Artificial intelligence can boost lending without a whiff of generative AI

Whether your bank is competing for loans in town or on affiliate sites like Credit Karma or Bankrate, adding artificial intelligence to your lending arsenal can drive better decision making and also help separate credit risks at a finer level.

With the explosive buzz that artificial intelligence models have brought into the mainstream, AI, especially generative AI, has been almost impossible to ignore. But while ChatGPT and similar tools attract attention and drive excitement, banking companies have successfully deployed AI and machine learning models for years to propel growth, enhance efficiency, and gain a competitive edge on the lending side. That’s pretty exciting and has a track record.

AI presents many promising opportunities for banking institutions in lending, revolutionizing how financial institutions assess risk, underwrite loans and enhance customer experience.

Artificial intelligence augments the human element

AI is not meant to reduce human staff, nor is it meant to entirely supplant the human role in making credit decisions. No matter how sophisticated the technology, you will always need some layer of human touch.

The most effective applications are those that use AI as a supportive force: aiding in data analysis, helping to craft predictive modeling, and serving as a source of information for better decision making. This application is less glamorous than large language models and other generative AI, but operational optimization is one of the most tried and true applications for artificial intelligence. This optimization also ultimately unlocks new opportunities for upskilling and reskilling the institution’s workforce.

 

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