Mortgage Broker Broadcast
Developing your knowledge to help you build a successful Mortgage Broker business. Craig Skelton shares his thoughts and experiences on all aspects of mortgage advice covering everything from operating in the banking world, estate agency based advisers all the way up to working as a self employed broker. He will be joined by experts from within the industry and other business sectors which all play a key part in becoming a successful mortgage broker in the modern world.
Mortgage Broker Broadcast
AI In Mortgages: From Hype To Helpful
Change has arrived for mortgage brokers, and it looks less like robots taking jobs and more like hours of admin melting away so real advice can shine. We sit down with Ifthikar Mohamed chartered accountant, broker, and founder behind Mortgage X and the AI Toolkit—to map how practical AI can speed the journey from inquiry to offer without losing the human touch that clients rely on.
We start with the big shifts since last year: streamlined onboarding that pulls bank statements, credit files, and ID in minutes, plus integrated sourcing that handles the bulk of criteria matching while leaving exceptions to expert judgment. Property data and automated valuations flag mismatches early, saving you from down valuation headaches and awkward calls later. Then we dive into communications: zero-inbox workflows that draft emails in your tone, proactive rate and criteria alerts to your team, and voice features that let you dictate, summarize, and respond faster without sacrificing quality.
If you’ve ever wished your fact finds felt like real conversations, you’ll love Colibri. It cues the right questions, tracks progress live, and remembers soft facts that make relationships stick. It also spins long chats into short, shareable clips so you can practice GEO—search everywhere optimization—and stay visible where clients actually look. Along the way, Ifthikar lays out a smart adoption plan: start with outcomes, try no-code agents, avoid tool sprawl, and keep compliance and transparency front and center.
The future may bring aggressive AI-native competition from big tech and banks, but brokers who combine operational sharpness with genuine human advice will win. Make your process effortless and your presence memorable. If this conversation helps you think differently about your firm’s next step, follow the show, share it with a colleague, and leave a quick review. It helps more brokers find ideas they can use today.
I help employed mortgage brokers go self-employed with clarity, confidence and one-to-one mentoring. Find out how Pathways or Coaching works at craigskelton.co.uk
The Broker Foundry – Where Mortgage Brokers Become Business Owners Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBrokerFoundry
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Hi, and welcome to this week's The Mortgage Broker broadcast. My guest this week is Iftika Mohammed, and If you was on the podcast over a year ago now, talking about mortgage X, talking about AI and a little bit about what his business did. So if you haven't listened to that or seen that already, go back and have a look at that one. Let's say it was July last year. But I wanted to get him back onto the podcast. A couple of reasons really. One was he's set up a conference recently, Conference of the Future 2025, which was about AI in the mortgage broker industry, the mortgage broker space. I wanted to get him back on to talk about that and how the conference went and talk about mortgage X and also as well the toolkit which is integrated as well. But just really talking about AI in general within the mortgage industry, what his take on it is and what you think the future is. So yeah, let's just get Iftica back on the podcast. Welcome back onto the podcast. Iftika, how are you? I'm very well, thank you. How are you, Craig? Yeah. Yeah, very good. Yeah, very good. Thank you, and thank you for agreeing to come back on so soon after which we're going to get into talking about the conference. So we'll uh we'll we'll we'll talk about that um shortly. So thank you for agreeing to come back on so quickly after that with everything you've uh I'm sure you've gone through with organizing that. So um, so yeah, just first of all, it's been we just sort of took before we hit record, it's been um about a year since you sort of came on the first time, so exactly, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's been a year, and a lot of things have changed in the space, right?
SPEAKER_01:So I think that'd be a absolutely, yeah, yeah. Well, the good thing isn't it I did you agreed to come back home, which is a good thing. That's the first thing, first of all. And secondly, so I couldn't put you off the first time, but you're absolutely right. It is, I think, the way that the the landscape's changing for brokers right now and the way that things are and the whole point of what I wanted to get Dion to talk about, which we'll get into, but yeah, a lot a lot has changed in the past 12 months or so. So um, so yeah. Plenty to talk about and plenty to catch up on. So first of all, if I could you want to just um without giving too much detail, do you want to just a brief introduction about yourself?
