Major brokerage begins trialling generative AI

The co-founders of the major broking group – which includes Lendi and Aussie – have revealed that they have begun a broker pilot utilising generative artificial intelligence (AI) to see how it can accelerate the broking process.

Speaking to Mortgage Business for an episode of the Mortgage Business Spotlight podcast, Lendi Group co-founders Sebastian Watkins and David Hyman revealed that, as AI becomes more mainstream and the technology evolves, it is being used to provide greater efficiencies in the mortgage broking space.

Lendi Group chief executive Hyman said: “When it comes to mortgages, AI is in its very early days. But there’s a huge opportunity for it in this space. In the mortgage broking process, AI fits in as a copilot framework that helps brokers be better at what they do; fundamentally helping customers achieve their dreams and goals.”

He outlined that optical character recognition (OCR) – which is already commonly used to extract data from input sources and populate relevant fields in forms – can be supercharged with AI by helping identify any variabilities in data.

Chief operating officer Watkins suggested that this could not only improve data quality but also identify any potentially fraudulent activity earlier in the application process.

Watkins said: “The increase in application quality would also boost the probability of achieving unconditional approval at lodgement. It can also increase our awareness and visibility on potentially fraudulent activity or things that we want to take a closer look at. In doing so, it’s not only increasing efficiencies, it’s also protecting brokers from fraud.”

Lendi Group is now piloting an AI tool that brokers can use to check client suitability against lender credit policy. This tool can process all of the inputs of the client fact-find and the customers’ wants and needs in real time and produce a recommendation that has ingested hundreds of thousands of inputs.

Hyman explained: “It is almost like a ChatGPT-style interface for credit policy. We call it Leeni. Leeni can help the broker make smarter suggestions. For example, if the broker is wondering which lender is going to lend to a 37-square-metre apartment in a Category 3 postcode, Leeni can identify that and serve up a suggestion.”

Watkins said: “AI could run this data across all of the credit policies of our lenders and assist the broker in making recommendations to their clients. That is one area where we would see a greater increase in broker efficiency, as it would reduce the manual time required to go and do that work.

Lendi is also releasing a new experience whereby the technology “listens” to broker-client conversations and summarises not just what was talked about but also the commitments that both the broker and customer made around the next steps.

This is then presented in a template for the broker to send to the customer immediately after the call finishes, according to the broking group.

Hyman said: “These are just two examples of where we’re using a product-led approach to technology to drive a better customer and broker experience. And there are many, many more in the pipeline.”

Watkins concluded: “I think people have been scared that the technology may replace what we do, but I think it will just replace parts of what we do; it will replace the administrative components of what we’re doing. For example, AI can replace the need to do multiple servicing calculator checks, or the job of extracting information from a payslip to fill out forms or rekey information into broker software, or putting together the summary proposal for a customer.

“But what it won’t replace is the relationship that we have with the customers. That’s how we see the technology being used in the broker space; it’s not about replacing the human experience, it’s about turbocharging the experience.”

Several other players have begun harnessing AI in the broking space – including purpose-built AI client onboarding platform for brokers, Mystro, and asset finance brokerage and loan comparison platform Loanoptions.ai, which utilises artificial intelligence to pre-approve borrowers on personal and asset finance loans.

While AI has been embraced by many in the lending space, too, there have been several warnings issued by regulators and politicians alike regarding the reach of AI if left unchecked.

You can find out more about the Lendi Group’s use of AI and technology to accelerate the broker offering in the Mortgage Business Spotlight podcast, sponsored by Lendi Group, here:

[Related: Spotlight: AI in the mortgage broking space]