Century 21 vs Keller Williams: units, growth & AI adoption
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AI Adoption Score: FranchisePulse’s own editorial metric of how deeply a system has deployed AI (methodology). The Index publishes no link between that score and franchisee profitability.
Keller Williams leads on AI adoption (66/100 vs 60/100, Q3 2026), while Century 21 is the larger system by unit count (10,986 offices vs 1,000+ offices). Keller Williams is growing faster year-over-year (+1.6%).
What this matchup actually shows
The 6-point headline gap is not evenly spread. The widest divergence is training & support AI, where Keller Williams leads by 10; the two are closest on marketing AI, separated by just 2. Keller Williams leads on every pillar, not just on the total.
On scale, Century 21 runs about 11× the units of Keller Williams, yet Keller Williams is the more AI-advanced of the two. 8 tracked systems score between them, from Papa John's (65) down to Kumon (61).
| Pillar | Century 21 | Keller Williams | Gap | × weight | Leads |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operations AI | 52 | 58 | 6 | 2.1 | Keller Williams |
| Data infrastructure | 58 | 66 | 8 | 2.4 | Keller Williams |
| Marketing AI | 70 | 72 | 2 | 0.4 | Keller Williams |
| Training & Support AI | 58 | 68 | 10 | 1.5 | Keller Williams |
| Metric | Century 21 | Keller Williams |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Real Estate | Real Estate |
| Headquarters | USA | USA |
| Units (approx.) | 10,986 offices ◂ | 1,000+ offices |
| Unit growth YoY | -8.2% (2024) | +1.6% ◂Source pending |
| AI Adoption Score | 60/100 | 66/100 ◂ |
| Operations AI | 52 | 58 ◂ |
| Marketing AI | 70 | 72 ◂ |
| Training AI | 58 | 68 ◂ |
| Data infrastructure | 58 | 66 ◂ |
| Region | North America | North America |
| Index rank | #35 | #24 ◂ |
Century 21
#3 of 3 in its sector · -5 vs sector average · best marketing AI 70, lowest operations AI 52
CENTURY 21 is now a Compass brand: Compass completed its $1.6 billion acquisition of parent Anywhere Real Estate on 9 January 2026. The brand's franchised office count has fallen three years running — 13,611, then 11,972, then 10,986 at the end of 2024, the last count Anywhere filed before the takeover. Compass began rolling its AI Home Platform out to its own brokerage brands in mid-2026; franchise brands including CENTURY 21 are down for 2027, so nothing is live here yet.
Keller Williams
#2 of 3 in its sector · +1 vs sector average · best marketing AI 72, lowest operations AI 58
Keller Williams has more than 1,000 market centre offices, and its affiliated agent count has been falling — 174,000 in July 2024, 159,000 by December 2025. Its AI is bought in rather than built: KWIQ, a generative-AI assistant trained on KW's own training material (2024), AI ad copy inside Command, and from February 2026 third-party AI integrations including Google Gemini and RemyAI. Stone Point Capital took a strategic stake in March 2025.
What actually separates them
The 8-point edge Keller Williams holds on data infrastructure (30% of the score) is worth about 2.4 points, against 2.1 for Keller Williams on operations AI. The widest raw gap, 10 on training & support AI, counts for less (1.5).
Century 21 runs marketing AI at 70 against data infrastructure at 58, 12 points apart: the shape this Index flags as a plateau risk.
Sector context
In Real Estate (3 tracked, average 65/100 against 63 for the Index), Century 21 ranks #3 and Keller Williams #2 on AI, Keller Williams above the sector average and Century 21 not. With 3 systems, that average moves with any one brand.
Franchise Intelligence Index
Century 21, Keller Williams and 59 more systems, benchmarked in full.
Cite as: Century 21 vs Keller Williams, FranchisePulse Franchise Intelligence Index, Q3 2026