When you hear someone say, “I bet my entire company on AI,” your ears should prick up. Because that’s exactly what Robert Wensley did with Investorlift - and the results are already rewriting the rules of real estate wholesaling.

In a recent podcast, Robert pulled back the curtain on the journey, the risks, and the payoff. Here’s what he shared - plus how you can apply the same thinking in your own business.
 

The Moment That Changed the Game
 

Robert recounted a live moment with a customer’s team: they posted a deal, got just a few leads, and they were sweating. Within minutes, the leads surged - but not just leads. Legit buyers. The first offer came in at $570K. Another at $595K. They closed the deal in 15 minutes over just five phone calls. Robert made his first $100K assignment - using the AI product in its early live launch.
 

That wasn’t luck. That was the culmination of years of work, data engineering, and a bold decision to reboot.
 

Why the First Try Failed - And How They Rebuilt
 

Robert admitted the first version was misbuilt - they were doing what many call “machine learning” (hardcoding, regressions, feeding past data) and got stuck in loops of recommending the same buyers over and over.

So Robert made a radical move: he scrapped the team, hired true AI engineers, and pivoted entirely to neural networks. The architecture now uses reward functions, real retraining nightly, and vast quantities of data - not fixed rules.
 

This shift is how it became possible to:

• Score every buyer in the database for likelihood to purchase

• Generate precise, micro‑targeted outreach instead of blasting 10,000 emails

• Achieve click-through rates that Robert claims are 10× what text campaigns used to see
   

In short: the system stopped being a “tool” and became an autonomous engine for deal flow.
 

The AI Operating System for Wholesaling
 

Robert doesn’t want Investorlift to be just another marketplace - he sees it as a full-stack for the industry. The vision is:

1. Deal → Buyer Match (you drop a property, AI picks likely buyers and sends outreach)

2. Buyer → Deal Match (on the buyer side, deals recommended by profile)

3. Deal Quality Control (an AI filter to weed out junk, weed out daisy‑chainers)

4. Next: Acquisition Side (AI helping you underwrite, price, forecast probability)
    

Future versions will also predict which channel (email, text, app) and what time to reach a buyer.

Because once you have a neural net that’s learned from the entire ecosystem - billions of buyer interactions and signals - you have something nobody else can replicate overnight.

Robert’s confidence? Even if someone had the same algorithm, they can’t train it - they don’t have the data.

“Whoever gets to AI first has magical powers.”

The Early Results Speak

• Offers up 40% in just weeks

• Record number of offers in Investorlift history

• A single test deal turned into $610,000 in assignment value with just five calls

• The AI has reportedly transformed 14,000 cold emails into under 180 targeted messages - a 75× efficiency improvement.

• Investorlift has launched Iris AI (the AI engine) across the platform, and is continuing to build out modules like “Deal Recommender” for buyers.

• The platform also introduced “Sentry Mode” to root out daisy-chainers and protect deal integrity.
   

These aren’t just incremental gains - this is a structural shift.
 

Lessons You Can Apply (Even If You’re Not Building AI)

Betting an entire company on AI was a massive gamble - but there are core principles you can adopt in your wholesale business now:

• Data collection is king. From day one, Investorlift tracked every buyer behavior: clicks, inquiries, dwell time, responses. You don’t need a neural net - but you should be collecting clean, consistent data.

• Iterate, then rebuild. The first version failed. The second is world‑class. Sometimes the only option is to scrap and rebuild - but you don’t get the insights without the attempt.

• Automate the low-skill work. Outbound messaging, lead scoring, filtering junk - these are tasks that your team will burn out on. Let systems handle that, so your people can do higher-level work.

• Focus on trust & reputation. Robert talked about building public profiles, attaching transaction history, reviewer systems. In a national marketplace, trust is the currency.

• Go “all in” when revolution is possible. If you see a tectonic shift, incremental improvements won’t win. You might need to stop other features, lean in fully.
   

Robert didn’t just want better software. He wanted to redefine the operating model.
 

What’s Next - And What You Should Be Watching
 

• Acquisition-side AI. The next frontier is having AI help you decide what to pay, how to underwrite, what offer to make.

• Automated scope-of-work & image analysis. Neural nets can eventually process the photos, flag whether it’s a kitchen, a foundation issue, etc.

• Trust transfer & reputation networks. If you screw up in one market, it follows you. But if you're solid, it opens trust across borders.

• Real-time retraining & feedback loops. As the system sees responses, it adjusts. That’s how it grows smarter.

• Platform as infrastructure. Robert’s vision: Investorlift becomes the plumbing through which capital meets opportunity across the country.
   

The Takeaway for You, Right Now
 

If you’re a wholesaler or deal operator:

• Don’t fight AI - partner with it. Platforms like Investorlift are pushing hard.

• Get your data in order. Clean up your systems, make sure your actions, responses, timestamps are captured.

• Test the AI features. Use Iris AI, test the deal recommender, experiment with new lead strategies.

• Think about your differentiator beyond deals. If everyone has access to smart deal flow, what edge do you bring - speed, relationship, capital, execution?

• Stay agile. This is still early days. The ROI curve will steepen. Those who adapt fastest will win.
   

Robert’s bet is audacious. His philosophy: incremental is dead. Disruption demands full commitment. And from what he's showing so far, the bet is paying off.

If you’re serious about scaling your wholesaling business - using AI not as a gimmick, but as a force multiplier - this might be your playbook.