Throughout 2025 lenders deployed AI within their workflows, loan servicing and customer experience, and those efforts are expected to expand in the new year. 

Financial institutions across the board are planning to deploy AI tech deeper into their lending processes to gain efficiency while maintaining a high lending standard, Andrew Bateman, executive vice president at Finastra’s lending business unit, told FinAi News.  

“As LLMs become more accessible, accurate and affordable, FIs will use them in one of the most complex processes they have: [lending],” he said. “Work-around governance and compliance still needs to be done, but FIs are deploying the tech to make back-end processes simpler and efficient.” 

While AI-driven lending is expected to evolve in 2026, these lenders implemented AI into processes in 2025: 

1. BHG Financial streamlines origination process with AI-driven Lendflow 

BHG Financial, which specializes in health care loans, uses the Lendflow Automate automation suite from software development company Lendflow to eliminate manual tasks and streamline lending.  

BHG has automated manual tasks using Lendflow’s AI agents, Lendflow Chief Executive Jon Fry told FinAi News. Firming up an offer, which used to take 24 to 72 hours, now takes less than a minute.

2. Bluevine embeds AI in over 50% of lending ops  

Banking service provider Bluevine has embedded AI into more than half of its lending operations including documentation, KYC, fraud detection, customer service and software development.  

Automated lending is the main AI use case at the company, Chief Product Officer Herman Man told FinAi News.   

3. Rocket Mortgage quantifies AI returns 

Rocket Mortgage [NYSE: RKT] released its AI-powered Pipeline Manager Agent in the third quarter, according to Rocket’s Oct. 30 8K filing with the SEC. 

The Pipeline Manager Agent helps loan officers prioritize the right leads, according to Rocket’s Q3 earnings presentation. Loan officers at Rocket are also tapping AI to create personalized messaging to clients, ultimately increasing client follow-ups. 

With AI and automation, the mortgage lender is saving 1.1 million hours annually, according to the presentation.  

4. ING to deploy agentic AI for mortgage lending  

The $1.2 trillion ING Bank plans to deploy agentic AI in wholesale lending and agentic AI for mortgage lending beginning in 2026, Marco Li Mandri, head of advanced analytics strategy, told FinAi News. 

“We can significantly grow our mortgage operation if we make the process more efficient,” Li Mandri said.  

5. LendingClub streamlines document verification to seconds with AI 

LendingClub [NYSE: LC] is piloting AI within its document-verification process, streamlining manual reviews from more than 24 hours to seconds. 

“The AI-assisted document verification workflow automates part of the lending process that historically required manual review,” Lukasz Strozek, chief technology officer of LendingClub, told FinAi News. 

LendingClub has developed more than 60 AI uses cases across the company, including underwriting, fraud detection, collections and more.  

Register here for early-bird pricing for the inaugural FinAi Banking Summit 2026, taking place March 2-3 in Denver. View the full event agenda here.