Whether you’re shopping online or streaming your favorite TV show, you can’t escape the fact that artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly integrated into everyday life – and the mortgage market is no different.
To explore how brokers view the arrival of AI and what it means for the sector, MNM’s Rated for Service 2026 invited brokers to answer a series of questions.
When asked about the impact of digital innovation (automated underwriting, chatbots, online portals) on the quality of lenders’ service, almost half (48%) said it was positive, 24% very positive, 14% negative, 12% little or no impact and only 2% very negative.
One broker noted, “Automation makes the underwriting process much more efficient. However, chatbots have proven to be ineffective, often requiring you to speak to an agent.”
In terms of the future impact of digital innovation on the quality of service provided to lenders, 51% believed it would be positive, 21% very positive, 13% little or no impact, 10% negative and only 4% very negative.
“We are going in the right direction,” said one real estate agent. “Lenders must remember that this is a very people-centric business and technology cannot replace everything.”
When asked how lenders’ engagement with brokers and customers is likely to change over the next two to three years as a result of advances in AI, the majority (35%) believed it would ‘improve a little’, followed by 23% who thought it would ‘improve greatly’, 21% who were ‘not sure’, 14% who saw it as a ‘huge game changer’ and 7% who thought it would make no difference.
However, there were some concerns, with one broker fearing that lenders would use AI to “push brokers out of the mainstream market”.
When we looked at whether lenders’ current service levels met the expectations of Gen Z and Millennials, responses were almost evenly split: 56% said yes, 44% said no.
One broker noted, “Companies like Amazon have increased the expectation of immediate decisions. Many people are not used to waiting.” However, another broker noted: “Younger customers still value personal contact, so they don’t expect faster processing yet.”
While many brokers appear ready to embrace AI, the challenge will undoubtedly be finding the right balance.
All Rated for Service data can be accessed through the dashboard. To access the ranking data for each rating area, simply select the Ranking button for the lender category of your choice. You can then filter the data based on the ranking for each rating area to determine the lender’s descending/ascending performance.
Factor analysis is also available for each lender category to enable benchmarking of a panel of lenders against the average score for each rating area. This can be filtered by broker type and caseload, providing tailored benchmarks for individual brokers (up to five lenders).
View the full dashboard below: