Mortgage advisers have no choice but to embrace technology in order to survive, a former broker has warned.

Speaking at MIT Live in London yesterday, panelists discussed the challenges mortgage firms are facing as AI continues to develop at pace, reshaping the market.

JammJar founder Karl Griffin, who previously ran his own brokerage, said: “Digital transformation is no longer optional, it is imperative.”

He said that advisers are in a better position to become the main trusted professional for homebuyers than estate agents and conveyancers, but the bigger threat would come from elsewhere.

“I back the broker in that competitive triangle to have a better chance of owning the customer relationship,” he said.

“However, that’s not who we’re competing with, because now think about it in a different language.

“Who is going to win between the mortgage broker, the bank, the neo bank, like Monzo, and the AI model?”

Griffin explained how he is already using an AI agent from Instinct to help manage his own day-to-day tasks and that, in the future, this type of digital assistant might be trusted by borrowers to arrange their next mortgage.