Automating tasks to give brokers more time for customers
Walk through any trade show in 2026, and brokers will notice no shortage of new artificial intelligence (AI) technology being pitched in all corners of the vendor room.
Technology in the mortgage space is improving at a breakneck pace, and so much of it is geared toward making the customer-facing experience faster and smoother.
And it’s not just trade shows where companies are showing off new tech. With each new event from the industry’s largest mortgage companies, there is almost guaranteed to be some new shiny object for brokers to get excited about. Whether it’s a new LOS, integrated tools, or new chatbots, the battle for tech supremacy isn’t likely to end anytime soon.
While all of those technological advances will get the majority of the attention due to the customer-facing impact, one broker has been doing his part to spread the word about simple, back-end AI enhancements that can make a broker’s life easier.
Carlos Scarpero (pictured top), mortgage broker at Edge Home Finance, said one of the newest things he’s been able to automate involves reimbursement reporting.
“What can I automate, and what wastes my time?” Scarpero told Mortgage Professional America. “What drives me insane? And for me, one of my big pet peeves is invoicing. We basically submit invoices and get reimbursed tax-free. It’s a great way to save on taxes. A lot of people don't do them as often as they should, or get late, which I've done several times because it's a pain.”
Automating the process
Scarpero said the process is a pain because there are several pieces of information that have to be put together to get the reimbursement approved.
“You have to go find the expenses, which is easy,” he said. “But with the receipt part, you have to basically go and get a credit card statement and match up every single expense that you're sending with an actual receipt from the provider. You have to find the program you bought, go get the receipt, and then you put it in a spreadsheet, and then you match the receipt to your spreadsheet, and all the numbers have to match up. It’s a pain.”
After deciding that the process was too much of a pain, he turned to AI to see if he could automate the process. First, he tried to give AI access to his bookkeeping software so it could download invoices from Google AdWords and directly upload them. However, that didn’t work. So he kept plugging away with AI to find a solution that did work.
“I gave the robot feedback,” Scarpero said. “I was like, ‘I think if we do as an email instead of a direct upload, that it could work. And AI comes back and said, ‘Oh, great idea. I'll try that.’ Like literally like talking to a friend. So the AI asked for my Gmail password. I granted the permissions, and boom, within five minutes, we figured it out.
“I go to my Gmail, and sure enough, it shows up there, and it shows up on my software. I set it up to do it once a month at a certain time. What else can I automate? I started doing it for four other invoicing programs.”
For brokers who are looking to grow their business, Scarpero said finding ways to make menial tasks automatic is a great way to be more efficient without having to hire more help.
“This is something for loan officers who want to scale,” he said. “Because that's been my struggle. How do I scale this thing? Up until recently, scaling was always about people. You hire a loan officer assistant (LOA) for whatever amount per month. Well, the LOA wants a minimum amount of time. They want vacations. You’ve got to train people. You've got to find people. You hire people. How much do you pay them?”
Sharing the knowledge
One thing that makes the mortgage broker space unique from many other industries is the willingness to share knowledge. Scarpero doesn’t have to share this knowledge with the community, but rather than hoard it, he’s been going on to broker social media pages to teach people what he knows.
Of course, it helps that he has a head start over a lot of brokers. He also knows that some brokers will ignore his advice anyway.
“By the time I taught you, and you did it, I would be four steps ahead anyway,” he said. “Even if I tell someone everything I know, you retain what 7% of what I say anyway. And then on top of that, you have the factor that most people are too scared, too lazy, too misinformed, to even take action anyway. I could literally lay out every game plan, which I typically do, and most people won’t do anything anyway.
“Eventually, I ended up gaining too, because I ended up getting speaker engagements and getting people coming to work with me, and I'm getting referrals. I think the gain way exceeds the fear of loss. I have an abundance mindset, where I'm going to share, I'm going to be open, I'm going to be honest.”
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