Grasshopper Bank is realizing that the people behind an AI solution are just as important, if not more important, than the product itself.  

For example, the $1.6 billion digital bank has strengthened its commercial lending business with fintech EnFi’s agentic lending platform, Chief Executive Mike Butler told FinAi News this week at Fintech Meetup in Las Vegas. 

While the technology is effective, EnFi co-founder and CEO Joshua Summers was the primary reason for deploying the platform, Butler said. 

“Joshua makes EnFi a different company because of who he is and his ability to execute,” he said. “He’s built and sold two companies. He knows what he’s doing, and he’s culturally aligned with how we want to operate.”

Many AI projects fail because banks spend too much time evaluating the product rather than the founders, Butler said.

“It’s not as much about how the technology works; it’s about the people who are going to execute and deliver. People make money, technology doesn’t.”

— Mike Butler, CEO, Grasshopper Bank

This approach has also led to successful partnerships with risk management platform Alloy and account opening platform MANTL, Butler said.

Speed and consistency

EnFi’s platform turns decades of static files into structured, queryable institutional memory and uses AI agents to automate commercial lending processes.

With the platform, New York-based Grasshopper has expanded its commercial lending portfolio “without adding bodies,” Butler said, noting the AI agents can handle 85% of annual reviews for commercial clients.

Consistency is another crucial factor at play when financial institutions evaluate agentic solutions for lending, EnFi co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Scott Weller told FinAi News at the conference. 

“They’re always trying to anticipate the quality of their lending base, the quality of their current accounts, and predict how to adjust toward a more profitable bank,” he said. “If you can get the data right and you can put certain agentic solutions on top of that, you can answer those questions far faster than you’re answering them today.”

EnFi also expects to meet borrowers’ growing demand for fast and frictionless financing, EnFi’s Summers told FinAi News. 

“The borrower experience starts with a responsive lender who gets you through the process as painlessly as possible,” he said. “That borrower does not want to be dealing with getting a loan. The loan is not the value. The value is to be working on their business and growing it.”

Citadel Credit Union is also benefiting from EnFi’s platform, Michael Desimone, chief lending officer at the credit union, stated in a Feb. 4 EnFi release. The fintech has raised $22.5 million since its founding in 2023.

Register here for the FinAi Lending Summit, set for Oct. 7-8 in Las Vegas.