Zillow has transformed how people buy and sell homes, leveraging data and technology to reshape the real estate landscape. With innovations like Zillow Showcase — a premium listing experience that helps sellers present their homes in the best possible light — Zillow continues to push the industry forward. Zillow Showcase harnesses AI, computer vision and immersive 3D modeling to redefine how buyers explore homes and how sellers and agents present their listings. This is more than just a product; it’s part of our mission to make it easier for people to find a home through smarter, more intuitive technology.

Since its nationwide launch in 2024, agents using Showcase have seen a boost in page views, saves and shares compared to similar non-Showcase listings. But beyond the numbers, this experience marks a significant leap forward in how technology enhances real estate discovery.  

We recently sat down with Amy Clark, Principal Product Manager at Zillow, to dive into what makes Showcase a game changer, how the technology behind it works and what the future holds for this innovative listing experience.

Q&A with Amy Clark on Zillow Showcase

What is Zillow Showcase?

Amy Clark: We’ve built a product called Zillow Showcase for agents to help market their listings. For-Sale listings that have the Zillow Showcase treatment include virtual 3-D tours and an interactive floor plan, which allows buyers to explore a home’s layout through a dynamic, clickable interface that links room photos to their corresponding locations on the floor plan. It’s the most immersive way for a buyer to search for homes on Zillow. It really gives buyers the ability to understand a home’s layout, visualize their lives in it and make informed decisions before an in-person visit.

What makes Zillow Showcase different from regular listings?

Amy:  When I was home shopping, I struggled to connect with listings that only had standard photos. Buyers like looking at photos and floor plans when searching for listings, but sometimes it can be tough to get a feel for how the home really flows.

With Showcase listings, photos are grouped logically — bedroom photos are together, kitchen photos are together — so that shoppers can easily connect images to the home’s layout. And, the interactive floor plan provides context to where each room is, and the virtual tour allows buyers to navigate the home like they are actually walking through it. 

This is a game changer for sellers and agents. For sellers, screen appeal is the new curb appeal — enhancing a listing with immersive media helps homes stand out, sell faster and potentially sell for more. For agents, Showcase provides a competitive edge, giving their listings extra exposure and helping them win new business.

How does technology make Showcase immersive?

Amy: Immersion is all about helping buyers visualize a home as if they’re physically there. To achieve this, we use AI and computer vision to stitch together panoramas taken by photographers, creating a seamless 3D model of the home. This allows buyers to navigate the home interactively, seeing how rooms connect and how light flows through spaces.

Our AI analyzes overlapping panoramic images to ensure a smooth, realistic navigation experience. It also generates the floor plan automatically, mapping each photo to its precise location. This means buyers can see exactly where a bedroom is in relation to the kitchen, how windows align with the sun and other key spatial details.

What were some of the biggest challenges in building Zillow Showcase?

Amy: The biggest challenge was integrating data from multiple sources. Showcase listings pull information from MLS feeds, agent submissions and various media sources, all of which had to be unified into a seamless experience. We collaborated with over 15 engineering teams at Zillow to make it happen, including teams focused on media ingestion, listing search, email notifications and AI processing.

Bringing together the large amount of human or user generated media that requires processing and has complex dependency chains to produce the experience is also a feat. Of course, there is also a major challenge in keeping home details pages performant, especially when there are large images, panos, floor maps, etc., brought together on the same page. That’s a major piece of the technical challenge.

We also design for mobile first, because it’s the most challenging platform to optimize. If we can get it right on mobile — making sure everything fits, flows and is intuitive — then translating it to desktop is much easier. Our goal is to ensure a seamless, easy-to-use experience across all devices.

Are virtual reality experiences coming to Zillow Showcase?

Amy: They’re already here! Zillow Showcase listings are available on Apple Vision Pro, where buyers can step into a home and explore it in a fully immersive 3D space. We’ve taken our virtual tours and extruded the floor plans to create an even richer experience.

What’s next for Zillow Showcase?

Amy: Right now, buyers have to click into different types of media separately — photos, floor plans, virtual tours. In the future, I see all these combined into a single experience. Imagine transitioning between a high-resolution image, a walkthrough tour and even an AI-generated style preview, all in one place. We’re laying the groundwork for that now.

Driving innovation to help people find a home

Zillow Showcase is just one example of how we’re leveraging AI, computer vision and immersive experiences to build smarter tools for buyers, sellers and agents alike. 

We’re also continuing to listen to agent feedback to make Showcase even more valuable for their businesses. We recently added a new Showcase listing performance insights feature for agents, which further unlocks Zillow’s technology and insights by showing agents how their Showcase listings are performing compared to similar non-Showcase listings on Zillow. This is one way we’re equipping agents with technology that deepens their expertise and enhances their value proposition to help them stand out to current and future clients. 

For technologists and engineers looking to work on products that make a real impact, Zillow is where innovation meets mission. With AI-driven personalization, media integration and virtual experiences, we’re making it easier than ever for people to find a home they love.