SPEAKER_00:Sure, yeah. Um, I'm a charted accountant by profession, that's what I am. We started mortgages about 10 years ago. It was like a byproduct for our customers, right? Then we realized that uh the industry uh was much, much had much, much more paperwork than me being an accountant. So then that's when we started looking at technology to make things better. So today, you know, I run two AI companies, which helps us as well as other mortgage brokers to sort of streamline the operation. So that's what I do these days. Of course, I still have my other businesses, but I love this area, so I spend a lot of time trying to do these things because I'm very passionate about this one, right? So that's what I do these days.
SPEAKER_01:And you can tell, because for those that are watching on YouTube, then you can sort of see the smile on your face. And if you are listening to the podcast, you've certainly got a big smile on your face now. You're clearly excited about this aspect and that aspect of it. And uh um, so yeah, that's uh and that's hence why I wanted to get you back on the podcast to talk about that. So clearly, yeah. So you you you forgot to add in, obviously, you've got your you are a chartered accountant and you are you've run your mortgage firm and you've got your AI business as well. You forgot to add on there that you are now a uh conference sort of uh like coordinator, host, uh like owner, what would you call that?
SPEAKER_00:So um for those people yeah, I mean there's a big team behind the conference. I I'm I'm mainly the one who speaks, right? But there's a lot of people who organize the thing. So uh yeah, I mean, I loved doing that as well because there was a lot of feedback and good feedback as well. People who came for the conference actually, they sort of learned. That was the whole objective behind it, because I fear our industry can move further uh with AI. Uh so you know, I think somebody needs to take the lead, and that's where I think we can all add value, right? And you know, I'm okay to take that jump, right? To say, okay, this is what we should be doing, sort of thing. So I enjoyed doing that. So again, uh I think we came out of this conference quite positively, so yeah, which is good.
SPEAKER_01:Good, good. For those people that haven't sort of seen or heard, and we're gonna we'll talk a bit more about the conference towards the end as well, because I know you've sort of um you're gonna sort of release links to that in the videos and things like that, moving on to help tell brokers, which is amazing. So, do you want to just explain what the conference was? If they could, because there is a part, there is a there's a 2025 one, but I have seen now there is also a 2026 one coming next year. So uh we need to make people aware of this. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Uh so the conference was mainly to educate people what's happening in the industry. Uh, so you know, because a lot of people in the industry think AI is about getting things right with uh the SRM, it's not that, but we have to look at the wider picture because there are a lot of other things that you can use AI for, which will streamline your operation. So the whole idea behind the conference is to educate people as to what other things are out there for them to make things easier for themselves. Because our industry is quite traditional, uh, so it does need some changes, right? Because all the other industries sort of is picking up, right? We hear that these days AI is carrying out surgeries for doctors, right? So if you can do something that complicated, you know, there are a lot of things that you can do to streamline administration. So I think that's why we thought we'll tell brokers, you know, these are other things that you can do, uh which will streamline your operation, right? That was the whole idea to educate people. And also to talk about things like uh, you know, LLMs, right? What ChatGBT can do for you, what uh Gemini can do for you, what Perplexity can do for you. So all of those things we showed people, because today you can build AI agents without a single code, right? And on the day we showed people how to do that, right? Because that doesn't cost anything, because you you might pay 20 pounds for Chat GPT as a you know pro subscription, or you might pay a subscription for Gemini, which you anyway pay. But so long as you have that, you can do all of this for free. And we showed people how that can be done. And of course, with AI, there's a lot of risk as well. So we highlighted those areas as well. What you need to be cautious about when you implement AI, and we when you use AI in the advising process, because there are certain things that you have to be transparent about, uh, and there are certain things you have to be aware about. So we made people aware what they need to know. That that was it was more educational the way I look at it.
SPEAKER_01:How did that um how was that sort of like accepted or sort of understood by brokers? Were they sort of like with you have you got feedback from the conference? Obviously, the the great thing is about education. So I don't know, like if I've like other podcasts quite a lot this year talking about AI and how it can help brokers, and and my belief still today is that it will enhance the the mortgage broker process and the the jobs that we do, and it's not looking to replace it per se in terms of replacing mortgage brokers, but just helping with the process and helping with streamlined brokers that are self-employed, got their own sort and that are sold traders and working out there on their own. What was sort of like the feedback from the from the conference? What sort of uh were people there with their arms folded, sort of thinking AI is not gonna work, and we're just there to see what that and be negative, or was it quite a positive response?
