Artificial intelligence and machine learning continue to revolutionize the world we live in today – through our smartphones and all kinds of new developments. Now, it’s about to take over mortgage lending.
HousingWire sat down to talk to AI Foundry President and Founder Steve Butler about what changes AI is making, and will continue to make, to the mortgage lending process.
One of the boldest predictions? Butler explained that within just two years, the majority of mortgage originations won’t need a human to touch them.
HousingWire: What’s the state of AI in the lending industry today?
Steve Butler: AI is playing a key role in streamlining the credit approval process. This includes collecting documents, like bank statements or income and assets and analyzing them much faster and more accurately using AI. This provides a faster and more accurate path to giving credit. There is tremendous interest in integrating AI into back-office systems, but we are still in the early days of this integration.
HW: What’s the No. 1 trend shaping AI in lending this year?
SB: Costs are going up because the credit process is more labor intensive, so as a result there is a lot of investment in fintech to streamline lending and find faster ways to do credit and different types of loans with limited data. As a result, turnaround time is really important, meaning that you can move more quickly in providing some level of credit approval. This can change the landscape of loans.
HW: What’s the No. 1 challenge to AI adoption in lending?
SB: I think that the top challenge is trusting the handoff to the AI system. You need to trust that it will read the document correctly, execute the process etc. Basically, trusting that AI will do what it is supposed to do, and do it right.
HW: What’s the No. 1 benefit AI brings to lending?
SB: The top benefit that AI brings to lending is improving the overall customer experience, including better turnaround time, high accuracy, transparency in the process, no surprises, etc.
HW: What’s the future of AI in lending?
SB: Within the next two years, we will see the majority of loans go through the entire process without any human involvement. It will be a much more mechanized process.
