Online mortgage originator Better.com is deploying AI within its internal and external operations to drive efficiencies. 

The New York-based company deployed its AI-driven mortgage origination tool, Tinman, in 2022, President and Chief Operating Officer Chad Smith told Bank Automation News. Tinman helps underwriters with administrative tasks such as document processing, income verification and assessing FICO scores.

“AI-driven chatbots are a usual use case for financial services companies,” Smith said. “The next leg of AI innovation will come from AI helping with back-office tasks to make processes more efficient.” 

Better.com has reduced the time it takes to pre-qualify loans to nearly one hour from 48 hours with Tinman, Smith said. Nearly 75% of the company’s originations use AI to some extent.

Backend operations 

The company also plans to deploy AI to drive revenue and cost savings, Vishal Garg, chief executive officer, said during its first-quarter quarter earnings call on May 13. 

Better.com reported loan volume of $868 million for the quarter, up 31% year over year. 

“We remain focused on driving toward profitability in the mid-term by continuing to lean into Tinman’s technology and AI,” Garg said. “Our AI underwriting [is] growing from over 40% of [total] loans to 75% in the near future and increasing loan officer productivity.” 

In January, the company agreed to provide its Tinman tech to mortgage provider NEO Home Loans to aid in originations, Smith said. 

“We now have three ways of serving the customer using our technology: direct-to-consumer, Tinman AI as a platform and Tinman AI as a software,” Garg said, adding that Tinman can cut 80% of back-office costs for originators. 

“Banks want to originate mortgages, but they know they need to invest in technology to make it a profitable business in any environment,” Garg said during the call. “That is a huge opportunity for Better and Tinman.” 

FIs using AI for lending include: 

• $942 million Freedom Bank; 
• $212 billion Fifth Third;
• $1.1 trillion Lloyds; and
• $1.9 trillion TD Bank. 

AI loan assistant success 

Last year, the company introduced Betsy, a voice-based AI loan assistant designed to enhance internal operations and customer experience, Smith said. Betsy fielded 127,000 interactions in March, up from 5,000 in June 2024. 

Betsy can help a customer obtain pre-approval, a rate quote or a locked-in rate, Smith said. 

“Betsy is the first AI voice-based loan assistant for the U.S. mortgage industry and is being individually branded for each loan officer at NEO and rolled out through their entire sales force,” Garg said, adding that 115 NEO loan officers across 53 branches have been trained since January. 

“As we further implement Betsy into the sales, processing and underwriting workflows, we expect continued operating leverage with revenue growth outpacing expense growth,” Garg said.