Artificial technology (AI) will drive automation and personalisation in the mortgage advice journey, making an administrator’s role “more strategic” as they focus on complex matters, it was said during a webinar.
Presenting at the Mortgage Solutions Mortgage Administrator Online Event (MAOE), Simon Clark, key account manager at MPowered Mortgages, said administrators would be “right where we need it most, in the non-standard cases, the grey areas, the relationship-building moments”.
He said AI was good at rule-based actions but could not detect nuance, make a judgment call or handle the emotional side of a mortgage application.
“So, the [mortgage administrator’s] role becomes more strategic, interpreting complex or borderline cases where rule-based systems can’t see the full picture,” Clark added.
Administrators would also be key in collaborating with underwriters and advisers to “shape better outcomes on tricky cases”, managing expectations and acting as a “central point” of human expertise.
He said AI would not completely replace administrators, underwriters or advisers, but would become a “collaborative partner”.
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“Traditionally, so much of the mortgage admin role has been about chasing paperwork, checking figures and filling in forms – important work, but it’s not the most rewarding,” Clark added.
He said with AI taking on these tasks, administrators would be able to support clients more, and “spend less time fixing problems, and more time adding value”.
AI would drive “hyper-personalisation” in mortgage advising, managing communications with clients to create a clearer, smoother advice journey, making room for “cleaner pipelines, fewer unsuitable applications coming in, faster document collection… fewer errors… and less chasing”.
Clark added: “In time, admin teams may find that they spend far less time triaging enquiries or clarifying things, and more time moving cases through to offer and completion.”
AI detecting mortgage fraud
Clark said fraudsters were “becoming more sophisticated” and the quality of forged documents was getting harder to distinguish with the naked eye.
He said this was where AI could “really change the game” by running fraud detection as soon as a document is uploaded, to spot whether sections of a bank statement has been tampered with, comparing key data points to match a person’s income to other documentation and spotting patterns in behaviour, such as addresses that are regularly used for fraud.
This would put administrators in a “reviewer role”, Clark added.
Watch the full presentation [48:36] and join the Mortgage Administrator LinkedIn group for more content.
