Synergy One’s CEO talks about proprietary tech vs. vendor reliance

Steve
Majerus,
the
CEO
of
Synergy
One
Lending,
sees
the
benefits
of
artificial
intelligence
for
his
organization
and
the
mortgage
lending
industry
as
a
whole.
And
while
he
is
not
throwing
all
company
resources
into
shiny
AI
tools,
Majerus
wants
to
ensure
that
his
loan
officers
have
the
technology
gadgets
necessary
to
compete
with
other
lending
shops.

“One
of
our
operating
premises
for
the
company
is
helping
our
loan
officers
create
modern
mortgage
experiences
for
homebuyers
and
homeowners,”
said
Majerus. “While
we’re
being
cautious,
we
are
optimistic
about
what
AI
holds
for
improving
the
customer
experience,
our
customer
analytics,
and
the
outcomes
that
it
can
provide.”

The
company’s
CEO
says
the
San
Diego-based
lending
shop
has
strived
to
be
part
of
the
wave
of
cutting-edge
technology
adoption.

Most
recently,
the
company
rolled
out
an
internally
facing
AI
chatbot,
dubbed
Synergy
GPT.
The
main
function
of
the
chatbot
is
to
help
employees
easily
locate
information,
ranging
from
human
resource
guidelines,
Fannie
Mae
and
Freddie
Mac
origination
information
and
loan
scenarios. 

“Our
focus
is
to
grab
the
low-hanging
fruit
where
AI
can
provide
value
to
a
company
like
ours
in
areas
like
database
management
and
retention
of
our
customer
database,
and
provide
analytics
around
opportunities
and
managing
that
database
for
our
loan
officers,”
said
Majerus. 

“We
have
found
that
people
using
it
see
an
advantage
in
terms
of
the
ease
of
getting
access
to
information
and
then
being
able
to
make
it
actionable
and
reducing
the
number
of
human
interactions
needed
on
some
queries
that
are
easily
handled
by
AI
assistance,”
he
added. “This
frees
up
our
teammates
to
do
more
complex
things,
more
creative
things.”

Additionally,
Synergy
launched
a
tool
called
Clarity,
which
provides
a
point-of-sale
as
well
as
quality
control
in
the
origination
process “to
ensure
that
we’re
getting
the
most
accurate
picture
of
application
data.” 

“It
helps
provide
certainty
to
the
consumer
in
terms
of
what’s
needed
on
the
loan,
but
also
to
our 

loan
officers,
processors,
underwriters
and
post
closing.
They
have
all
been
able
to
make
a
use
case
out
of
this
tool
again,
reducing
friction,
providing
increased
accuracy
and
speed
in
the
manufacturing
process.”

The
money
question

Adopting
new
technology
can
come
with
a
hefty
price
tag.
For
mid-sized
lenders
like
Synergy,
it
is
a
fine
balance
deciding
whether
to
have
an
in-house
group
of
technology
professionals
to
build
proprietary
solutions,
or
to
rely
on
third-party
vendors.

Majerus
says
that
his
business
strategy
for
now
is
the
latter.

The
benefit
of
doing
so
is
that
you
have
first
dibs
to
try
out
technologies
that
may
just
be
coming
to
market
at
a
discount,
but
there
are
also
drawbacks
to
doing
so.

“If
we
are
an
early
adopter
of
a
technology,
we
have
the
opportunity
to
have
a
voice
in
terms
of
customizations
and
specifics
of
what
their
products
actually
look
like
when
they
go
to
market,”
the
executive
said. “We’ve
found
that
being
an
active
participant
has
been
a
much
better
way
for
us
to
deploy
some
of
these
technology
solutions
versus
retaining
a
large
IT
infrastructure
internally,
developers
or
other
other
people
to
kind
of
build
those
things
out.”

Majerus
notes
that
relying
exclusively
on
vendors
can
also
have
downsides
that
potentially
negate
any
cost
savings.

“You
do
have
pretty
significant
costs
with
each
of
the
partners
that
you’re
using,
and
we
saw
this


during
the
downturn
in
the
industry
where
you’re
stuck
in
long
term
contracts
that
in
many
cases
have
minimums
tied
to
them,
maybe
those
contracts
become
very
uneconomic,”
he
said. “When
you
add
up
our
tech
spend
versus
what
it
would
be
to
support
proprietary
platforms
and
developers
required
to
develop
it,
it’s
still
better
for
us
to
go
the
vendor
route.”

Though
the
company’s
CEO
wouldn’t
explicitly
state
the
costs
for
the
build
out
of
something
like
Synergy
GPT,
he
did
say
that
some
of
these
tech
initiatives
can
hit
the
six
figure
mark.

“Very
often
for
a
company
our
size,
these
are
six-figure
investments
in
any
of
these
technology
partnerships,
but
not
all
of
them,”
Majerus
said. ”
When
you
can
dip
your
toe
in
the
water
in
some
of
these
areas
by
being
an
early
tech
adopter
you
can
deploy
these
solutions
in
a
more
economic
way.”

Future
technology
plans

Majerus
sees
a
bright
future
for
how
AI
can
be
implemented
at
Synergy.

Going
into
2025
there
are
plans
to “incorporate
AI
in
the
loan
process
itself
in
a
more
meaningful
way,”
he
said.

“We
do
think
that
pushing
more
analytics
to
the
very
front
end
of
the
process
is
an
opportunity
that
is
just
staring
us
right
in
the
face,
and
the
deployment
of
some
AI
solutions
at
that
stage
of
the
process
can
advance
things
potentially
in
a
meaningful
way,
which
has
downstream
benefits
as
well.”

To
the
age-old
question
of
whether


AI
technology
will
impact
the
mortgage
workforce,
Majerus
thinks
it
might
to
an
extent.

“I
do
think
there
is
a
potential
for
that,
but
for
the
most
part
it
will
just
be
a
reimagining
of
some
roles,”
he
said. “The
human
in
the
loop,
as
they
say,
is
going
to
be
a
constant
in
this
process,
not
only
with
sales
people
in
creating
solutions
and
options,
but
also
in
educating
home
buyers
and
assessing
credit
and
requirements
in
a
loan
file.
There’s
always
going
to
be
the
need
for
a
human
role
in
a
vast
majority.”