AI in mortgage advice: useful tool or growing threat?

Artificial intelligence is reshaping how mortgage brokers research, communicate, and manage their workload – but two UK advisers say the technology brings risks that the industry can’t afford to ignore.

The question is no longer whether AI will affect the mortgage industry, it is how brokers respond to a technology that is simultaneously making their jobs easier and their clients harder to advise.

Rhys Edwards (pictured top right), mortgage consultant at Brooks Financial, told Mortgage Introducer he already uses AI regularly in his day-to-day work, but he is clear-eyed about its limitations. Meanwhile, Denni Tyson (pictured top left), founder of DT Financial, warned AI-generated misinformation is becoming one of the most pressing challenges facing brokers and their clients right now.

Can AI replace the human mortgage broker?

For Edwards, AI has become a practical part of the job. "I use it as a glorified Word document, it is handy for additional quick searches or a quick check on certain things," he said. "It’s just a little bit better than a Google search or something like that."

He described using it on the same day as speaking to Mortgage Introducer to work through a complex client query. "Something's in your head and you're just like, ‘Who will do this’, and it just brought me up a couple of ideas. That unlocked that knowledge in my head, and then I knew who to call."

That last point matters to Edwards. AI pointed him in a direction – a phone call to a business development manager closed the loop. In his view, the technology's value lies in efficiency, not replacement. "I think it will help us to be more efficient and more accurate," he said. "It's great for administration and speeding up responses sometimes."

But he is firm on where the line sits. "AI is not going to be there on a Friday night at 8pm when someone's supposed to be moving on Monday and they've just got a bit of a wobble," he said. "I know my phone's there and I look at it. AI is never going to replace that, which is where the broker really holds weight."

The misinformation problem

A joint survey by the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), published in November 2024, found that 75% of UK financial services firms are already using AI, up from 58% in 2022. For consumers, that growing presence has a flip side – as AI tools become more accessible, so does the misinformation they can generate.

Tyson's concerns are pointed. While he acknowledges AI's usefulness as a business tool, he said the volume of inaccurate information being circulated – and absorbed by clients – is getting worse.

"The level of misinformation that is out there is quite frightening now for people," he said. "It's getting worse, if I'm honest."

Tyson gave a direct example. A client had been told by an AI tool that they did not need to pay stamp duty. "I checked it myself and it came up, and I was like, ‘What? You do’. There are little things like that that I think misinformation is causing a lot of young first-time buyers to go, ‘I could do this, do that’. But I have tell them, ‘You can't, because of X, Y and Z’."

The problem, as Tyson sees it, is that access to information has outpaced access to accurate information. "People come and say, ‘Oh, I was told I can do this’. Again, I have to tell them, ‘No, you can't’. I speak to fellow advisers and they're just like, ‘This is just bonkers’."

Tyson also pointed to the FCA, noting that despite its stated commitment to consumer fairness, he had yet to see meaningful action on the spread of financial misinformation online. "Considering the FCA is all about fairness and so on, I've yet to see them actually move and do much, if I'm honest."

This concern sits alongside broader FCA Consumer Duty obligations that mortgage brokers must meet – guidance introduced in July 2023 – placing increased responsibility on firms to demonstrate good outcomes.

Accountability and the human element

Both advisers converge on one point. When something goes wrong, accountability matters – and AI offers none.

"The concern is the fact that people maybe start relying on it and it makes a mistake, which it openly says it can do, and there's just no accountability," Tyson said. "You can't blame a computer."

He drew a direct contrast with regulated advice. "If someone tells you to do something and it doesn't go right, that's why people have indemnity insurance and you'll sadly pay the consequences of it."

Edwards echoed the need for verification. "You can't fully rely on it just because AI says that a lender might do something or a rate might be available online," he said. "You need to double-check directly with the source and speak to somebody off the back of it."

For those following the evolving role of mortgage brokers in an increasingly digital market, the message from both advisers is consistent. AI is a useful lever, not a foundation, and the stakes of getting it wrong fall squarely on human shoulders.

"Money is a very emotional topic," Tyson said. "I think I'm very reluctant to just let a machine do it."

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