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August 2023 » thefivestar.com 9 August 2023 M T E C H "Today, the most appealing feature AI is offering us is document and data point recog- nition—finding data and figuring out what it is," Fortier said. "Once data is identified, the system can then run a series of automated comparison checks or rules. When the rules fail, there is an exception task routed to a human user." "We still need a human to do the thinking when the system cannot accommodate situa- tions that are not a clean pass or fail," Fortier said. "So, today, the most practical use of AI in the mortgage process is figuring out what the data is, which is a considerable benefit for efficiency, accuracy, and transaction speed." STRATMOR Senior Advisor Brett Mc- Cracken adds that AI could eliminate the dread- ed "stare and compare" that, despite current automation efforts, still plagues the industry. "AI can compare data fields across stored database values and information pulled from static documents uploaded from borrowers and third parties to run sophisticated rules from investor guidelines and internal overlays," McCracken said. "AI should be powerful in the near-term at handling the most mundane tasks being assigned to lower cost resources inside of lending organizations, especially for the work that follows a very predictable pattern." The question now is when more lenders will embrace it. DIGITIZATION MAY REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS, HELPING PEOPLE AGE IN PLACE A ccording to a new study from the Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS), Deputy Director David Lu- beroff reveals tools like Alexa, Google Home, and Siri have shown that digitalization is changing how we live in our homes. While many of the changes are related to lifestyle, they also have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and help older Americans safely age in place. Two new working papers examine these opportunities but discuss the challenges as- sociated with them, particularly concerning equity and privacy. In "Empowering Up, Powering Down: The Evolution, Effects, and Efforts to Digitize Energy Controls and Digitalize Energy Infor- mation in US Homes" Carlos Martín, Project Director of JCHS' Remodeling Futures program, notes that the residential sector accounts for about 20% of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States. Reducing those emissions requires man- aging residential energy consumption, and good management requires constant, consis- tent, and accurate information. Digitalization inside the home (programmable thermostats, smart appliances) and digitalization outside the home (smart meters) can provide that information. The information could help households reduce their energy usage. But, in practice, the most significant reductions—as much as 10% of peak-period demand—require giving utility providers the ability to manage electricity usage in individual homes. Achieving reductions is challenging. While almost two-thirds of all homes have smart meters, less than a quarter have programmable thermostats, and even fewer use the thermostat's key features. Moreover, many consumers want to retain control over their activities, and many do not want to give utility providers access to their personal data. In addition, focusing on digitalization to reduce energy use raises a host of equity con- cerns. Absent efforts to incentivize uptake by households of modest means, more affluent households not only are more likely to ac- quire and use devices but also are more likely to reap the financial and health benefits. Digitalization can also crowd out more cost-effective approaches to reducing residential energy uses among low- and mod- erate-income households, such as weather- ization and replacing gas-powered furnaces, stoves, and water heaters with electric ones. Therefore, Martín argues, digitalization should be compared to those approaches. And if it emerges from those assessments as a preferred course of action, then it must be deployed in the actual ways that they use energy and energy-saving devices like smart thermostats. Digitalization also has the potential to help older Americans safely age in place, note Jennifer Molinsky, Samara Scheckler, and Bailey Hu (researchers in the Center's Housing an Aging Society Program) in their paper, "Centering the Home in Conversations about Digital Technology to Support Older "We still need a human to do the thinking when the system cannot accommodate situations that are not a clean pass or fail. So, today, the most practical use of AI in the mortgage process is figuring out what the data is, which is a considerable benefit for efficiency, accuracy, and transaction speed." —Jennifer Fortier, Principal, STRATMOR