Balancing the Mortgage Industry’s Labor Shift

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The benefits of leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning in mortgage are expansive. We’ve discussed it in a number of LoanLogics blog posts throughout 2019. To summarize, they help today’s originators analyze large data sets, automate decisioning and eliminate a wide range of manual tasks. Perhaps most critical is how they can help originators streamline document processing to lower manufacturing costs by creating efficiencies and help achieve optimal risk management by improving the quality of the mortgage data being used across the life cycle of the loan.   

On the flip side of all this good is the angst that some lenders have about figuring how they will balance managing their existing staff alongside these new automated tools. Originators and other stakeholders will benefit by reduced manual touchpoints enabling the production staff to be utilized in for higher operational efficiency.

Automation in mortgage really creates two options for lenders. Option one is to reduce staff. Option two, and probably the most attractive for most, is to leverage technology in a way that allows lenders to keep the staff they have but re-focus them on tasks that support company growth, such as broadening loan products to capture more market share or more strategic risk management initiatives.

With the emergence of new loan quality automation tools, lenders no longer need to invest so heavily in human staff to classify borrower documents and hand key information into their system of record.  Instead, evaluating exceptions (when something falls out of the automated loan quality workflow) is a role resources can be repurposed to help identify systematic loan quality issues.  Lenders who adopt this focus are then able to naturally transition to developing into action plans and lending practices using that data to drive more value for the business.

This is just one example of how automation can give lenders more flexibility to pursue a variety of staffing models and doesn’t necessarily have to eliminate jobs, since you still need people to manage products, sell loans and handle exceptions. Some positive benefits include the ability to scale your volume by four, five or even six times using the same resources you have today. For some lenders, it could also mean moving certain employees into different job fields which creates much better career satisfaction. 

To learn more about how AI and machine learning specifically, can help lenders reduce and even eliminate some manual processes while creating data purity and improving the borrower experience, download the white paper, “Big” AI Driven by Today’s Machine Learning.

And be sure read more about the “new normal” of digital labor a recent editorial I had in MBA Newslink.

About the Author

Dave Parker

Dave Parker is EVP, Product at LoanLogics. In this role, he is responsible for defining and executing the vision and direction of the company's product portfolio and go-to-market strategy to rapidly grow sales, customer engagement, and retention. This includes oversight of the company's product management, sales, and marketing functions. He is also responsible for designing new solutions for the industry's current challenges, while positioning LoanLogics for the market's future demands.