Hi and welcome to Broker Tools, where we unpack the tools, systems, and strategies that help brokers optimize the way they work. I'm Katie, your host,
0:077 secondsand today we are catching up with Philip from Financeible. Financible is the loan origination platform built specifically
0:1515 secondsfor asset and commercial finance brokers, helping you to streamline applications and lender submissions. In this episode, we are going to explore
0:2424 secondshow Finance new AI enabled features save time, reduce errors, and move deals through faster so you can spend less
0:3232 secondstime manually copying and pasting and more time growing your business. If you are in the asset or commercial finance broker industry looking to reduce the
0:4141 secondsadmin, then this conversation is for you. Phillip, welcome to the pod.
0:4747 secondsHey Katie, thanks for having me. Excited to be on. Me too. I'm really and as we started before we started when I
0:5555 secondsultimately really looking forward to all these kinds of conversations with people like yourself because as we have said you know tech in finance is quite
1:041 minute, 4 secondsfragmented. There's all these kinds of technology available to brokers to optimize the way they work. Um let's
1:121 minute, 12 secondsstart with some origin stories about you and how did you before even Financeible began where did you start? How did you get here?
1:211 minute, 21 secondsYeah. Um that is a bit of a long story. [laughter] I I actually fell into tech.
1:281 minute, 28 secondsUm so long long time ago I were back at uni. I was actually studying medicine and I was on the path to being a doctor.
1:351 minute, 35 secondsUm realized that that wasn't for me and uh started a small business early on in the early days of the internet when um
1:441 minute, 44 secondsyou know building a website cost a lot of money. you know, we're talking tens of thousands of dollars just to get a basic website up. So, this is the early
1:501 minute, 50 seconds2000s. And as arrogant or maybe naive as I was at the time, being young, I thought, you know what, I could build it
1:581 minute, 58 secondsmyself. Shouldn't be too hard. Um, and so after six months of, you know, messing around, I finally cobbled together um a really crappy website.
2:082 minutes, 8 secondsUm, and and it worked it worked well enough that the that the business did pretty well from it. Um but the the side effect
2:162 minutes, 16 secondsthat I didn't anticipate at the time was people started coming up to me and saying hey can you build me a website um and then that became a business in
2:252 minutes, 25 secondsitself and was more lucrative than the one that I had started that I built the website for originally. So then I quit that and then started you know building
2:332 minutes, 33 secondswebsites for people and then that evolved into me learning how to code properly and then eventually became a software engineer and you know worked in the industry for about 15 years now.
2:432 minutes, 43 secondsWow. So software engineering which I guess is how we all I think all of all
2:502 minutes, 50 secondsthe people on this side of um the industry I call it the school of drop and roll.
2:562 minutes, 56 secondsDo you know what I mean? [laughter] Like you accidentally get dropped in it and then you learn as you roll along. Um because I have a very similar I guess
3:043 minutes, 4 secondsorigin story too because I didn't start in software either. And so it's that whole learning curve that you don't actually expect. How did it then
3:133 minutes, 13 secondstransition over into you creating financable?
3:163 minutes, 16 secondsUh that's a funny story. So, I was working in tech and I was working for um a company doing a lot of automation and
3:263 minutes, 26 secondsmy brother um at the time was working in finance and you know he'd always come home well not come home sorry he you know whenever he'd hang out he'd talk
3:353 minutes, 35 secondsabout the frustrations that he would have um with the finance industry because it was so lagging behind in
3:423 minutes, 42 secondsterms of their use of technology and you know he'd always be complaining you know there must be a better way to do XY Z. And as you would explain it to
3:503 minutes, 50 secondsme, I'd be like, "Yeah, that's really easy. You know, you can just do this." And one night, one Friday night over a
3:573 minutes, 57 secondsbottle of whiskey, um, we kind of hashed out this idea, you know, well, if we could do this, why why can't we do it?
4:064 minutes, 6 secondsAnd so, you know, that that classic story of back at the napkin. Um, you know, woke up the next morning and looked around my living room. I'm like, what's all this crap?
4:154 minutes, 15 secondsum and then saw an email from ASICH saying that we had registered a company.