SPEAKER_00:Uh I believe it was positive. Uh, I mean, obviously we've had uh feedback coming in from people, uh, as well as there were a few bankers who was listening in and who was present as well. So we've had feedback. Uh I think it's positive because a lot of the people who actually turned up at the conference, uh, you know, virtually or you know, uh in person, they wanted to see what they can actually take away and bring it to their day-to-day lives. Right. So that's what uh so so because people came with that intention, I think it worked well because they came with an open mind to see what is happening. Uh so which was good, because obviously, you know, then there's more questions that people can ask. Because I remember after I finished I had to stay a bit longer because people are asking me more and more questions, which was good, right? Because which was good, and uh we have positives as well because already we have two people who've come forward saying we'll sponsor next year's event because they were so happy to see what was happening. So that's why we've already announced the next year's event, and uh we've sent out uh you know, we've asked people to pre-book for next year. I think uh email went out yesterday. Already about 40 people had booked for next year, so um, which is really good, right? It's like a placeholder, you know, we've just given like saying, okay, please register for updates, sort of thing. We haven't still finalized the venue or anything like that. But you know, I think it was well taken. Obviously, AI uh for some people they may not accept it. Uh, but I think, you know, uh that that person actually didn't turn up in the conference. Uh that's what I think, right? Because we didn't have anything like that. But I know it's not for everybody, right? You know, we'll admit it because you know there'll be people who'll stay away from it. But all that what I can say is it is moving in that direction. And if you are going to be resistant to that, you're the one who will actually miss out, right? Because everybody else will start doing it. You know, uh I mean I was taking an example. My son, he's 15. He speaks to Alexa all the time, right? So they are like native users. Of course, Alexa is a primitive version of AI, but uh they are native AI users. They use Chat GPD for everything, right? So when they come to the broker space as a new broker, they will want a lot of change, right? And and those conveniences, if the customer starts seeing that, they will go to that broker. I mean, there'll always be a you know, broker who and a customer who'll want to work the traditional way, but anybody coming new, they will want to see those um conveniences and they'll want to move on the case past, loads less paperwork. That's what they will work towards. So I think in that sense, you know, I think brokers have to embrace AI. Obviously, that's my personal opinion.
SPEAKER_01:No, and I I and in fairness ethically, that is my opinion too. I think there are people that will be I think it's change, isn't it? When people sort of people either when change happens to them personally or to the industry or to their workplace or whatever that whatever the change is, people will either fight it or they will sort of adapt to the change and sort of see the benefit of that. And I think I'm not convinced that there will be many consumers that will not want to see AI technology as part of the mortgage broker process, like buying a house or you dealing with a mortgage broker, mortgage advisor as part of the process, because, like you say, people are using AI as integrating their day-to-day lives so much so that they'll want to see that, and that that that's for various reasons for for speed, for information, for knowledge, for education, all these the reasons why we all interact with some form of AI day in, day out. So that becomes the norm. So when they then deal with a mortgage broker who is then adapt, who is adapted to AI as well and is integrated part of the process, that's the norm for them. That that that is normal for the client. Whereas then they start to deal with somebody that is antiquated, it's very long drawn-out process, not embracing iron and very traditional in that sense. I think they will, like you said, they will be the broker that either, from a consumer point of view, client point of view, won't want to deal with that individual. There will be the odd consumer that will, but not many, because we're just used to it's like if if you sort of said dealing with a broker who you don't use emails, you either fax them through or you pick up the phone to deal with them. You can't use WhatsApp, you can't use email, you can't use text messages, you've got to ring their landline. You'd be sort of, and if the broker said that, you'd be sort of what planet are you on? Like you, why I wouldn't, I'm not gonna be if I want a WhatsApp, you're on a WhatsApp view kind of thing. So we have to be as human beings, we certainly have to adapt. As within the industry, we certainly have to adapt because it will be all for the for the better, and we've got to embrace those sort of changes because the consumer will. So uh yeah, I'm glad we are very like mind in that kind of way in terms of embracing the change because the change is gonna happen. You either, and I think the one the thing that I like about what I really admire you for doing the conference because you have stepped out like that, nobody's done the anything like that before, not as far as I've seen, anyway. And I think one of the things that I sort of see with brokers who struggle with they just don't know where to start, they don't know who to speak to, and they don't know where to start with technology. So you breaking it down and sort of getting back to basics with it and being there, like you said at the end, where you got another question, another question. That would that is really great from a broker's point of view because if I don't know where to start and I can sit in a conference or be part of the conference, and I totally 100% agree with you that yes, it was great that we could watch the and be and see it virtually, however, you're quite an advocate as I am of like, well, yes, let's embrace technology, but let's also continue with the networking of actually attending a conference that is embracing technology, let's still see people's the whites of people's eyes and body language and all the rest of it, which we cannot lose as um as human beings.
