Specialist lending leaders at the Brightstar Expo 2026 say AI cannot replace human judgement and warn that over-reliance carries real risk
The case for AI in specialist mortgage lending is not about replacing people – it is about making them more effective, senior figures said this month. But the same confidence does not extend to straightforward cases at the mainstream end of the market.
That picture emerged from a panel on AI and the future of mortgage advice, held at the Brightstar Specialist Lending Expo 2026 at the London Stadium on 7th October.
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The limits of AI in specialist lending
Kate Cowan, chief financial and operating officer at specialist bridging lender Hope Capital Property Finance, said technology was already improving her firm’s processes. But she drew a clear line between automation as a support tool and automation as a replacement.
“We use technology to enhance what we can do, rather than actually do the job for us,” she said. “It’s not where it needs to be where you can say, ‘I can replace that complete function or that complete person’.”
The nature of bridging and specialist lending – where almost no two cases are identical – makes that gap particularly difficult to close.
“Every deal is different. Every deal is unique,” Cowan said. “That’s where technology doesn’t replace us.”
She also warned about complacency in the day-to-day use of AI writing tools. Staff using platforms such as ChatGPT or Copilot to draft emails risk producing content that no longer reflects their own thinking.
“People will become lazier,” Cowan said. “Loads of people have the plugins for Claude or Copilot on the side of their emails, and they’re generating all these emails, but actually, are they reading them? Is what they say what they actually think, or is it what the computer thinks it wants to think?”
Where does AI pose a real threat to advisers?
The threat is most pronounced in the mainstream market. James Tucker, chief executive of mortgage technology firm Twenty7Tec, said there was “no question” that mainstream lenders would deploy AI tools to pursue customers directly, without an intermediary.
“Mainstream lenders are going to go after customers in that way via these tools, and they will be successful as a result of it,” he said.
Tucker’s own firm has invested heavily in AI, and he said the productivity gains have been material. Even so, outputs still require validation from experienced staff.
A joint survey by the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority found 75% of UK financial firms are already using AI. A further 10% plan adoption within three years, up from 58% in 2022. The pace of that shift makes the distribution threat credible: technology is no longer a peripheral consideration for lenders mapping their channel strategy.
Tucker predicted the mainstream market would shift, with simpler cases increasingly bypassing the adviser channel as lenders pushed further into direct distribution. The complexity of specialist lending – grey areas, non-standard circumstances, the judgement calls – is precisely what automated systems cannot replicate.
Complexity as a competitive advantage
The specialist end of the market remains the most defensible ground for advisers – not because technology will never improve, but because the cases themselves resist standardisation. Analysis of whether AI can genuinely replace mortgage advisers has pointed to the same conclusion: complexity is a structural barrier, not a temporary one.
The debate at the Brightstar Expo made one thing clear: AI in specialist lending is a process tool, not a decision-maker. Where cases are complex and criteria do not apply cleanly, human judgement remains the variable that technology cannot yet account for.
