Aran Bruce-Caddick, VP of product at tech-based mortgage broker Koodoo, said: “We view AI as helping advisers do a massively more effective job and giving them superpowers… being a general assistant and co-pilot at giving great advice, and allowing them to focus on that.”
He added that AI could reach a point where it became an adviser’s “personal agent”.
The firm held a presentation to demonstrate and discuss its products with lenders such as Lloyds Bank, Natwest, Nationwide and Barclays in attendance.
In August, Koodoo announced that it developed an AI tool which had the ability to pass the CeMAP qualification. Since then, they have been developing specific AI-based tools to be used by mortgage lenders and brokers, and several of these tools were showcased live within the presentation.
Andrei Lebed, chief executive of Koodoo, said the firm “did not have any plans to put our AI technology in front of customers in an advice setting capacity”. He said the technology would streamline the overall mortgage experience.
He said products in the sector were developed using large language models (LLMs) which were dependent on how well they were trained to carry out the required tasks. Lebed said once Koodoo began developing its own tools, it thought it would be important for it to be “underpinned by mortgage-specific trained LLMs”. He said the CeMAP learning was the start of this.
AI to help with Consumer Duty?
Koodoo has engaged with the regulator on its technology and Lebed said in his opinion, this was viewed as a “potential opportunity to help firms find more ways of meeting and adhering to Consumer Duty”. He also said he felt it was being met with more excitement than scrutiny.
When asked how they would make sure its tools would not be considered as advice, Lebed said they had been developed to be “extremely specific on what they should do and more specific on what they shouldn’t do”.
“We test specifically that – if you ask a question like ‘which mortgage should I get?’ or ‘which mortgage will be better for me right now?’ the response will be ‘I’m not an adviser, I’m just here to help with information’.
“In that respect, I see these tools sitting under the same purview as what the regulator has described as information-only tools. There’s no advice dialogue that would trigger that into being advisory.”
