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62 in automation to a process which 25 years ago was littered with multiple requests for payment, stacks and stacks of paper, duplicate payments, supplemental claims, inevitable claim-filing errors, and extrapolations of audit findings. Much of that has been cured by the invoice processing solutions of 20 years ago. Similarly, property preservation and inspection companies put technology to use in the field years ago that eliminated photos and paper reports. Problem issues at a property and necessary work for conveyance or to cure a violation are bid virtually in real time and returned to the servicer immediately. Technology has provided us with an amazing ability to communicate to borrowers through web portals, emails, text, and form letters; it allowed borrowers to be able to navigate through voice attendants and receive answers via phone or online in order to understand what is happening with their accounts. is includes up-to-the-minute information regarding how payments were applied, and tax and insurance information. Incredible strides have been made in the transfer of data and documents between loan servicers and their related service providers. Attorneys serving the mortgage industry have similarly established these protocols with their clients, title companies, process servers, auction companies, and (most importantly) with the courts. e process is now paperless, allowing for enormous amounts of information to be processed and transmitted. e pandemic further accelerated this process, albeit with some twists. Within weeks we all learned how to work at home and overcome whatever fears and obstacles remained regarding information security. We determined how to put borrowers into forbearance plans without them having to talk to an agent or provide financial information. is was aided by the Cares Act, which facilitated the little or no documentation approach to these issues and allowed servicers to provide service to borrowers impacted by the pandemic. WHAT'S NEXT? In a world where cars are driving themselves and algorithms drive everything from stock trading to where baseball teams position their infielders (I'm not a big fan of the shift), a logical answer is the continued innovations afforded to us by machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). Servicers are striving to determine what factors cause servicing errors. Attorneys and other vendors are as well. Everyone is trying to understand the dynamics of scaling up after scaling down in an uncertain world. Some of the factors contributing to errors we can list easily (service transfers, copied and scanned and imperfect documents, or a loan history that indicates a possible payment anomaly). e industry has access to hundreds of data fields and documents that may hold answers to questions and possible process improvements. It's just a matter of time before we determine that some aspect of the servicing transfer or keywords in borrower communication identify opportunities for the same kind of lift and improvement that the industry received from invoice automation. at timeline may well be accelerated through the utilization of AI to assist in identifying anomalies that have resulted in previous losses. Bob Caruso, CEO of ServiceMac, has been a leading innovator in the mortgage servicing industry for more than 30 years. Caruso shared that his team has built a proprietary quality assurance software that incorporates the database, rules, and workflow which will ultimately be the foundation for ServiceMac to effectively leverage AI in the future. "Artificial Intelligence has reshaped how we uncover data issues that contribute to compliance risk and borrower dissatisfaction," said Gagan Sharma, President and CEO of BSI Financial Services and Founder of Bizzy Labs, a reg-tech company that employs artificial intelligence in its Libretto engine. "Using AI, we can scour loan files for data exceptions more thoroughly and frequently, helping servicers identify issues on their portfolio. is big data "Artificial Intelligence has reshaped how we uncover data issues that contribute to compliance risk and borrower dissatisfaction." —Gagan Sharma, President and CEO, BSI Financial Services Feature By: Michael F. Sullivan