4:194 minutes, 19 secondsSo um being drunk, we had like gone from like you know the concept to design to all the way to registering a company um
4:284 minutes, 28 secondsall in one night. And then so I guess I said to him like well we've registered the company I guess we've got to do it now. And so that's how it started. Um
4:374 minutes, 37 secondsbut originally the financable we didn't set out to be a purely software company.
4:444 minutes, 44 secondsum even though tech was the background for it. Um really what we were trying to solve was the experience that a consumer
4:524 minutes, 52 secondshas to go through to access finance. Um which was pretty poor at the time. You know, uh forms were really cumbersome
4:594 minutes, 59 secondsand really long. Um the process was slow. you know, once you submitted an application, you'd wait days for somebody to contact you and then that
5:075 minutes, 7 secondsprocess would be, you know, really oldfashioned where you go through an interview process and kind of rehash a lot of the stuff you'd already put into an application. So, you know, by the
5:165 minutes, 16 secondstime you'd gone to the end of the process, people were, you know, were pretty tired of it. So, that's the process we tried to solve with technology. And funnily enough, we we
5:255 minutes, 25 secondswere a broker at the start. And in in broking, we discovered that it wasn't just the consumer side of the process
5:325 minutes, 32 secondsthat was really difficult. It was also for the broker. Um there didn't really exist uh tools for the broker to make it
5:395 minutes, 39 secondseasy for them to, you know, write loans, originate loans, and then and then lodge them. So um we looked around, we
5:465 minutes, 46 secondscouldn't find anything that really worked for us. And again, me being arrogant or naive, I thought, why don't we just build our own? So that's what we
5:545 minutes, 54 secondsdid. Um and that's eventually what became financable. So you know in using it we talked to other people other brokers other friends and they said hey
6:036 minutes, 3 secondswe really like your software. Could we use it as well? So uh very similar story to to how I I started in tech with the
6:116 minutes, 11 secondsthe website business I had. So we started giving it to people um at the start just for free and then we started charging and we're like hey this might
6:196 minutes, 19 secondsbe quite lucrative. Um, and it was a difficult decision for us to make because we were actually doing quite well on the broking side. But with any
6:266 minutes, 26 secondssort of service-based industry, um, it's difficult to scale. It only really scales up with the number of, uh, revenue generating resources you have in the business.
6:356 minutes, 35 secondsYeah. Um, and also broking's pretty difficult.
6:396 minutes, 39 secondsUm, it may seem pretty easy to people on the outside, but it's actually quite tough. And we sort of thought maybe we're not so cut out for broking. Why don't we just focus on the tech side? So
6:486 minutes, 48 secondswe pivoted from being a broker to being a software company and yeah that's how Financible today was born and you've never looked back.
6:566 minutes, 56 secondsUh we've looked back a lot of times.
6:596 minutes, 59 seconds[laughter]
7:017 minutes, 1 secondI guess the healthy honest truth you're like oh man tech look you know tech tech is really difficult. Um you know being a tech
7:097 minutes, 9 secondsstartup's really hard. Uh you have to invest a lot in the beginning to even get to a point where you're making money. So, you know, on broking, we were
7:187 minutes, 18 secondsmaking money from the start. You know, as soon as you get leads coming in, you got customers to serve. Um, you know, you're making commission straight away.
7:257 minutes, 25 secondsUh, whereas tech, it takes time to build your software to a point where it's actually sellable to people. Um, and especially with a SASbased business, you
7:357 minutes, 35 secondsneed a lot of customers to actually generate enough revenue. So, yeah, those those first few years were were really tough, you know. Um that classic story, I was working out of my mom's garage.
7:467 minutes, 46 secondsUm yeah, doing really long hours and not for not a lot of money at the start.
7:517 minutes, 51 secondsActually, no money at the start. We were bootstrapping the business.
7:547 minutes, 54 secondsUm so it was a bit of a hard slogan. And there there were definitely moments where we looked back and thought, you know, maybe broking was just easier. We were actually making money. You know,
8:028 minutes, 2 secondsthe grass isn't always greener on the other side. Uh but looking back now, you know, we're glad that we made that that
8:098 minutes, 9 secondschoice and I'm very happy at where we at now, which is I guess that whole entrepreneurial growth journey because
8:168 minutes, 16 secondswhether you are a broker or a SAS software like in the beginning your yards are harder
8:238 minutes, 23 secondseven just as a broker in the beginning that whole cycle is is tough.
