While the use of ChatGPT is just part of that strategy, process improvement to allow loan officers to focus more on their customers is the primary aim, said Caleb Ondrusek, who Fairway promoted to executive vice president of technology and innovation to oversee this partnership.

The ability to leverage an artificial intelligence tool set like OpenAI, "that you can build on top of and start to cultivate those models, allows you to serve data back to a loan officer or even a borrower, in some cases, that is modeled and more accurate," with less chance, but not a zero chance of hallucinating, Ondrusek said.

How AI will be used to help loan officers

When one thinks about all the various data elements that an LO looks at during the manufacturing process — such as loan guidelines, product information, borrower information and more — they have to deal with large amounts of data in order to come up with what is best for the customer.

Fairway wants its loan officers to be present for their customers in the biggest purchase of their lives and not have to spend time combing through large amounts of data. Using AI allows it to analyze that data and take action on it more quickly, Ondrusek said.

The company has held a couple of summits for its loan officers, to figure out how it can use this technology better. It found, and most others are coming to the same conclusion, no one individual at a company knows AI.

"AI is one of those unique technologies that it's going to take everybody getting involved and hearing different perspectives and collaborating to make [the process] of value to any company," Ondrusek said.

What using AI can do for mortgage manufacturing

On a broader industry basis, "AI has the chance to really streamline the origination process, regardless of what mortgage company is implementing it," Ondrusek continued. "The struggle right now is, where do you start in the origination process to apply AI?"

Fairway is choosing to start the use of AI at the loan officer experience and how it interacts with what the borrower sees. But other processes such as post-closing, are also ready for AI innovation, he said.

In spite of some of the hype on social media, Ondrusek said AI is not coming to replace the loan officer. However, "if you are a loan officer and you're not utilizing AI today, yes, you are going to be replaced."

The whole concept behind AI adoption is to make peoples' lives easier, not just loan officers, it's any profession. "AI is not going to replace you," Ondrusek said. "AI is here to augment what you do so you can focus on what's important."