Kate Davies, Executive Director, Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA)

AI is already here – to stay – and some of our biggest challenges in the immediate and foreseeable future will be in making sure humans stay in control of the technology and don’t become controlled by it.  That will call for changes in the way we educate ourselves and our children – so that we use our emotional intelligence and common-sense to recognise and distinguish what is real and reasonable from what is fake and misleading – whether that is in our daily diet of news stories or in our dealings with essential suppliers, including those who provide our financial services.

There is no doubt that effective AI will be able to assist in the advice process, reducing and speeding up many of the time-consuming bread-and-butter tasks.  That will free up more time for advisers to become even better at what they do – sussing out what clients really need and want, and identifying appropriate products and solutions for them.  

I appreciate that “bots” are getting more sophisticated all the time – but I think we are still a long way off having a completely automated advice world.  The more complex an individual’s circumstances, and the more individual help they need – the more opportunities there are for real people to deliver an expert, tailored, empathetic and personalised service.  I think we increasingly see this across a number of industries and disciplines.  

Websites and bots can do a lot of the basic stuff – but when the chips are down and something has gone wrong – don’t we all really want to speak to an intelligent human who we can trust to sort it out for us?  
The industry can’t afford to stand still – it needs to harness and make best use of the new technology.

Francesco Di Petro, Head of Intermediary Mortgages, Newcastle for Intermediaries

Technology is an enabler, not a replacement for the human relationship between brokers and customers. Financial services are complex by nature, with millions of customers, thousands of Intermediaries and hundreds of lenders and technology solution providers. At Newcastle Building Society we’ve seen technology enhance the relationship between advisers and borrowers, enabling advisers to spend their time more efficiently and focus on what matters most, listening to customers, understanding their circumstances and providing tailored, high-quality advice.

High-quality advice is valued by consumers, so our priority is to make advice easier and more accessible, while protecting those human relationships that help people connect to a better financial future.

Building societies are rooted in putting customers first, so we have a clear role in shaping the landscape of mortgage advice. That means evolving our products, investing sensibly in digital tools and working closely with intermediaries to understand what advisers and customers need. 

Consumer trends have dictated that over 90% of new mortgage applications are now submitted via intermediaries. To shape future thinking, it’s paramount that building societies engage with intermediaries to understand their evolving needs, specifically around their tech deployment roadmaps. 
We back advisers with practical support and streamlined processes that help make mortgage advice more sustainable, accessible and focused on real people.

Jamie Lawless, Co-Founder and CEO, LendWell

Across the industry, conversations about AI often begin with a sense of uncertainty. Will it replace advisers? Will it erode the human relationship at the heart of mortgage advice? In reality, the direction of travel suggests the opposite. The most meaningful applications of AI are not those that automate advice, but those that strengthen advisers’ capacity to deliver more consistent, contextual and human guidance.

The challenge today is that many AI systems fail at the very things advisers are best at. They can summarise documents or answer isolated questions, but they lack an understanding of the context that shapes real-world mortgage decisions: inconsistent income patterns, vulnerability indicators, incomplete documentation, or lender-specific nuances. Without this context, AI becomes unreliable beyond the demo environment.

A second issue is the absence of attribution. For AI to be safe and effective in a regulated 
environment, it must be able to show its reasoning. An adviser needs to see why a transaction was flagged, where an affordability figure came from, or which policy rule shaped an interpretation of income. Without transparent evidence, AI cannot support Consumer Duty requirements, nor can it form part of a dependable audit trail.

If we address context and attribution properly, AI becomes an enabler rather than a threat. It can take on the work that never required human judgement: re-keying information, reconciling documents, identifying mismatches, and drafting compliance notes. This frees advisers to spend more time on what clients genuinely value — reassurance, clarity, empathy and tailored support at a financially vulnerable moment in their lives.

The future of mortgage advice will not be defined by machines replacing people. It will be defined by advisers who are more human, because AI has relieved them of the administrative burden that once constrained their potential.


This article was first published in Society Matters Magazine (December 2025)