8:288 minutes, 28 secondsYeah, that's right. I mean starting any business is tough right from scratch.
8:328 minutes, 32 secondsSo, you know, going through that process, I think it was it was great for us because we didn't and this is something that we kind of see with with
8:408 minutes, 40 secondsother um technologies for brokers. Um it's it's made by software engineers made by tech people and sometimes they
8:498 minutes, 49 secondsthey lack some of the depth of of experience or understanding that of brokers. So, having had that experience
8:568 minutes, 56 secondsbeing a broker beforehand really helped us shape our technology. Um so that you know it is made by brokers for brokers.
9:049 minutes, 4 secondsUm so we're not trying to dictate how a broker should you know run their business or how they should do their job. Um it helped informed um how we
9:139 minutes, 13 secondsbuilt our technology. So you know it enabled brokers rather than um dictated to them.
9:179 minutes, 17 secondsYeah. And I see the beautiful line. I too obviously have a marketing background and have done a website design service as well as you and what I
9:279 minutes, 27 secondshave found in the process is those two combinations of not only have you done website design along with broking you're
9:349 minutes, 34 secondsnow on the other side of technology and and obviously um one of the things you notice within those three um processes
9:439 minutes, 43 secondsis the journey that someone goes through.
9:459 minutes, 45 secondsAbsolutely. And that's and that's the the part that you need to sort of keep in the back of your mind as you're doing this, right?
9:529 minutes, 52 secondsYeah. And so whether you're building out a software or your broker business, it's what is the journey that you're taking people on. When it came to financable
10:0210 minutes, 2 secondsbecause you're actually really only focused on asset and commercial. You really don't do mortgage. How did you choose that particular frame of reference?
10:1110 minutes, 11 secondsUm that was really easy. Uh two reasons.
10:1410 minutes, 14 secondsThe first one it's that's where our area of expertise is. So my co-founder Darren um he's uh from the you know asset
10:2310 minutes, 23 secondsfinance background he um built Pepper's asset finance business from the ground up. Um so he had a lot
10:3110 minutes, 31 secondsof experience in asset finance. So you know that was it was natural for us to start there. Um the second reason is what we were doing uh is very similar to
10:4010 minutes, 40 secondssomething that already exists in the residential mortgage um area which is uh nextgen and apply online. So that's
10:4810 minutes, 48 secondssomething that's existed for a long time. They've got a good hold of the market and so you know we didn't want to compete with a with a giant like them.
10:5710 minutes, 57 secondsSo we thought let's focus on asset finance. It's what we know best and it's a very underserved market.
11:0311 minutes, 3 secondsYes. And so for those who actually don't know what Fanceible actually is or does, what is Financeible? [laughter]
11:1111 minutes, 11 secondsYeah. So Financeible, it's a broker platform um that allows brokers to aggregate data from different sources
11:1911 minutes, 19 secondsfor a finance application. So it might be a CRM, it might be, you know, a government database such as the Australian Business Registry, uh it
11:2711 minutes, 27 secondscould be from a credit bureau like Illen or Equifax. Um, and it pulls all that data in to essentially build your
11:3511 minutes, 35 secondsfinance application and then allow you to select a lender that you want to um, lodge that deal with and then lodge the deal directly to them automatically.
11:4511 minutes, 45 secondsNice. And so I guess um ultimately it's what we call your presubmission process
11:5211 minutes, 52 secondslike gathering everything that's suitable for a submission application process and making sure that that data is truly correct so that when you're
12:0012 minutestrying to put through your asset or commercial application to the lender that whole process is automated and easy.
12:0812 minutes, 8 secondsYeah. Exactly right. So essentially we're sort of the gateway between you know the broker and the lender. So we
12:1412 minutes, 14 secondscentralize that process. Um but even if you've like gathered all your information in one place um when you bring it into financable uh every lender
12:2312 minutes, 23 secondshas different requirements they have different like criteria policy. So what we do is we analyze the data of your application and then let you know hey
12:3112 minutes, 31 secondsyou know you're missing this bits of information if you want to lodge it with this lender or you know the lender that you were originally thinking of u your
12:3912 minutes, 39 secondsapplication doesn't quite fit their criteria so you might want to look at some of the others. So we sort of help that process along by giving you the
12:4612 minutes, 46 secondsinformation up front. So then you're not wasting time going to the lender and realizing, oh, it's not going to work with them.
