AI central to Loan Market’s future business

National director Nicole Ferguson told the recent NZFSG roadshow AI tools are going to redefine Loan Market’s systems for efficiencies.

“It will change the way our support teams work with us. The best part is a client’s application process will become far more efficient.”

Ferguson says advisers are already looking at ways to make this happen and with the AI suite of tools Loan Market is developing they will be able to integrate better with lenders.

She says the aggregator is designing tools that will be specific to advisers. “For Loan Market advisers, they will get access to those tools as we develop the overlays of agentic AI.”

Advisers will be able to shortly access Gemini via Google Workspace, free of charge. It is a paid for version. That is important because if advisers are using the free version, they could be breaching client privacy.

Ferguson says Gemini forms part of a broader AI programme designed to support advisers in areas such as file preparation, compliance and client retention.

They will be able to extract data from client meeting transcripts, summarise documentation, or automate written content.

In Australia, Loan Market has been testing a new internal suite of AI tools under MyCRM with 88 advisers taking part. These will be available in New Zealand within the next six to 12 months.

These tools have been designed to act as intelligent assistants that work within advisers’ MyCRM platforms and include:

• MyNoteTaker, an assistant that reviews client and file data to generate tailored strategy and exit notes;
• MyCompliance, an AI system that reviews file quality and flags inconsistencies before quality assurance reviews;
• MyRetention, a tool identifying client retention opportunities by comparing client rates against current market offers. This may later include open banking data;
• MyDataAnalyst, a data query assistant that allows advisers to ask operational questions in natural language.

Initial feedback from testing advisers has largely been positive, but some concerns have been raised about how new advisers will build foundational skills when AI is doing the heavy lifting.

Loan Market Australia chief product and innovation officer, Jason Furnell told the recent Scale Up conference on the Sunshine Coast that feedback from the field is new advisers may not learn how to write strong exit strategies if they are just handed them.

He also says that all AI outputs are suggestions and advisers will remain responsible for the advice they give.

Loan Market is also working on expanding the scope of its AI development with future applications possibly including lender policy matching, fraud detection, lead summaries and document analysis.

Ferguson says Loan Market in New Zealand can see within the industry there are many things that can easily be achieved when it comes down to the paperwork side of mortgage applications. “How do we make filling out forms and processing applications better and how do we make sure the system is easier to navigate?

“We have gone through complete client journeys, with their permission, to make sure we are capturing every detail of what their objectives are and making the processing time as efficient as possible, without losing any detail.

“The biggest part is ensuring advisers capture all the information needed while moving as fast as AI allows and making sure it is safe.

Ferguson says what advisers expect from Loan Market is to be up with speed with what technology is available and being able to create efficiencies that work for them.

“A lot of that is to do with processing in relation to clients’ applications. While AI will be hugely helpful there is always going to be a role for advisers clients trust. When it comes down to work efficiency that is where we are going to build a suite of products.”