MBA Premier Member Editorial: The AI Imperative–Reshaping Mortgage Banking for Efficiency and Growth
Pranay Shetty is Co-Founder & CEO of Sei AI. Sei AI builds AI agents for banks, lenders, & servicers
The mortgage industry finds itself navigating a complex landscape in 2025. While economic indicators show some positive signs, persistent challenges remain: affordability concerns linger, housing inventory is tight, and the cost to originate a loan continues to pressure margins significantly – averaging thousands of dollars per loan for many institutions.
Simultaneously, lenders grapple with recruiting and retaining top talent and optimizing technology stacks that often feel costly and underperforming. Simply trimming expenses isn’t enough in this context – and this is where AI steps in.
For too long, the mortgage process, particularly origination, has been hampered by manual, time-consuming tasks. Loan officers, processors, and underwriters spend excessive time collecting documents, validating data, and performing “stare and compare” reviews – all while managing complex compliance rules.
Underwriters, despite their expertise and high compensation, are often stuck with low-value work like document comparison. Lenders also tend to run multiple, redundant quality checks on the same files – work that AI can streamline by flagging discrepancies upfront and enabling a single, focused human review.
AI also improves borrower communication by quickly identifying missing, expired, or incorrect documents, reducing delays caused by back-and-forth. It can shift key checks to the beginning of the process, allowing processors to ensure accuracy and completeness early – speeding up the entire loan journey.
AI platforms built for mortgage lending can now ingest and interpret complex documents—like pay stubs and tax forms—in real-time. They identify required paperwork, flag issues, and suggest fixes, helping close the loan processing cycle quickly.
Crucially, these tools are becoming accessible not just to mega-lenders, but to banks, credit unions, and independent mortgage bankers of all sizes, leveling the playing field and enabling them to compete on speed and efficiency. This ‘intelligent augmentation’ frees up skilled professionals to focus on complex risk assessment and relationship building.
AI is transforming not just the back office but also the borrower experience at the point of sale. Instead of static forms, agentic AI can guide applicants conversationally, answer questions 24/7, and proactively gather missing information – compressing days of back-and-forth into minutes.
By integrating with verification services, these systems reduce manual uploads, cut friction, and produce cleaner applications upfront. AI addresses core industry challenges—cost, efficiency, compliance, and borrower satisfaction – while freeing teams to focus on high-value work.
The question is no longer if AI should be adopted, but how fast. Moving beyond pilots to full integration is essential for sustainable growth and leadership in mortgage banking.
(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.)