SPEAKER_00:Correct, yes, that's right. I mean it's quite important. Obviously, again, it's it goes to the same uh thing, right? We definitely have to use AI, but what wins it is that human conversations now, because you still need the broker, and obviously, even the regulation you know still says that you know advice has to come from the broker. So the broker has to be involved. But what AI does for the broker is it frees up so much time, so then they can have those conversations very freely, because otherwise, what happens is your conversations become very transactional because you have to move from a case after a case to another case and then do your admin. Then it becomes very transactional because you only have so much time you can talk to a customer. Uh because if you are spending more time with customers, because this is what I found in the past, uh, being a broker, they become your friends. When they become your friends, they start introducing their friends. And before you know it, you know, you have referrals come through your door where you're like, okay, you know, you wake up in the morning thinking, how many referrals will I get for a day? I mean, that's what it can do for you, right? So you know, if you streamline everything else around it, you'll have a lot of spare time to be there for the customer, right? Because that's what they want. That's why they come to a broker. Otherwise, you know, they can go to a bank, right? So uh that's where you have the advantage.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. And I know we we didn't sort of talk about anything before the recording, just to sort of we we we would keep this conversational. However, I 100% agree with you in terms of it's about those client relationships. So this embracing AI will just help you to have more time with the client and the client interactions to build those long-term relationships, like you said there about right with the regards to lenders and customers having choice, and and I like the podcast recently, which is about sort of like the advice trigger and about like the the the from uh from the D FCA paper back in July with regards to how making it easier for customers just to go on execution only. That again is change for the brokers, but again, if you're bracing the technology, you've got more time to build those long-term relationships and clients, which then will they won't need this sort of they won't need to worry about that because they've got a broker that they are recommending that they know and trust and like and one feels as other talking to, that they want to feel that they're talking to a friend, but like that is quite how deep it's gonna get now as a mortgage broker. You are gonna have clients that are and we know, like you said there, you you've got I know brokers and who have got lots of clients who they just treat like friends, like they are just friends and mates and things like that kind of thing. And you said that exactly that point there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, obviously, if you dealt with a client, you know, again and again and again, you to you just become friends. Because I have clients who are telling, can you sort on my son's mortgage now? And you know, we continue to have that same relationship. Although everything around me is AI, you know, I still have the time to spend with the son, right? So, I mean, that does make a big difference. And uh, you know, uh because even if I tell them, can you speak to one of my other advisors, they'll be like, no, no, no, we just need to talk to you, right? So, you know, because that's the relationship you build, right? So that's something you have to always retain. Uh, but for everything else, you can get AI to help you.
SPEAKER_01:Definitely, definitely. Do you want to just um because obviously on the first podcast, which was over a year ago, which I'm sure things have changed um quite a lot, we said before. We talked quite a lot about Mortgage X, which is um is still a business of yours, and sort of like we want I want to talk about the toolkit, which obviously is something which is like do you want to just give a bit of a recap about what Mortgage X is, but and then more important, let's move on to what the toolkit is and what I want to hear more about because yeah, that's the what I want to talk more about today.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, cool. Uh so mortgage X, uh a lot of people think it's a CRM, but uh I like to think it's a little bit more than a CRM. Uh because with Mortgage X, yes, CRM is one big feature that we have, uh, but it's the journey, it simplifies the journey. So from the point a customer contacts you, uh they can have a conversation with Amy, which is like uh our voice assistant, right? And then uh, you know, that's to get some of their basic doubts clarified. Then the broker comes into the picture, and what the broker does is you they generally send a link out to the customer. So with that link, we download their bank statements, we download their uh you know, credit files, we download their ID verifications, all of that can be done in eight minutes, which normally applications could take sort of one and a half hours to fill, two hours, you know, depending on how complicated your case is. But that can be done in a very short period of time. But in the back end, what it does for mortgage progress is it finds a