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62 We've made the determination as a company that we need to focus on the customer experience, and so we over-invested in technology in order to build those proprietary tools." EMBRACING CHANGE Technology continues to play an integral role in the industry, and lenders and servicers are implementing automation enhancements to maximize efficiencies in areas such as eMortgages, artificial intelligence, and robotics. Title agents and real estate professionals looking to satisfy their clients' demand for swift transactions turn to fintech, which has the potential to "streamline time-consuming processes, increase security and improve the homebuying experience," said Mark Fleming, Chief Economist at First American in a recent blog post. "e fintech revolution is here, and it is here to stay in real estate," he added. According to the latest bi-annual First American Real Estate Sentiment Index, about 67% of title agents and real estate professionals intend to adopt new fintech in the next year. About 31% of those surveyed plan to do so in the next three to six months. e fintech tools with the greatest potential to quench the growing thirst for speed and efficiency within the industry include secure communication/collaboration and hybrid eClosing tools, according to the First American survey. However, technology is only useful if it actually solves a problem, according to Computershare COO Jeff Johnson. So, what problems can these advancements solve for servicers? According to Johnson, tech should be used to support customers, and with automation increasingly able to handle processing work, servicers can take a more hands-on approach to their customers. "Pre-process automation ensures accuracy, compliance, and efficiency," Johnson said. "is allows servicers to focus their people on more complex defaults, troubleshoot discrepancies, and focus on customer care. Underwriters, default servicers, and service providers become more efficient and can take on a more meaningful advisor role." As Johnson notes, for default servicers, increased levels of automation can create the best possible experience for customers by increasing the speed with which their default is processed and thus alleviating some of the stress and anxiety. "By hyper-automating the initial process, potential scenarios for defaults can be created and offered quickly before moving to a final default resolution," Johnson says. "At some point, the time this process takes may become hours instead of days." Jane Mason, CEO of Clarifire, echoes Johnson's sentiment. rough automation, Mason notes, the needs of customers can be met faster and more efficiently, so long as proper processes are used. "It's time that servicers and service providers embrace workflow process automation by blending together artificial intelligence and robotic process automation for those straightforward, repetitive manual tasks," Mason said. "rough interoperability, extending these capabilities to make connecting to other entities in our industry, is a crucial element moving forward." Another way tech is improving efficiency is through visual classification technology, which, as it implies, is a non-text-based approach to classifying documents in loan files. Patrick Gluesing, President and CEO of e StoneHill Group, told DS News how this process can correctly identify over 99% of key loan documents, improving accuracy while lowering costs. "While normal technology-based classification starts with trying to create templates to do the identification, visual classification technology automatically groups visually-similar documents, thereby avoiding much of the heavy lifting ordinarily required for text-based classification," Gluesing said. "is is critical as accurate classification is the basis upon which all mortgage document processing is dependent," he added. Automation is not only efficient, but also compliance-friendly. When tech is able to take over the more mundane tasks a servicer faces, regulation becomes second nature. "Any technology that improves operational visibility, contains business logic, and aligns compliance with regulations, but is flexible enough to make changes, will always improve compliance," Mason added. "We always need to be innovating. It becomes a question of, in what area should we focus our efforts? As a company, we've said, the customer experience is becoming much more digital and mobile. We've made the determination as a company that we need to focus on the customer experience, and so we over-invested in technology in order to build those proprietary tools." —Gagan Sharma, President and CEO, BSI Financial