Thus far, early tests show a 69% increase in speed to resolution compared to the current process, said Brian Woodring, chief information officer at Rocket Mortgage. 

The eventual goal, according to the Rocket executive, is for the mortgage shop to become a fully "AI-powered homeownership company." 

The search engine, named Pathfinder, was initially built to aid team members and partners in finding information on guidelines and regulations that are constantly in flux, but it "was a very manual process and there was a sense that you kind of had to know what you were looking for – the art of finding," said Woodring. That's where AI now comes in.

"When generative AI started becoming a really big deal over the last year, we started working on incorporating natural language, specifically how we we make this something much more fluid and intuitive for our team members and partners to actually find what they are looking for – even when they may not exactly know what they're looking for," added the executive.

The chatbot component was developed with safety and soundness in mind and part of Rocket's ongoing testing includes "verifying that the inputs are correct, having team members trying to break the model, putting in hard stops to cut off lines of inquiry that we're not comfortable with and keeping it focused on the right material." Other players in the mortgage space have developed similar products, such as Beeline's Bob.

Rocket already uses artificial intelligence in some parts of the origination process, including an AI assistant that helps with employment verification. But Woodring said the company will further double down on implementing machine learning in its ecosystem.

One of the products currently in development is a tool that will analyze conversations between Rocket employees and clients to help facilitate more productive conversations. 

"One of the other things generative AI is very good at is not just understanding what was said on the call, but the tone of what was said," Woodring said. "All these calls are recorded for compliance purposes, but one of the other areas we're investigating is, how do we learn from the conversations we're having with clients to have better, more productive conversations with clients."

"[The AI chat interface for our Pathfinder tool] is part of a broader story you'll see unfolding over the next few months around really becoming the world's first AI powered homeownership company," he added. 

The one aspect that Rocket is not eyeing is launching an AI-powered system that decides whether or not a borrower qualifies for a loan.

"We believe strongly in the concept of 'human in the loop'," said Woodring. "We're not allowing AI to decide who gets a mortgage, that's just not something we're comfortable with."