The AI Charter will guide firms on how to build, govern and deploy AI responsibly.
It has been created by Zahid Bilgrami, CEO of Mortgage Brain, in response to the “escalating risk” of advisers using technology to work efficiently, without being aware of the “thin layer” around third-party AI tools, where the technology may not be fully protected or controlled.
Mortgage Brain said this meant some professionals could be potentially and unknowingly sharing sensitive data with AI providers, leaving that data at risk of being shared and exposed.
The AI Charter has been formed around four pillars, with each addressing an area of risk for mortgage firms using AI.
These are cost, intellectual property and data sovereignty, consistency and speed and fit-for-purpose deployment.
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The cost pillar relates to the long-term commercial viability of AI developed on third-party infrastructure and the pricing risks associated.
The intellectual property and data sovereignty pillar looks at where client data goes when it is fed into an AI programme. Mortgage Brain builds and operates its own AI, meaning client data remains exclusively with the firm.
The consistency pillar addresses the need for systems that are fully accurate, with the same input producing the same output every time. Mortgage Brain said this was not a standard with some AI models.
The speed and fit-for-purpose deployment pillar calls for a disciplined and targeted approach that combines AI with traditional rule-based systems where appropriate, rather than feeding everything through large, general-purpose models.
This has been trained exclusively on mortgage industry data and generates results based on sector knowledge, rather than broad data that public AI models use.
Bilgrami said while the abilities of AI had been the main topic of debate, questions around its governance, cost, data sovereignty and compliance-grade reliability were mostly unanswered.
Bilgrami (pictured) added: “Brokers and lenders deserve a clearer picture.
“We needed a documented framework that customers, compliance teams, and partners can actually interrogate. Too many firms are making procurement decisions without asking the right questions.”
The full AI Charter can be found on the Mortgage Brain website at www.mortgagebrain.com/insights/ai-zone.
AI Zone for mortgage professionals
As well as the AI Charter, Mortgage Brain has set up an AI Zone on its website with practical support for mortgage professionals to help them use AI safely and effectively.
Resources include the full AI Charter and FAQs, alongside a toolkit covering data handling, compliance considerations, checklists, a glossary, and key questions to ask technology providers.
It also features insights on data privacy, as well as practical guidance on using AI for marketing, client communications, and lead generation.
This comes the same day that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced it would be publishing a Good and Poor Practices report on the use of AI in financial services.
