Artificial Intelligence, Customer Relationship Management, And Patronage Retention: Evidence from Real Estate Enterprises in Lagos, Nigeria

The infusion of artificial intelligence into customer relationship management practice has reshaped the way real estate businesses engage with their clientele, and yet solid empirical evidence connecting AI-driven customer relationship management to patronage retention within emerging African markets is still hard to come by. This paper investigates how AI enabled customer relationship management shapes patronage retention among real estate enterprises operating in Lagos, Nigeria. Drawing on the Technology Acceptance Model together with relationship marketing theory, the study surveyed 202 marketing practitioners drawn from 30 established real estate firms across Lagos Metropolis. Regression analysis revealed that AI-powered customer relationship management capability exerts a strong, positive influence on patronage retention (β = 0.671, p < 0.001), accounting for 45% of the variance in retention outcomes. In particular, real-time engagement, personalized communication, and automated response systems stood out as the strongest contributors to sustained patronage. These results suggest that real estate firms that invest in AI tools capable of delivering seamless, personalized, and prompt customer interactions are better placed to cultivate durable customer relationships. This paper contributes to the still-limited body of work on AI-CRM applications within African real estate markets and offers practical direction for firms looking to harness technology as a source of competitive advantage.