product, right? So sourcing can be done using AI today. Uh, so I always say it's about 80%. We get this right, because there are some instances where it'll be a conversation having with a bank, right? Because sometimes banks, it's outside criteria, it's exceptional that you have to look at. Apart from those cases, most cases we should be able to find an answer. The sourcing can be done using Mortgage X, right? So you you're not sort of having a CRM and a sourcing tool and a uh you know criteria tool separately because it's all sort of built into one. So it streamlines the process for the mortgage brokers. Uh so uh so you know that has helped us you know move fast on our journey with our customers. It's simplified things. Uh so that's what Mortgage X does. Uh since we spoke last time, we've added other information to it as well. Today we can have property information that shows on uh Mortgage X. So you know, you won't have a situation where you'll have a down valuation of your property because AI has already checked that for you. It does automatic AVM, right? So if the customer says the property is worth 500,000, AVM might say, Oh, it's only 450, right? So then you can have that conversation with the customer before it actually goes to the bank. The customers say, Oh, you know, I decorated my kitchen, so it's actually added 50,000 value, but you and I both know it's not, right? Uh so we've added those features. So, but with uh the toolkit, what we did was we want to look at mortgage uh like a like a more wider business, look at the whole sort of ecosystem. So uh one of the tools we had with uh what we sort of introduced the other day is wake up to uh a zero inbox when it comes to emails. So basically, when you wake up, uh because a lot of people like to finish their work in the middle of the night, they come in the morning and you end up seeing 25-30 emails depending on how complicated it is, right? But here the idea is you wake up to zero inbox. So what AI does is it'll respond to their emails. If it's straightforward, it'll actually respond to the email. Uh if not, it'll draft the email and he it'll sort of tell you, okay, this is what we have to respond. Because we are training uh the AI to answer that email based on your past conversations, we can come up with an answer. So, you as a broker, what you have to do is it'll sit in your drafts, you can check it, especially if it's of advised nature, it'll fall into that category. You can check the answer if you're happy. This is based on your past. It'll you can send the response to the customer. Of course, if you want to edit it, you can. But obviously, I have a firm where we have the brokers as well. So if there's rate changes and things like that, those emails automatically go out to customers, right? So, not to customers, sorry, it goes out to the brokers within our firm saying that okay, Halifax is changing rates tomorrow, or you know, they've changed their criteria. So, you know, all those emails that come through. Because if I'm at a meeting and let's say somebody's changing rates this evening, if I get late to send that email, we might miss out, right? So uh you know our customer will end up with a higher rate tomorrow. So to avoid that, so AI sorts out all those things. So that's one of the tools that we developed. Again, there's a lot of features in that as well. You can speak to the AI, you can draft emails based on voice, so uh, you know, tone of voice, it can change. There's a lot of things that you can do. So that's something that uh I was quite excited about because this is where we got a lot of feedback as well, right? Because people like that tool. Uh, the next thing we did was I think this is quite important for mortgage brokers. There's quite a lot of tools. I'll just touch on one or two, right? Uh we had we developed a tool like this, a podcasting tool, right? It's called Collibre. So with Colibri, what happens is when you go into a conversation with a customer, uh, say it's a first-time buyer, Colibri comes up with 25 questions to ask the customer. So you are having a natural conversation with the customer, and it will tell you ask, okay, what's the property value? What's the loan? Right? So all those pop up on the screen. So as you speak, those slowly vanish one by one. So let's say you had 25 questions to start off with, it'll become 24, 23, and it'll go down to zero. But it doesn't really stop there because next time you come have a conversation, all those it's summarized for you and it comes up in the screen. So you can ask questions like, oh, how is your dog, let's say X doing, or how is your son getting on in school? He was doing GCSCs, isn't it? So all those the history comes up on your screen. So when you have a conversation, people feel, oh, this guy actually knows about me, right? Because I'm not doing anything, it's all there in history. But then it can be converted to videos where you can use for podcasts, it'll automatically cut it into shorter videos where you can use it in you know your shots, right? Or for Instagram. So all of that is kind of built in, but it's very broker-specific, right? So uh so based on the sort of things that you have. So so those are kind of the more popular tools that uh you know we showed people that you can use out there. Uh so that's uh something that came out of AI toolky, but there's quite a lot of other uh products that we have, yeah. Wow.
