EP:8 Will AI Replace Mortgage Brokers and Which Parts of the Job Are Safe? (podcast transcription)

Introduction

So welcome back to another episode of the Mortgage Business Mastery Podcast with me, Ash Ball. And today's episode, we are talking all about how or if AI will replace mortgage brokers and what parts of the job are safe. So this is a topic that a lot of people want to talk about. I'm laughing. It's not funny.

It's quite a deep topic actually. I say I'm laughing 'cause it's kind of just an interesting one. And I think that I'm gonna share with you today. What we're gonna do is answer seven questions as we do in every episode. We're gonna answer the seven most asked questions around this specific topic.

That's how kind of these podcasts work and give you my take on it and my thoughts on it so you can understand more about it. Now, before we go into this, I said this is a podcast. You can listen to this on audio. You can listen, watch it on YouTube. Yeah, feel free to check it out everywhere.

So let's dive into the very first question about this.

1. Which part of mortgage brokers’ jobs are genuinely at risk of being automated by AI and which parts are safe?

So question one is which part of mortgage brokers jobs are genuinely at risk of being automated by AI and which parts are safe? So I think the parts that are very much at risk of being automated at the beginning is probably mortgage administration. So I think that that stuff is already becoming quite quickly made redundant.

So if you're a mortgage admin I'd probably be wanting to train up to be some sort of broker has been my case because the software out there, KeyChain, there's software like which is like a software that allows you to effectively do the client onboarding and initial kind of compliance checks of like cross-referencing documents against payslips and things like that. You've got things like Mortgage X, you've got things like Jam Jar, which are more of a robust, kind of real heavy AI tool that does most of the backend stuff for you. And there's loads of others out there as well, especially in the IFA space even more. But there's loads out there.

So the part I think is the most at risk is definitely gonna be that compliance admin section. Now that's good news for brokers who are one-man bands, one-woman band businesses, don't have an admin and they want to be able to have that support. That's really good news for that.

It's not good news though for people who are admin staff, I'd say. And so there's other ways of utilizing them I'm sure, but I think a lot of the time with a lot of these smaller businesses, you're probably just gonna lose that admin staff member. And sadly, that's gonna be the case now.

So I think that's gonna be the part of the job that's gonna be the most at risk. And so if you were somebody, like let's say you're somebody who's doing like outbound admin or you're a company that does admin, I would be really seriously looking at other avenues you can pivot to 'cause I think AI is a real threat.

Now what do I think the parts that it's not gonna be the least at risk? The least at risk, interestingly, is I think it's the human part. And this is the whole AI thing, is how human can you be? So if you can create a human experience for clients, and that is the advice, that is the connection, the empathy, the discovery call, the sales side of things, the branding, these are the things that are gonna get people to buy from you. And in fact, they're probably gonna be the only thing that's gonna make a decision.

If people are making a decision, and I say this, on speed or on cost, you will lose that battle from AI every single time. But if people make decisions based on when they like you or not, you'll win it. If they like you. If you're an idiot, they won't. They won't. They won't.

So that's probably one of the first things you need to consider is where you sit on that. And so I think the thing that's gonna go the most, the first thing that's gonna go — and it's already starting to go and I think by the end of 2026, early 2027, that will be very much established — is that the admin support and stuff is gonna start going.

But the thing that's gonna be last to go and probably never go is that human to human connection. So prioritizing deep conversations, hour-long calls, things like that, you should be doing that, which is exciting because it's what my entire last seven years of coaching has been built around: brokers building businesses around themselves.

And I'm pretty excited because we're now at an age where it's gonna be the only thing you can really sell on.

2. How will AI change the way brokers handle admin research and documentation, and what should brokers do to prepare?

So question two is how will AI change the way brokers handle admin research and documentation and what should brokers do to prepare? So like I said, I've already said this before, this one is huge. It's gonna change everything. It's already starting to, but it's gonna change everything across the board.

