That should mean there is less chance of something going wrong. Shouldn't it?
Perhaps not.
Because having the right data and reaching the right answer are not necessarily the same thing.
This is becoming increasingly important as the Government pushes ahead with reforms designed to make buying and selling homes faster and more transparent. The intention is for more property information to be available earlier, shared more easily and reused throughout the transaction.
There is plenty to welcome in that. Anyone who has been involved in the property industry for any length of time knows how frustrating duplication and unnecessary delays can be.
However, the faster information moves, the more important another question becomes.
Who is checking that it is right?
A piece of property information might begin with a local authority, move into a database, pass through a search platform, be processed by technology and eventually arrive on the desk of a conveyancer.
Increasingly, artificial intelligence could become another part of that chain.
If everything works perfectly, that creates a faster and more efficient transaction. If something goes wrong, however, working out exactly where the problem occurred could be far more difficult.
Was the original information incorrect? Was something missing? Was it transferred incorrectly? Did technology interpret it differently? Or was the information perfectly accurate, yet somebody failed to understand its significance?
That last question is particularly interesting.
We have spoken many times on IPSA Kind Of Magic about technology and AI. There is no question that both will play an increasing role in property searches and conveyancing.
Yet technology is very good at giving us an answer based upon the information it has been given.
Experience sometimes tells us to question that answer.
That is where the independent search professional remains so important.
Many IPSA members have spent years, and in some cases decades, working with local authorities and property information. They understand the records, they understand the systems and, importantly, they often recognise when something simply doesn't look quite right.
That knowledge isn't always contained within a database.
Sometimes it is knowing that a particular council records something differently. Sometimes it is remembering an historic issue affecting an area. Sometimes it is knowing who to speak to when two pieces of information appear to contradict each other.
And sometimes it is simply having the confidence to say: "I'm not happy with this. I want to check it."
As the property industry becomes increasingly digital, that ability could become more valuable rather than less.
The Government itself has recognised the challenge. Its homebuying reform plans discuss the importance of establishing where property data has come from and creating clearer rules around responsibility when inaccurate information is used.
Because ultimately, someone buying a property isn't interested in which database produced the information.
They want to know whether the information they have been given can be trusted.
So this Wednesday on IPSA Kind Of Magic, Gareth Wax, Hamish McLay and Heather Poole-Gleed will be asking what happens when we have the right data, yet somehow end up with the wrong answer.
Where does responsibility sit when something goes wrong? How important is the human being checking the information? And as AI takes on more of the routine work, could professional experience actually become even more valuable?
Because getting information quickly is useful.
Knowing when to question it could be priceless.
IPSA Kind Of Magic - Wednesday at 1pm
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