaseSM with SkyTour, which lets agents offer immersive, AI-enhanced virtual home tours.
You’ll also collaborate on tools that help industry partners work smarter and faster. Our integration of AI into products such as Follow Up Boss (FUB) enables agents to better prioritize leads and personalize client outreach, saving valuable time while increasing close rates. These tools are designed not only to boost agent productivity, but to elevate the consumer experience through faster response times and smarter insights.
And we’re holding ourselves accountable to build a fairer and more transparent housing ecosystem. Our fair housing classifier uses AI to detect and flag noncompliant language, reinforcing our commitment to equitable practices across the platform. This is how we use AI — not just to optimize transactions, but to reduce bias and drive systemic change in how real estate is marketed and accessed.
Why this matters for you
At Zillow, we’re actively shaping the future of work. If you’re considering joining us, you’ll find a culture that embraces AI as a tool to amplify human talent and bring out the best. Our Cloud HQ model offers the flexibility to work where and how you thrive, while our AI-powered tools remove friction so you can focus on solving meaningful problems and making an impact. But most of all, you’ll be part of something bigger: helping build a more equitable, innovative and transparent real estate experience for everyone.
If you’re excited by the idea of shaping what work — and the tech industry — looks like in the AI era, Zillow is the place to do it.