MBA Premier Member Editorial: How AI Can Help Turn Customer Experience into a Revenue Engine

Pranay Shetty is Co-Founder & CEO of Sei AI. Sei AI builds AI agents for banks, lenders, & servicers

For mortgage servicers and lenders, the contact center has long been viewed as a cost of doing business–a necessary function to resolve issues, manage complaints, and stay compliant. But what if AI could make that very same function a source of strategic growth?

Thanks to the emergence of purpose-built AI tools, forward-thinking mortgage companies are redefining customer experience (CX). By extracting deep insights from every interaction, coaching agents in real time, and proactively addressing borrower concerns, AI is transforming CX from a reactive cost center into a proactive revenue engine.

1. Reducing Fragmented Interactions

Conversations with mortgage borrowers happen multiple times across the lifecycle of their loans. These interactions are often siloed, leading to inconsistent service and borrower frustration.

AI changes this. By ingesting data across channels–calls, emails, and chat logs–AI can help identify ‘why’ customers are reaching out and classify those contact drivers into meaningful categories: payment confusion, escrow inquiries, rate adjustment concerns, servicing transfer issues, and more.

Instead of chasing symptoms, mortgage servicers can treat root causes with AI.

2. Measuring Customer Sentiment & NPS

Traditional customer satisfaction metrics like post-call surveys often miss the nuance and emotional context of a borrower’s journey.

AI enables real-time ‘sentiment analysis’–measuring tone, language, and emotional cues across every interaction. It can also generate continuous Net Promoter Score (NPS) tracking, giving teams a clearer picture of borrower loyalty and satisfaction at scale.

This is particularly powerful in servicing, where payment stress, life events, or confusion around escrow and forbearance options can deeply affect how borrowers feel. Knowing when sentiment drops–before the churn or complaint happens–enables proactive intervention.

3. Coaching Human Agents

In a highly regulated industry like mortgage, human agents are expected to be part policy experts, part empaths, and part problem solvers. That’s a lot to ask, especially under pressure.

While there are several AI tools in the market for scoring agent performance, we also see great potential in AI that coaches. It benchmarks interactions against company policy and regulatory standards, while also identifying opportunities to improve tone, empathy, and effectiveness.

Instead of random sampling, AI can review 100% of borrower conversations, highlighting where agents need support–whether it’s clarification on FHA loss mitigation steps or better handling of escrow explanations. This leads to faster onboarding, more confident agents, and a better borrower experience.

4. Insights To Drive Businesses Forward

When AI classifies contact drivers and patterns on borrower sentiment, it creates a feedback loop that’s valuable well beyond the contact center. Product, risk, and servicing teams can use this intelligence to:

• Detect policy confusion (for example, repeat calls around loan modification options)

• Identify training needs (for example, miscommunication about payment assistance)

• Highlight borrower pain points (for example, mobile app usability, unclear statements)

These insights help reduce repeat calls, lower complaint volumes, and ultimately retain borrowers who might otherwise refinance elsewhere or disengage.

5. Increase in Revenue through Retention and Referrals

Great service more often than not translates into higher customer lifetime value.

AI tools help borrowers feel more heard and helped. This makes them more likely to:

• Stay with a servicer long-term

• Consider future loan products

• Refer friends and family

• Leave positive reviews (crucial in today’s digital-first market)

Conclusion

The future of the mortgage industry is responsive, data-driven, and AI-led. AI can transform the complex and emotional mortgage journey by making the borrower feel seen, supported, and served at every step of the way. AI won’t just make customer service efficient–it’ll make it personal.

(Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect policies of the Mortgage Bankers Association, nor do they connote an MBA endorsement of a specific company, product or service. MBA NewsLink welcomes submissions from member firms. Inquiries can be sent to Editor Michael Tucker or Editorial Manager Anneliese Mahoney.)