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Artificial intelligence has the potential to radically change numerous aspects of the real estate and mortgage industries, a pair of experts argued Wednesday, though it could be decades before it fundamentally alters the way humans live.
That at least was the takeaway from a session on mortgages and tech at Inman Connect Las Vegas. The session included Dawar Alimi, co-founder and CEO of mortgage marketplace startup Lender Price, and Rich Swier, founder of referral company Roof Real Estate. And Swier did not mince words when it came to the timeline he envisions for AI to really disrupt the status quo, saying that it could take 15 to 20 years.
“It’s not really going to change our lives for the most part,” Swier said.
Swier argued that there are limits on computing power that have to be overcome before AI can make certain types of advancements, and that by 2050 “quantum computing” should have progressed enough that AI will be able to do vastly more than it does today.
But that doesn’t mean AI won’t have an impact in the meantime. Swier said he thinks that in the short term, AI will help produce “really cool software interfaces,” as well as processes that save human beings time and effort. He also said that over time people will become more accustomed to using technology as AI makes it more accessible, for example via conversational interfaces a la ChatGPT.
From left to right, Rich Swier, Dawar Alimi and moderator Clelia Peters at Inman Connect Las Vegas Wednesday. Credit: AJ Canaria Creative Services
Alimi also said he thinks AI will have positive shorter-term impacts. For example, he told the Connect audience that the technology could make underwriting easier by helping people understand if loans are complying with all the necessary rules. Unlike today, when a human being might have to search a vast trove of information to find answers, in the future a person could simply ask the AI if a loan is in compliance, then receive an answer from a super intelligent bot.
“That underwriter will be able to process loans faster,” Alimi said. “Maybe you could reduce the cost of loans by doing that.”
Alimi also said he’d like to see more digitization in the lending space so that AI can make the entire process of getting a loan more efficient.
While the technology’s potential is vast, the panelists also said that it raises issues, such as with security. Swier, for instance, painted a picture of a super powerful AI that could hack any system within milliseconds, with his point being that consumers will need to be in control of their own data in a way that they aren’t today.
“We’re going to have to change the mindset of what security is,” he added.
Though it remains to be seen how much AI and other technology might alter the lending world, the panelists were ultimately in agreement that the potential is great and that the industry needs to embrace change.
“Our industry,” Swier said, “is in desperate need for kind of a kick in the butt to reimagine the world.”
