{"id":6830,"date":"2026-02-11T14:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/?p=6830"},"modified":"2026-02-11T15:46:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T21:46:36","slug":"lenders-turn-to-ai-for-efficiency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/lenders-turn-to-ai-for-efficiency\/","title":{"rendered":"Lenders turn to AI for efficiency"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From the February issue of UCD<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For lenders like Kevin Lawson at First Texas Auto Credit in Coppell, Texas, every minute in making a credit decision matters. That\u2019s why he and many other lenders are moving forward with ambitious artificial intelligence plans in the new year to help with underwriting and collections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe anticipate creating more efficiency in the business and see how fast we can fund,\u201d Lawson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several leaders of lending institutions and financial companies in the F1 20 Group disclosed their efforts to incorporate more AI into their workflow at their January meeting in Irving, Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Lawson expressed, AI is anticipated to help with efficiency, especially with underwriting. For contracts that will definitely be funded, AI can sort through paperwork to make sure all the appropriate forms are provided and make a quick decision, the same as larger companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf a contract comes in from a dealer, AI can take the 30 pages in the PDF and separate them into different buckets. If it hits all the set parameters, it\u2019s ready to fund, and we could tell the dealer with AI,\u201d Lawson said. \u201cUp to 20 percent of our contracts would fund quickly. Even if they are missing a form, we could take an hour to get a contract.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several lenders are working to train large language models or are working with vendors to train AI tools to look for certain items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working to drill down to everything wanted for an auto-decision tool for underwriting,\u201d said Chad Brown of Tracir Financial in Reynoldsburg, Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben Stefanovski of Tracir Financial added that AI training includes looking at the positive and negative attributes that are part of the scoring for decision-making. AI tools will use an algorithm to assess risk and then provide a score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The efficiency of the AI agents and tools is also expected to help the lenders expand their business. With AI handling the contracts of the deals that will definitely be approved, the lenders can have their staff give extra scrutiny to those deals on the fence. The staff can ask for extra documentation and clarification to make more informed decisions as they are freed up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou always need the human element to make decisions. This will all you to reallocate resources,\u201d Lawson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lenders stressed that human oversight will never be fully replaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a long-term investment for auto-decision on the highest scoring loans,\u201d Stefanovski said. \u201cBut there will always be a hybrid for those mid and low scores where you need the human element to decide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For accounts already funded, lenders are looking to AI to enhance their collections efforts, handling phone calls and inputting data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collin Grabowski of Gateway Financial in Saginaw, Michigan, said he is understaffed by 18 collectors and is looking to address the shortage with AI. Grabowski said the move is to help with efficiency and expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of the day is spent inputting data. We want to move collectors to make more of an impact,\u201d Grabowski said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several lenders are looking to AI to handle the lion\u2019s share of the calls, pointing out how voices can be adapted for different regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAround 50 percent can be handled by AI. It\u2019s the really odd calls that AI can\u2019t handle,\u201d Charles Gaver of Heritage Acceptance Corporation in Elkhart, Indiana said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another advantage is the ability to take calls after hours and weekends to have data ready to be followed up on the next business day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work continues to implement the AI into their operations, but the lenders are hopeful to see results by the end of the year with servicing more loans and growing their businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m the most excited that I\u2019ve been in my entire career,\u201d Lawson said. \u201cI\u2019m not a tech person.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the February issue of UCD For lenders like Kevin Lawson at First Texas Auto Credit in Coppell,…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_appearance_grid":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[44,9,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-best-practices","8":"category-finance-insurance","9":"category-industry","10":"cs-entry","11":"cs-video-wrap"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/niada.com\/dashboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}