SPEAKER_01:So that in terms of can you sort of set those questions that come up on the screen, or are they like the other 25 questions that props to type, like basically, basically a fact finding, isn't it? Like you are then you fact find questions that come up on the screen, you're asking those sorry, they're asking those questions, get animated with my hands there now and just hit the mic and sort of getting carried away. Um so with the tool, so then it's asking the prompting you to ask the questions and then they're disappearing as you're having the conversation with clients. So then you know that you've covered the mandatory stuff, the stuff that you want to have conversations with, and the most important stuff, which is kids' schools, the name of dogs, all those kind of things. It's important to the client, which the soft fact, which then builds trust with the client, which we should that's the whole point of AI is embracing those things to have those conversations because they've matter if they matter to the client, they should matter to you. That's my that's always been my viewpoint in terms of dealing with clients and know who they're what's important to them, and if their dog's important or the children or grandparents, parents, whatever the whatever the case may be. So um wow. So there's quite a lot with the toolkit by then. It sounds like it's quite moving over a kind of a period of time.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, there's about uh I think we introduced nine tools on the day. I mean, I can't go on, but uh, I'm just trying to keep it quite simple, right? So a lot of things are to do with voice. Uh uh, you know, again, I'll just touch on one of the things we do with voice. So if there's an inquiry that comes overnight, uh uh AI will actually call the customer, it'll qualify the customer, and it'll set an appointment if they feel it's fit for you to have the appointment with the customer. Because what I find is uh quite often we have a conversation with the customer, like a potential customer, they tell all the good stuff about them and then say, Oh, I just have this problem, right? So it's to avoid that, right? Because we'll screen out some of those customers using voice. So that really helps. I think that was something that was popular as well, because we've done quite a lot with uh voice, right? So uh again, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, wow. So there's quite I think the main thing is the message I would sort of take from this is like reach out to you and we get some sort of demo or have a conversation with you, or certainly we'll when the links come out to the um the videos from the conference and all the other bits on that will add that to the to the podcast show notes and things like that as well. And hopefully they might be out by the time this is released, or they may not be, but we'll certainly add those for people that are listening in the future. So um, so yeah. So exciting times, and do you feel as though this is a bit of a blank paper kind of thing, if you could, with regards to you sort of and the way that you're embracing AI and the technology and then do and providing solutions for issues that brokers have because and you've had those issues because you're in a mortgage firm, so you you're gonna under you're a broker, you like you know what sort of you know firsthand what um issues are coming up, but it's like you seem to be you are very excited about this. Do you feel as if it's like a blank piece of paper where you create, like, is that where you're feeling right now?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, again, I mean the way I look at it, uh again, this is something I did say at the conference. Start with what you want to achieve as a firm, as a business, as an individual, right? Put all your objectives down, right? And then see which things kind of frustrate you and which you want to take away, right? It's quite often it's admin and the stuff that you actually hate doing. It's good, it'll boil down to that, right? So then see. See whether there's any AI tools that's out there that can help you. That's the way I look at it, right? But trust me, these tools aren't expensive, right? I mean, I'm lucky because I have a team who can help me develop these. But again, we mentioned this at a conference as well. There's so much AI agents that you can build with zero codes, right? And it is getting there as well, right? I showed a simple example. You might have an inquiry that comes for a customer overnight. This is just using Gemini, and actually, ChatGPT allows you to do this as well. So email comes overnight, that goes onto a spreadsheet. From the spreadsheet, what it decides is it sends out an email to a customer saying thanks for your inquiry. If needed, it can book an appointment in the diary. And if it is, let's say you have to travel to someplace like London, right? It'll calculate how long it takes for you to go there. And it can look at Google Maps and it can set up that whole process for you. And that's with zero code. Now that's the kind of thing that people really need to know, right? Because I always tell people, because people come and ask me, what tools do I need to get? What do I need for this? I said, look, just don't start there. Start with what you want to achieve. Because sometimes it's always best to start with zero code, right? Because you only start to look at solutions where you can't do that. Because I'm honestly I'm not a techie, right? I can't do development. But I started there. I started with zero code. Let's do zero. If you can't, then you start expanding and you know look at solutions. Uh so I think that's probably a good starting point that everybody should look at, right? Because today it is quite easy. Uh and another big mistake that I hear people do is like they keep buying tools, one for this, one for that. You know, just you pile up tools. Just don't do that. That's going to cost you a lot of money and