Since its launch last November, ChatGPT has taken the world by storm, gathering momentum extremely quickly, across general society and into the business world too.
Just two months after its launch, it had reached 100 million monthly active users, according to a UBS study – making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history.
From generating responses to customer queries to writing essays and poetry – there doesn’t seem to be much ChatGPT can’t turn its hand to. Given it has been trained on an immense amount of data compared to previous chatbots, it can generate engaging, relevant and human-like responses to requests.In fact, such are the capabilities of this new Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot, it prompted Elon Musk to voice his concerns over the quick advancement of AI technologies and its potential impact and threat to humanity.
World domination aside for a moment however, if we look at ChatGPT’s potential in the first and second market, I believe it won’t be long before this new tool becomes transformative.
We have already started to see its presence felt, with a handful of firms integrating it into their systems already. At Evolution Money, we are yet to start using ChatGPT, but we can see its potential and ability to help deliver better outcomes for advisers and their clients and it is something based on the R&D we have done that I believe we will lead to some kind of integration into our systems the future
So, how exactly can ChatGPT be used within the mortgage space? Who better to ask than ChatGPT itself? When asked: ‘How can a ChatGPT help mortgage brokers and lenders?’ it told us:
‘As an AI language model, ChatGPT can assist mortgage brokers and lenders in various ways:
- Customer service: ChatGPT can provide immediate customer service to potential borrowers, answering their questions about mortgage options, interest rates, loan terms, and the application process. By doing so, it can help brokers and lenders to provide a better customer experience and increase the likelihood of closing deals.
- Loan qualification: ChatGPT can help lenders to pre-qualify potential borrowers by asking a series of questions about their financial situation, credit history, and other relevant factors. This can save time for brokers and lenders by filtering out applicants who do not meet certain criteria.
- Loan processing: ChatGPT can assist with the loan processing, verifying borrower information, and ensuring that all necessary documentation is in place. This can help streamline the process, reducing the time it takes to close a loan and minimising errors.
- Predictive analysis: ChatGPT can analyze data to predict the likelihood of a borrower defaulting on a loan. This can help brokers and lenders to make more informed decisions about which borrowers to approve and which ones to reject, reducing the risk of loan defaults and losses.
- Marketing: ChatGPT can be used to develop marketing strategies and campaigns to attract potential borrowers, analyzing customer data to identify trends and opportunities. By doing so, it can help brokers and lenders to target their marketing efforts more effectively and reach the right customers at the right time.’
Given some of its capabilities, it is easy to foresee how ChatGPT may become an increasingly useful tool. From helping to dissect regulatory documents to having ‘someone’ at a firm available to answer queries 24/7.
The wide availability of ChatGPT, its relatively low cost and capability to be trained and updated, means we may see it make inroads into the mortgage market quicker than previous forms of fintech. There will however also need to be an element of checking needed in the early stages of its implementation.
As with any new technology, while it holds the potential for cost savings and improved efficiency, it also raises obvious concerns around it replacing the role of advisers.
Instead of being a threat to advisers however, ChatGPT has the potential to make life easier for them and free up time to concentrate on the more rewarding elements of the job, such as helping clients. It offers another set of hands and can be used to assist with some more mundane and time-consuming tasks, such as updating customer records, client retention emails, scheduling appointments and answering initial client queries.
Over the last decade, we have seen huge fintech advancement in the first- and second-charge mortgage sector and while there have been concerns this would push the borrower into the arms of digital advice, in some ways it has done the opposite and highlighted the desire from borrowers to retain human interaction.
I’m sure we have all felt frustrated at times by the inability to speak to a person when calling a company looking for advice. The key will be finding the right balance.
ChatGPT will undoubtedly shake-up the mortgage market, working alongside, not against the expertise offered by advisers and lenders.
Matt Meecham is chief digital officer at Evolution Money
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