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"Koodoo begins to learn rapidly and eventually becomes self-aware" - reaction from brokers

ended 16. August 2023

Following Koodoo's announcement that it has successfully secured the UK's mortgage advice qualification (CeMAP) using its proprietary AI technology, free UK news agency, Newspage, sought the views of brokers on whether their roles are under threat.

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9 responses from the Newspage community

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Steven Morris
Advising Director at Advantage Financial Solutions
CeMAP is passed by Koodoo's proprietary AI technology, and the system goes online on August 16, 2023, removing human decisions from strategic mortgage advice. Koodoo begins to learn rapidly and eventually becomes self-aware at 2:14am, GMT, on September 10, 2023. Unlike Terminator 2: Judgement Day, this series of events would have made a crap film and, based on today's tech, pants mortgage advice. Training a system to pass a multiple choice questionnaire is really rather impressive, however, let's not reach for the T1000 pump action shotgun just yet. Mortgage advice is about balancing risks, and more specifically relating those risks personally to the client in question, which involves a level of emotional intelligence. Which property should the client mortgage to achieve their goal? What factor should they sacrifice in order to gain more of another? Why is the client's pre-packaged solution sub-optimal and what would be better? Right now, AI is as wooden as Arnie's acting.
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Riz Malik
Independent Financial Adviser at R3 Wealth
Last time I checked, the CeMAP qualification wasn't open book. While I applaud the language model's capabilities, it's like comparing apples to oranges. AI is certainly set to transform various sectors, catering initially to clients with basic needs. But my two decades in financial services have shown that there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer. AI could be a game-changer for brokers in back-office functions like research and compliance. However, if AI directs borrowers to lenders without the right guidance, that raises concerns. With the current challenges in implementing open banking to ease applications, I don’t foresee an AI-centric industry just yet.
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Craig Fish
Director at Lodestone Mortgages & Protection
AI is good for marketing, admin-based tasks, and as a research tool for generic information. It is of no use when bespoke, personalised and human interaction is needed, mortgage advice being just one area where these rules apply. In over 20 years in the financial services industry, not one mortgage I have written has been identical to another, just as humans and their requirements are all unique, so is mortgage advice, and no AI tool is going to be able to replace a good broker. It's a brave person who lets a computer secure a mortgage on their most important and prized asset, their home.
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Stephen Perkins
Managing Director at Yellow Brick Mortgages
Programme it with enough past-paper questions and textbooks and any AI can pass any exam. The key thing here is that the CeMAP qualifications and equivalent are not fit for purpose for the main skills and attributes that make a great broker. So many clients fall between the cracks in lender criteria and experience and skill and lender relationships are key to success. AI and technology tools have a place in the future of the industry as a tool for brokers to save time and streamline processes but I cannot ever see them replacing the knowledge, experience and relationship-building qualities of human brokers.
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Mark Hosker
Mortgage Adviser at Cyborg Finance
The CeMAP qualification does not mean you are a competent mortgage adviser; it's just the start of the journey. Unfortunately for Koodoo, it has no up-to-date Continuous Professional Development (CPD) record as GPT-4 was trained on data up to September 2021. I wouldn't be able to sign it off with 'Competent Adviser Status' (CAS). There are also numerous media reports about GPT Koodoo hallucinating, which would bring into question its Fit and Proper Status. The validity of the CeMap exam is in question, as GPT Koodoo brought the entire internet in with them and CeMap is not an open-book exam.
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Darryl Dhoffer
Founder at The Mortgage Geezer
If only CeMAP was all you needed to give structured mortgage advice, with evolving variable client requirements and variable lender criteria. I can see AI benefits for "some" administrative and marketing roles, but that is it. If clients are encouraged to perform a swift comparison and then apply directly to lenders, this can so easily cause declines with clients none the wiser on the reasons why their case has been declined. Dangerous ground indeed.
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Scott Taylor-Barr
Principal Adviser at Barnsdale Financial Management
Without knowing the ins and outs of how the test was performed or how the AI functions, my initial question was that if the AI is connected to the internet then surely it's cheating. Advisers have to sit their CeMAP examination in test conditions without access to the internet and other resources, so if the AI does have access to these resources as part of its functionality, can it really be said it passed the test? I am however really pleased to read how Koodoo see their AI as a support for human interaction between client and professional adviser and they are not pushing it as a replacement for that relationship. The AI-supported professional feels like the right way forward, in almost all areas where AI is being developed.
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Gareth Davies
Director at South Coast Mortgage Services
There's certainly a place for AI and tech within the industry, to help the autonomy of back-office tasks, for example. What a robot will never be able to do is read the emotion and truly understand the needs of a client who is struggling to make ends meet and that may have missed payments, or someone needing empathetic help to guide them through a messy divorce and such like. The value of a broker is much more than just rate hunting.
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Sabrina Hall
Mortgage Adviser & Protection Adviser at Kind Financial Services
Passing your CeMAP exam doesn't make you an experienced and competent adviser. Experience of dealing with multiple lenders, solicitors and knowing the criteria of all the lenders helps with that. The biggest comment I get from my clients, however, is how great it was to have someone to talk to through the process. Communication and experience are a huge part of my role as an adviser and I think we are a long way away from AI being able to deal with that side of things.