it's a waste as well if you're not using it. So we find that a lot as well. Uh, so yeah, start with the objectives and try to stick to that and then try to get help. Again, I'm more than happy to talk to people. This is what I told at the conference as well. It's not about business, but I like people to work more efficiently. I like to share my thoughts with people, and I'd like to share my ideas, right? It may work for you, uh, but it might not work for somebody else. But you know, based on their circumstances, I can say, look, this is probably what you need to do, right? So I'm happy to have those conversations if anybody's interested, right? And we've had the certain cause, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And sorry, Anthika, I wouldn't mean to interrupt that. And I think that's the thing that I admire you about the conference because it was a free to join, free to register, free to attend conference, which I admire you for doing that, because we see people always have that mindset of well, what am I gonna get out of this? What am I gonna get out of this? What like and and it was it was about educating. It's like I did this podcast, set this podcast up quite a few years ago on the back of just having just sharing experiences and helping brokers, and and you are motivated by that immensely because you you run a broker firm, you've got a team of people, like you you see firsthand, like I I've got my own firm and I've got team people. I do is but then the motivation is to help brokers succeed in the world that we are currently in today and will be in the future as well. And I think I admire you for sort of people can reach out to you, they know that you you you are going to give them the time and the space and your honest answer in terms of giving them feedback on where they're trying to get to. And like I say, take my hat off to you in terms of that, because that is sort of something that we don't have, we have people in the industry that does that, but then but then not they're not many people that do to do that. So I think um, yeah, well done. And I and I think especially around the tech the whole AI space. So obviously, we've worked out that you're thinking similar to mine in terms of embracing AI, building it as part of your process, it's not gonna take over your role. It's about, like you said, about enhancing the customer journey and your relationship with your clients. You've explained a little bit. Obviously, we we we know about Morgjax, we've talked about Toolkit, we know there's another conference going on. What's sort of like in your head, what what does you what do you think the next 12 months look like from uh the whole mortgage industry with the AI? Uh I put you on the spot there. Again, we've not, I know yet. Do you know why? You sort of did say to me, what we're gonna talk about, what are you gonna do? And I've just literally thrown that at you because I think it's just something that people are oh think about what what's sort of like the next maybe maybe 12 months is too big, but what does the next three months look like? What does the first half of 2026 look like with the whole AI piece?
SPEAKER_00:Um uh for me it's very scary, right? Again, it's a personal opinion. Uh for me, obviously it's a crystal ball question, right? Uh for me it's scary. Because if you look at some of the examples out there, today you can book a holiday using AI agent, which will go and book your holiday. And if there's a better price, you know, they'll tell you there's a better price and you can change you. All you need to do is pay. That's all. Uh and then if you look at, you know, likewise restaurant preservations and you know, booking even a haircut, right? Uh those are things that AI agents do nowadays, right? With zero involvement from you. My worry is uh, you know, okay, this is only a worry and okay, and a personal opinion. This is like I this is how I think, right? This can come to the mortgage space, right? Where you know some big player might come and say, Oh, we're doing this, right? So that couldn't change the space, right? So that is a big worry. So the way you can sort of sort of combat that, um, again, you know, this may not happen because this is only uh, you know, my thinking, right? Because uh power is be ready for it, right? Because nobody can take away you know your mortgage advice that you give, AI can't do that, right? So just make sure that you're visible, people see you. Again, this is a subject we spoke about. We spoke about uh uh generative engine optimization or GEO, which replaces, right? And we said the word SEO has changed, right? So be like it's called search everywhere optimization, it's not search engine optimization anymore. So be the one that they remember when it comes to these things, because you know, if ever those changes happen, I don't know, but uh you need to be up there. And obviously, you need to be quite slick as well because people come to you obviously because they're expecting your advice, plus they're advising you to support you better compared to those technologies. Uh but because I know banks are doing stuff, right? Because I've been speaking to banks, but we don't know what exactly they are doing, right? So we don't know what the competition is like, right? You know, big companies like you know, say uh ChatGPT or uh Google, they can come up with products which we haven't even thought about, right? So I think we need to be mindful that these things can happen, but we need to be ready for that, right? So that that's my big worry. So that's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to be ready if there's a competition like that. You know, I'm still not obsolete, sort of thing, right? So I think that's what brokers should work on. I mean, that could take a year. Obviously, our industry is regulated, so you might not be able to do everything. So there are changes. But if the whole world is changing, right, let's say the US does it and the Australia does