And what I think you're gonna find now is networks right now are gonna move very quickly to try and create this type of software, and you're gonna see this within CRM systems. Things like your 27Techs and your Xplans and all those type of stuff. You're gonna see that start to be involved.

I think they're gonna have to be, and if they're not, they're gonna struggle significantly. So that's what's gonna change. I think you're gonna see it start integrating into them. Do I think they're gonna adopt it very well? No, because these platforms historically don't adopt them very well 'cause they're a jack of all trades and a master of none.

But you are gonna see also things like I said, Jam Jar Mortgage, Mortgage X and KeyChain. They're all very different software by the way. Jam Jar, Mortgage X are more like this high-end AI administration, whereas KeyChain is more like a customer onboarding portal, but again heavily AI integrated into it.

These things — admin and documentation — that is what that does. But the other stuff, the admin and research, those Jam Jars and Mortgage Xs, they heavily look at that.

And I think it's gonna change completely. I think it'll remove all of it. And I think how can you prepare for that is: start looking at it now and realise that there's gonna be cost involved. But there's a cost involved in being an early adopter because — and what I say to a lot of my brokers, a lot of my clients — I say to them: look, you need to try and effectively make yourself redundant 'cause the rest of the world is trying to do that anyway.

So if you make yourself redundant, in pursuit of doing that, you will get way more results, you'll make more money, and you'll find ways where you can be more efficient and also stay in business.

So I think how do you prepare for it? That's how you prepare for it. You start to accept it and take it on board. And the biggest thing I see more about this is cost. And you shouldn't be thinking about cost at this point because it's just the cost of being able to stay in business. And I don't think people realise just how mega that actually is, but that is absolutely 100% the case.

3. Will clients trust AI for advice, or will they still want human relationships during the mortgage process?

Question number three is: will clients trust AI for advice or will they still want human relationships during the mortgage process? So this is a really interesting question and one that I'm starting to see very much unfold. Is that the word? Yeah. Unfold and evolve as times are going on with this.

So let's talk about this one. First thing is I'm actually seeing more and more people, clients and people are distrusting. They're not actually trusting AI. And I think what's gonna happen here is we are gonna see — my personal prediction — is we're gonna see over the next year to two, as AI starts to take jobs, which it's going to do, maybe not so much in our industry but across the board. Regulation keeps it at bay for a little bit longer in our space, but across the board it's gonna start taking jobs quite heavily in 2026 and 2027.

And so what we're starting to see is people starting to really notice this and get more energised by it and exercised by it, to talk about it. And I think you're gonna see a shift in public perception on AI this year or next year. Whenever I'm recording this, around December 2025. So we're going into the new year and I think this coming year is going to be a very interesting study.

So clients' trust for AI — I think you're gonna be split. You're gonna see the vast majority of people probably not trust it. You are gonna get a few real tinfoil-hat type people who don't want it at all. You are gonna get some people who are heavy adopters of it. I think the ones who are heavy adopters in regards to clients — they're gonna be the ones who are least likely to use a broker anyway because they're gonna want to try and get into the AI space.

So I think it's a really weird place to navigate. But I think that at the core of it, human relationships are what's gonna matter to a lot of these people.

We're not just seeing this in AI, we're seeing this everywhere. You're seeing a rise of physical media, people buying old DVDs again, people buying vinyl. Like, we are seeing a lot of people rushing back to wanting to be more physical as opposed to digital. And that's an exciting thing. I think that's really, really good. But it's a human nature thing.

So we have to remember that there's this push and pull happening at the same time.

And so from our perspective — marketing, business, branding — it's making sure that we don't put AI in a job we can do ourselves. That is customer-facing. That is my take on that. So let AI do all of the backend. Let AI do the documents, the research, all of that. But you should not automate yourself out of the job.

And I said, yeah, make yourself redundant — but don't automate yourself out of the job. There are two different things. If you automate yourself out of the job, that's gonna make your life significantly worse. You're gonna lose clients. And you will see it happen.

So I think clients will trust AI, but very low. Not as high as you'd think. Especially at the beginning. Over time they'll trust it with everything, but we are not there yet at all.

