Brokers have to balance powerful AI with the human touch customers still want
Companies are adopting new AI-powered technology as fast as it hits the market. This is true in the mortgage industry as well, as new technology looks to improve a sometimes clunky and complicated process.
While AI adoption isn’t likely to slow down anytime soon, there are some signs that customers may not be ready to be pulled along by this new technology. They want to make sure they have control of the ride they’re on.
A new survey from Cotality showed that mortgage customers are less trusting of AI technology than before, and it will be up to brokers, lenders, and other mortgage professionals to help bridge that trust gap.
Amy Gromowski (pictured top), head of data science at Cotality, said it is important to make sure the customer is in the middle of these tech decisions being made, and to make sure they’re comfortable with this new AI technology.
“I think the main takeaway that I’ve walked away with is that the end consumer needs to be in the center,” Gromowski told Mortgage Professional America. “This idea that they want to be in the driver’s seat, that they want to understand what decisions are being made with what data and how.”
Meeting customer needs
While AI can help make the process smoother for consumers, if the broker isn’t there at the right time and place to help a homebuyer through the process, that deal could fall through.
“There’s this idea that there’s hesitancy at certain points right through the process,” Gromowski said. “So no matter how much we automate and we bring AI in to get people in their homes faster and get loans done faster, if we’re not meeting the consumers’ needs and meeting them where they are and pausing where they require that, we’re not going to see the adoption. We’re not going to see the trust build.”
Gromowski said the critical step is building trust with the homebuyer, not only in the process as a whole but in the technology that is now in place to make that process smoother.
“How do we make sure that we are building things in a way that we are understanding the end consumer’s concerns?” she said. “What it is that they require in order to have confidence, and arming them with all the information around safety, responsibility, transparency, so that they do build confidence for adoption, that we can go faster with the right brakes and pauses right where needed.”
The goal for all of these companies providing new tech should be to put the mortgage professional in a position to be the problem solver for the homebuyer.
“That’s what’s top of mind for me with Cotality as we look at how do we help put the property professional in the center, to make them the superhero?” Gromowski said. “We need to reduce the administrative tasks and help them really focus on that end consumer to bring their expertise. From where I sit, just purely from a data science perspective, it’s a complex ecosystem.
“As a consumer navigating that, I love this idea that AI is going to help streamline, simplify, reduce costs, and make it more affordable. I believe all those things are true. But we need to meet the consumers where they are and give them everything that they need to be like, ‘This is right for me, and I trust you.’”
Attracting younger homebuyers
The battle for younger customers is a never-ending pursuit for the mortgage broker. Part of winning that battle for smaller mortgage brokers is understanding how the younger generation views AI and new technology.
“They’re the next generation of buyers,” Gromowski said. “I think it’ll be really important that Gen Z is along on the journey. If you’re buying or selling a home and want to participate in this whole ecosystem, it’s daunting. And so what they know to be very everything kind of AI-based and at your fingertips, when that now intersects with this real world in terms of property and these institutions that are financially backing that property in some way, that becomes so much more complex.”
The difference between younger generations and older ones is that groups like Millennials generally understand the home-buying portion of the equation while learning the technology as it is developed. Younger groups are learning new tech and potentially going through the mortgage process for the first time.
“Millennials are also largely adapting to these tools and AI, but they’re more mature,” Gromowski said. “They understand more of the implications and how to navigate just the property ecosystem and how to manage the financial aspects of property. As the younger demographic matures and as they have more and more experience with this end-to-end process, I would imagine they will become more comfortable with the AI and have a higher expectation of it being there.”
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