it, it's only a matter of time before UK might think that they might do it as well. So I think this space is changing a lot, right? So if they are allowing operations, AI to assist with operations, you know, it could happen in our industry as well, right? So that might take 12 months, it might not be three months, but in the next three months, there will be a lot of change. All these small, small changes we will see. And uh again, uh we don't know who is doing what in the background, right? So uh, you know, if you know uh nobody knew about Mortgage X two years ago, right? Because it's a project that we've been working on for you know more than four years now, right? Uh so we don't know who's gonna come. So watch this space, right? There will be a lot of change. That's what I think, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Uh and I think it's very difficult. I think clearly from what you sort of said there, you sort of said something about like the crystal ball. Nobody has got a crystal ball, nobody knows what even the developers of AI. If you ask the the the the big players in the market, they don't even know themselves what the future looks like. They might have an idea, but they still don't know themselves the capability of all this. So you have for me, so like, and I appreciate I know I'll put you on the spot, and I I really appreciate you giving me the honest answer. And I so and on the back of that, I think it is important to to understand that AI we we cannot control this. AI is not something we that any of us can control. Uh and I've sort of said time and time again on this podcast, I live my life around this, that I don't worry about anything that I can't control. If I cannot control it, there is zero point in my spending any time worrying about it, and we do we do that in general. So the people out there that are worried about AI don't sleep at night because they're worried about AI and just thinking the world is going to end because of AI. No, you can't control that. That is just something that, like, that's there's nothing you can do about it. But what you can do, going back to your point, is that you can embrace an AI, you can engage it in your business, and then you can, as it sits right now, you can adapt and then build it as part of your business, build it as part of your lifestyle, because and embracing the and embracing it and going along with the ride because you can't change it, there's nothing you can do, you can't influence it. It literally is this is what's going to happen. You just get along with the ride, or you're just done. And I think that's the I think the brokers who embrace AI and technology and sort of see it as um the positive sides of this will continue in the marketplace. I think we will lose some brokers who are the who don't want to embrace it and are the brokers that have been sort of very transactional, not really customer-centric, don't really provide that then know the names of the dogs and the kids at school and things like that. I think those kind of brokers will who can't be bothered, will lose out, we will lose out the industry, which is better for the industry because we will be far more customer-centric and no sort of like smokes and mirrors, shall we say, of what goes on behind the scenes. We will be very transparent as an industry, which can only be a good thing. But I think um, yeah, it's interesting to get your take on it. And I apologize for putting you on the spot like that. And I appreciate you giving me an honest feature. Yeah, again, it's a great end up being. I no, it is a person, and my per and very similar to my personal opinion is very similar to yours to be fair together. You've either got to you either adapt it and change with it, or you'll you won't you will be left behind and will be doing something else or thinking about something else. So um, so yeah. If the we've gone sort of talked quite a technology and and that for over 40 minutes. So thank you so much for your time for agreeing to come back on. Thank you so much for doing the conference. I really appreciate that. And really do so the links to the um, and if you want to register for next year's, we'll make sure the email links in that as well. Um, sure, so people can register for next year as well. I'll put your link to connect with you on LinkedIn as well, because I'm guessing that's the best place to connect with you and talk about yeah, Morgaj's toolkit or just and things like that. So yeah, the best way to do it.
SPEAKER_00:Anything in general as well. I'm happy to help people who want help, right? So, you know, it's not about uh this thing, like I said, you know, you can start with zero code. If people want help with zero code, I can guide them on those things as well, right? So yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Perfect. If it's got thoughts, so thank you so much for your time. Thanks for agreeing to come back on and um thank you for giving me honest, trustworthy experience in terms of and I'm looking forward to what the future does hold. And uh yeah, I might be picking your brains as well, too, in terms of things that are going on. So yeah, cool. Thank you. Thanks very much. All right, thank you, Craig. Thanks for that, If it's for coming back onto the podcast, really appreciate it, really appreciate you coming back on and I appreciate what you're doing in the industry in terms of talking about AI and how about embracing AI as a mortgage broker, as a firm owner, and what's going on in that space. I did put you on the spot about the future as well, so I appreciate your um honest take on that as well, which obviously we know and understand that um people don't know in the industry, people don't know who are creating the technology with the AI, what it uh looks like. So I appreciate your take on that, as always, and uh thanks for listening, thanks for watching. If you feel benefit, please leave a review, please subscribe as always, and please don't forget to run your own race.