So be quite aware of what you're putting in front of the client, what is AI, what is not AI — and don't tell them. You don't have to tell them all the AI stuff in the backend. Let the backend be AI. Let the frontend be human.

4. What skills will become more valuable as AI grows, and how can brokers start developing them now?

So number four is: what skills will become more valuable as AI grows and how can brokers start developing them now? So the skill that's gonna become more and more valuable as AI grows, firstly, is an early adoption skill — the ability to take action and move, because this stuff is gonna change rapidly.

So if you are somebody who is a fixed-mindset person, or like, “Oh, I'll just wait for everybody else,” — it's known as the product adoption curve. You have innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards.

What you want to be is an early adopter. You don't need proof to see it work. A lot of stuff will fail, but a lot will succeed. And so if you're an early adopter and it moves through, you'll have a significant advantage.

The other skill that is really important, and actually more important than anything — you're gonna need a skill to brand yourself.

There are two skills: branding and sales.

Branding is massive. This is the ability to build a personal brand that people connect to and want to work with. I've spent the last eight or nine years obsessing over personal branding, and finally it's come to the forefront. It's my time, so to speak.

But this is the skill. You cannot afford to not be online, on camera, as a person, as a human, building a brand right now. You just can't. We're in an era now where people saying, “I'm not sure about social media, I've got introducers, I've got this…” — not anymore. You are gonna be steamrolled over the next two to five years. Absolutely steamrolled.

So the skill is branding — getting on camera, being yourself, building that up.

Pair that with sales, which is human connection and communication. Can you communicate well? Can you connect? Because sales is just communication. How good are you at communicating the thing you want to get across so people actually buy it?

Those are the skills: early adoption, branding, and sales.

📍 I just want to stop in here quickly before we dive into the rest of them. If you are a mortgage broker and you want to learn — or you should be a mortgage broker listening to this — but if you want to check out my 30 Day Mortgage Broker Boost or Mortgage Business Boost, I call it different names at the time. This is a 30-day series of emails that has short lessons, phrases, scripts, all of it baked in there. You get an email every single day and it is relevant to help you grow your mortgage business. The link is in the description or the show notes wherever you're watching this or listening to it. Or go on any of my social media posts and comment the word BOOST and I will send it to you there as well.

So you can get that there. Now let's dive straight back into the episode.

5. How will AI affect lead generation, marketing, and personal branding for mortgage brokers?

So question number five is how will AI affect lead generation marketing and personal branding for mortgage brokers? Again, these are great. I don’t know what's coming next, so I'm just gonna spin off the cards. It's great.

How will it affect lead generation and marketing? First thing is you're gonna see a full flood of content pouring onto the internet, especially once people can start making AI avatars — people who look like them, sound like them, but it's not them.

That's gonna flood the internet because everyone who's scared of making content is now gonna make content. And what it's gonna do is create noise.

So that is how it's gonna affect it. The internet is gonna get completely saturated.

That is where personal branding comes in. Personal branding is how you build a brand around yourself, creating a reputation around yourself and making it different.

It's the idea of clarity, consistency, and creativity:

• clarity of message

• consistency of showing up

• creativity of being uniquely you

That's why I continue to make this type of content, even though I have a YouTube channel — which, if you haven't checked it out already, you should. It's Ash Borland. And that channel is shorter videos, punchy action-driven videos. But I continue to do this podcast because this is where it's human. It's connection. It's me talking. There's no edits in it really. There's a couple of edits here and there, but you hear me talking, I give you it all. I don't cut anything out from what I'm saying. I just cut out the dead bits between each section.

So that is important. That's personal brand, and you're building that online right now.

So it will affect marketing significantly negative because it's gonna have a lot of rubbish. It's gonna flood the system. So your job through personal branding is gonna be more and more important.

You have to look at creating good content that cuts through the noise and speaks to a specific niche — the people who want to hear from you. And you have to find that audience.

I think that's gonna be the hardest bit — or actually maybe easy — because it's gonna be flooded with so much rubbish that people will gravitate to the good. The hardest bit is learning the skills to be good.

