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.

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