Online loan originator Better.com is deploying generative AI throughout its operations and most recently integrated OpenAI into its platform.  

The addition of OpenAI and its gen AI capabilities improved document processing and streamlined decisioning, Vishal Garg, chief executive officer and founder of Better.com, told FinAi News. Humans still make the final decisions on some applications after reviewing AI’s analysis, he said.

“This isn’t a document-scanning tool — it’s underwriting decision support, full stop,” he said. “A loan officer connects their guidelines, their pricing, their CRM and gets back a real decision, not just extracted data from a pay stub.” 

The AI platform, called Tinman, is handling more of the origination workflow with fewer human touches every quarter, Garg said, adding that the platform is the reason the direct-to-consumer contribution margin grew to more than $2,270 per loan in a year from $500 per loan. 

“That’s not a mix shift; that’s the platform doing real work,” Garg said. 

Selecting OpenAI 

Housing Tinman inside ChatGPT rather than in a standalone loan officer app was a distribution decision, Garg said, adding that in March Better.com put Tinman in OpenAI’s platform where loan officers who already use ChatGPT can easily access it. 

“We didn’t want to build another app loan officers have to remember to open. A hundred million Americans are already living inside ChatGPT every day,” he said. “If the infrastructure for mortgages lives where people already are, that’s not a gimmick. That’s just where this is headed.” 

Garg said the ChatGPT integration is not a lead-generation play. 

“We’re trying to be the infrastructure underneath, whether that’s mortgages today or other lending products down the road,” he said. 

Tinman numbers 

Tinman’s capabilities and autonomy continue to grow. 

According to the company’s first-quarter earnings report on May 7, loan volume routed through the Tinman AI platform reached $821 million, up 404% year over year. This accounted for 50% of Better.com’s total loan volume of approximately $1.64 billion. 

In May 2025, President and Chief Operating Officer Chad Smith told FinAi News that nearly 75% of originations at Better.com involve some form of AI, either for document processing or income verification and assessing FICO scores. 

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