And when it looks so tempting and easy, and we see this — this has happened on social media for years — people paying social media management companies a couple hundred quid a month to make their posts because they think that makes them look good. And then wonder why nothing converts.

Well, the truth is: you're branding like everybody else. All the content looks the same as everyone else. It doesn't matter who's copying and pasting — it's not the right thing because it's not a personal brand.

Yes, the content can sound the same. But realistically, the skill is how do you avoid making content because you're too busy? That’s going to create a real bad situation for you over the next two to three years.

So personal branding, marketing — it's gonna be decimated by AI in a very interesting way. This is not a negative post. It's just understanding it.

So learning the skills, learning how to communicate properly, learning how to do it, and learning how to use these tools to amplify your unique message is where you win.

How do I use AI within my marketing right now? I'll give you it right here. I have a topic. I know this topic is something we need to talk about. Why do I know that? Because I know my market, and then I got AI to give me that. I asked AI to give me these seven questions. I don't know what these seven questions are.

But all my answers here — none of this is from AI. All of this is me. This stuff feeds the content engines. My actual AI model that trains on my content, that helps me write scripts for YouTube and reels. And why? Because it's learning from me.

All my videos on YouTube and Instagram are scripted and written properly. But if you notice, they are not generic fluff. They are unique to me. Because the top of the engine is me talking for 20–35 minutes on a podcast sharing my genuine opinions. That then goes in and makes my content different than generic crap.

Most people will not do that first bit. They'll just keep pumping out normal stuff and it won't sound like them.

6. Will AI make brokers faster, or will it flood the industry with more competition?

Number six is: will AI make brokers faster or will it flood the industry with more competition? I think it'll do both.

It's gonna make brokers faster. A byproduct of that could be — and it's an early prediction — fees might become very cheap because you're gonna be able to do more.

Brokers who are good and are limited by time, not by leads — those people will explode. People like me. If they're dealing with 20–25 mortgages a month, they could probably deal with 50 once this is up and running.

So it's exciting. It's gonna speed up the way brokers work.

Will it flood competition? You're gonna flood it with more AI-only companies, but not the competition most brokers think. That competition will be against your free services — your L&Cs, corporate telephone-based brokers, etc. Those are the ones who will be replaced by AI.

Your real competitor is the broker who has:

• a strong personal brand

• was previously limited by time

• and now has that capacity removed because AI handles the admin

Those are the brokers who will steal your lunch.

Not L&C — they’ll compete with AI companies. The competition for you is other humans who use AI well.

Everyone listening to this is a David, not a Goliath. Goliaths are big firms with 100+ advisers. Davids are SMEs, one-man bands, teams under five.

Davids who adopt branding and AI early will wipe out Davids who don't.

7. What is the smartest way for a mortgage broker to use AI right now without losing authenticity or becoming dependent on it?

Question number seven then is: what is the smartest way for a mortgage broker to use AI right now without losing their authenticity or becoming dependent on it?

Smartest way:

• Adopt those initial admin tools: KeyChain, Jam Jar, etc.

• Create an origin “genesis” piece of content (podcast, YouTube video, blog) sharing your real thoughts.

• Use AI to repurpose that content across all platforms.

• Train your own custom GPT on your own spoken words, podcasts, videos, interviews.

That's exactly what I do.

My custom GPT is trained on every podcast and YouTube video I've made in the last two years. That’s why all my content still sounds like me.

That's the smartest way. Because it keeps your authenticity, and you don't become dependent on AI — it's still you.

And on the admin side, I recommend looking into KeyChain. I have a two-month free trial for anyone who books a demo. Jack, one of the founders, does the demos. It's a game changer.

Conclusion

That is today’s episode. If you enjoyed it, be sure to subscribe wherever you're watching or listening. Check out my YouTube channel Ash Borland — I release videos Monday, Wednesday, Friday right now. Short lessons, five to eight minutes, specific and detailed.

And I'll see you in the next episode.

Bye.