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Artificial Intelligence

Unlocking the Potential of AI in Mortgage Marketing

Balancing Automation & the Human Touch By Erica LaCentra Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the real estate and mortgage industries, revolutionizing tasks from routine data processing to customer service interactions. However, while AI has found its place in various facets of these spaces, its integration into marketing strategies remains relatively unexplored although, that is quickly changing. As marketers in this space as well as other industries, begin to identify more uses for AI, this raises the crucial question, where can AI seamlessly complement marketing efforts, and where is the human touch irreplaceable? The Future of Content Creation As technology and artificial intelligence become more widely accepted in organizations, there is always the concern that tech may ultimately replace the individuals currently tasked with these job functions. With the idea of utilizing AI for content creation becoming more prevalent, content marketers may resist using AI in these areas for fear that their role will become obsolete. However, the potential benefits of AI in content creation cannot be overstated. AI has the capacity to enhance content quality, boost efficiency, and enable marketers to accomplish more, faster. Artificial intelligence has the potential to shape the future of content creation. It can not only improve the quality of content and make marketers more efficient, but with the use of AI tools, marketers will simply be able to do more on the content front. For example, many notable organizations like The New York Times and Reuters have embraced using Natural Language Generation (NLG) tools, like Acrolinx, Article Forge, and QuillBot AI, which allows AI to “learn” from provided data. As these AI tools process and learn the data sets and content that is provided, these tools can generate content that mirrors human-authored text. Marketers can leverage these tools for improved program descriptions, ad copy suggestions, and data reports, streamlining their content creation processes. Marketers simply need to provide the appropriate parameters and general guidelines for what they are looking for, and AI can assist with the rest. AI in Social Media and Email Marketing Another example of where AI tools could assist with marketing is by creating more personalized content for platforms like social media and email marketing. Think of the enormous amount of time that could be saved on efforts like daily social media post creation. Tools powered by artificial intelligence can analyze customer demographics, behaviors, and sentiments about your brand from real customers and ultimately craft more targeted content and messaging that resonates with the core audience. Marketers will no longer need to pour over analytics to craft the perfect campaign. Plus, with machine learning, AI can continue to track what campaigns have been the most successful and adjust overtime to ensure your content is driving sales. Finally, in the same vein as analyzing customer behaviors for application for social media marketing and email marketing, AI can assist with developing content to help organizations meet their SEO (search engine optimization) goals. AI tools for keyword research can help provide a better understanding of what your audience is searching for that ultimately brings them to your company’s website or your competitor’s website. Tools like SEMrush facilitate effortless keyword research, helping marketers understand customer search trends and competitor rankings. Combining this data with AI tools like ChatGPT enables the creation of article topics that enhance visibility online and resonate with the target audience. Ultimately, when used properly, AI tools will allow marketers to reach their core customers with ease. AI Can’t Do It All, Yet While AI holds immense promise in content creation, it is not without its limitations. More often than not, AI generated content still requires human intervention as it can often miss the mark of what an organization may be driving at with its content. Full articles or blog posts may be nonsensical in places or go beyond the scope of what a company wants a piece to focus on. This is because AI is currently unable to use reasoning like a human can, and it cannot create any original insights. It simply creates based on what its given and in a lot of cases, content may be incorrect or piecemealed in a way that does not make sense. That being said, utilizing AI for content creation has tremendous value and its use will likely grow as advancements are made in technology. However, it is important for marketers to remember that as of right now, AI should be viewed as a tool to assist rather than replace human creativity in content creation. The integration of AI into mortgage and real estate marketing is evolving rapidly, presenting both opportunities and challenges. As AI continues to advance, marketers must strike a balance between leveraging its capabilities for efficiency and preserving the irreplaceable human touch in content creation. The journey towards maximizing AI’s potential in marketing is underway, promising a futurewhere automation and human creativity coexist harmoniously.

