Tech provider nCino aims to develop and deploy AI tools that not only boost efficiency of its financial institution clients but also have an impact on nCino’s bottom line. 

The company is focused on creating AI-driven workflows for mortgage originations after an unidentified client asked how it could use AI to reduce its mortgage origination costs to clients by more than 16%, nCino Chief Executive Sean Desmond told FinAi News. 

“The FI wants to drop $9,000 in origination costs to somewhere near $7,500 [per transaction], which will ultimately lead to better offers for their customers,” Desmond said. “We have the majority of the tools to do so, we just need to create workflows which complement each other to hit our goal.”

The company’s AI-driven Banking Advisor platform, launched in 2024, can help achieve that cut, Desmond said. Banking Advisor has more than 100 features including streamlining KYC, documentation and credit review. 

The reduction is possible “by middle of next year,” he said, adding that the same customer had spent years moving from $10,000 to $9,000 per loan. 

An unnamed FI client expects to save 160,000 hours a year using Banking Advisor’s Locate and File, Desmond said during nCino’s second-quarter earnings call on Aug. 26.  

“When extrapolated by about $35 per hour to approximate median loan officer compensation according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that yields annual savings of over $5.5 million,” Desmond said on the call. 

Banking Advisor, AI costs 

As nCino continues to develop AI tools for the mortgage industry, its Banking Advisor, built in house, is gaining traction, Desmond said, adding that over 230 FIs globally are using the platform and others are in the process of going live. 

Some of nCino’s clients have seen exponential efficiency gains using Banking Advisor, Desmond said. The tool is AI-agnostic but he said it was built with Anthropic’s Claude at its core. 

FIs that use nCino’s services include: 

• $2.25 trillion Santander Bank; 

• $2 trillion Barclays; and  

• $1.5 trillion TD Bank; and  

• $203 billion Navy Federal Credit Union.  

Desmond also said nCino is managing token consumption “very carefully” as it anticipates changes to pricing models from frontier AI labs. 

“We’re already giving guidance through our leadership down to our employees that says this is how many … This is the consumption we expect based on the role that you play,” he said, adding that the company is “being prescriptive about the models that we suggest folks use.” 

Register here for the FinAi Lending Summit, set for Oct. 7-8 in Las Vegas. This inaugural event will include speakers from Fifth Third and Capital One, as well as a fireside chat with Piermont Bank founder and Chief Executive Wendy Cai-Lee.