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Wake up and “Smell” the AI

Why it is Imperative to Implement Artificial Intelligence into Your Business By Richard Katz Artificial Intelligence is here, and it is a watershed moment with impacts that will be greater than the advent of the internet and the invention of the personal computer. The difference is the adaptation will be much faster. You can already feel the disruption, but shortly, the AI revolution will be beyond our current comprehension. Sticking your head in the sand and not doing something right now is a recipe for your business to get left behind and become obsolete. It is time to be relentless and proactive in order to succeed and stay competitive in this ever-changing new world. What is Chat GPT? Only six months ago, on November 30, 2022, the infamous and life-changing Chat GPT launched. Chat GPT describes itself as “an advanced language model developed by OpenAI and is based on GPT (Generative Pretrained Transformer) architecture, which is designed to generate human-like text based on the input it receives.” I am not sure that the definition works; if I were to define it, I would say it is a conversational platform with limitless potential that learns every millisecond. There have already been new versions with improved and exponential results; just imagine what will happen in another six months. Overwhelmingly, many other AI models, robots, software, etc., are seemingly introduced daily, and Google will soon launch multiple AI products as they have an all-hands-on-deck approach. Once you delve a bit into the capabilities of this system, it is incredible what it can do and achieve. For instance, the other day, the director of our marketing department asked me to approve a marketing piece. After glancing over her material, I thought the phrasing was not resonating with me. Ordinarily, I would take an hour to read through it and suggest corrections and revisions. However, this time, I experimented and transferred the entire text onto Chat GPT and asked the AI to improve the piece and make it sound more effective and appealing. In less time than it took me to write this sentence, Chat GPT rewrote it. However, the striking fact was that it was so much better than the original. I tweaked it a bit and sent it back to the marketing department with the entire process taking about 5 minutes. This process previously would have taken about one hour. With the extra 55 minutes I saved, I used that time for more productive work geared toward growing the business. AI in the Construction Industry I recently read an article about AI and its utilization in the construction industry. Before reading the article, I could not imagine how AI could transform such a labor-intensive, hands-on business. However, this article discussed the birth of Digibuild, a supply chain and building material software company that now has integrated Chat GPT into its process. Before Chat GPT, contacting only five or six suppliers was a tedious endeavor that would require an investment of multiple hours. Enter Chat GPT; the task is now a breeze. As Digibuild commented proudly, “We can talk to 100 suppliers in one minute versus maybe a handful in a couple of hours.” Just think about the implications of this technology: it will revolutionize the way suppliers are located and communicated with and save a tremendous amount of time and money. On one job, a construction company in Virginia needed closet shelving, and the builder was only able to find one supplier with a cost of $150,000. Utilizing Digibuild powered by Chat GPT, they found a supplier in the Midwest for $70,000, and the shelves were delivered within weeks. As a construction lender, should I demand that our clients utilize a service like Digibuild to ensure they get the best prices and prevent them from borrowing more than necessary? It is definitely something to think about. And in thinking about it further, can Chat GPT or another AI model perform a feasibility study of a construction budget that is more accurate than the current manual standard of having a person look through the line items and give their assessment? AI has real-time access to infinite data to accurately assess in contrast to a human being that may myopically look at their view of a budget. Think about the time saved in getting an instant result from this study through AI, where today, a typical feasibility study takes us about three to five business days to get returned. AI in Underwriting and Valuations Underwriting today has come a long way, but there is still a significant human element to analyzing the information; AI has a lot of room to improve the process and make it more efficient. The underwriting process with the aid of AI can be stunningly accurate and allow clients to be served quickly with much faster turn times as AI does not have lag time; its results are almost instantaneous. Also, AI is making significant strides in fraud detection and prevention in lending. Every year billions of dollars are lost on fraud in lending. Will AI be able to prevent a substantial portion of that? I believe it will be instrumental in helping to detect issues within a file or outright fraud. For instance, Ocrolus.com is one of the products that can detect documents that were tampered with that the naked eye cannot see. Through AI and machine learning, it quickly detects altered documents to falsely place the borrower in a “better” light. This detection will flag these edits and usually can show what the document originally displayed and expose the fraud before it ever becomes a problem. Other AI products can review title reports for lenders and aid in determining what are red flags and necessary changes needed to ensure the loan you are offering has the title insurance you need. These tools will only improve as the AI learns. One of the issues for lenders is valuations and how values will change as interest rates go up or

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