12:5112 minutes, 51 secondsOh, nice. So because because we talk about uh journeys, you know, everybody obviously they say everybody, but we're
13:0013 minutesworking towards most brokers having a CRM in place. You'd hope that you do. Um if you don't have a CRM in place, please
13:0813 minutes, 8 secondscome talk to me. um [laughter] only because we obviously want to understand your lead flow and lead flow helps make this process easy. And so
13:1713 minutes, 17 secondsonce you've gathered all the facts and all the details um about your client and
13:2413 minutes, 24 secondsthe the this where does finance fit next? So in the journey you have a discovery call then you all of those
13:3113 minutes, 31 secondstypes of details go into a CRM. Where is financeable? Yeah. So we would probably come in next.
13:3813 minutes, 38 secondsSo between you doing the factf find, talking to your customer, collecting all the information from them, um then that's where we come in. So you've got
13:4613 minutes, 46 secondsenough information to kind of put together a deal. Um you would then bring that deal into financable. You would finish off whatever is missing. So as I
13:5313 minutes, 53 secondsmentioned before, each lender has different requirements. So we'll let you know what bits of information you still need. You can finish that off within
14:0114 minutes, 1 secondFinanceible. Um we can talk back to your CRM. So we'll send any data that you collect there back to your CRM. So you can um still have that information for
14:0914 minutes, 9 secondsthe future. And then you go through the selection process. So you have a look at the lenders that match your um customers profile, choose the one that you want to go with and then lodge a deal with them.
14:2014 minutes, 20 secondsNice. Um and with financeable, how do you make the data safe and secure throughout this process?
14:2914 minutes, 29 secondsYeah, so um we're security is one of our biggest things. So we start at the foundation of how we build everything,
14:3714 minutes, 37 secondshow we design everything, um is always security focused. Um we're actually ISO 27,01 certified. Um funnily enough,
14:4514 minutes, 45 secondswe're we're about to go through our reertification for the year um tomorrow.
14:5014 minutes, 50 seconds[laughter]
14:5114 minutes, 51 secondsPerfect timing.
14:5214 minutes, 52 secondsYeah, perfect timing. Um and it's something that we've always been conscious of. Um, you know, with brokers, you're handling a lot of um
15:0015 minutespeople's really personal information and some some very sensitive data. You know, things like driver's licenses, passports, you know, their financial
15:0815 minutes, 8 secondsstatements, um, you know, some of the most personal information to a to a customer. And so, you really need to handle that with with a lot of care. um
15:1715 minutes, 17 secondsas soon as you you know if if somehow you that data is is leaked um you lose the trust of your customers and that's the most important thing for a broker.
15:2615 minutes, 26 secondsYou know they're coming to you with a really important purchase. You know um outside of a a home a vehicle will will be your second most important or
15:3515 minutes, 35 secondsexpensive purchase that you make. So having that trust in the person that you're working with is is hugely important. And so for us we know we always have that in the back of our
15:4415 minutes, 44 secondsmind. um that security is number one. So everything is is um encrypted. Um all
15:5115 minutes, 51 secondsthe data is housed in Australia. Um we have processes in place as part of our um ISO obligations to continually check
15:5815 minutes, 58 secondsand assess and audit um everything that we do. So we ensure that um we're compliant and we're and we're safe and secure.
16:0616 minutes, 6 secondsNice. And then because you've got all that safety in place, you've now got integration. So you integrate with you
16:1416 minutes, 14 secondssaid Ilion um Australian bank uh sorry like the business registry anybody else? Yeah. Uh there's Equifax.
16:2516 minutes, 25 secondsThere's also um ID Kit. So they're identity verification service. Um they do biometric verification. Um again
16:3516 minutes, 35 secondsanother um area that we're trying to push in terms of security, but this is on the other side. So this is on the fraud side. Mhm.
16:4216 minutes, 42 secondsUm so we offer this service so brokers can um verify the the identity of the customers that they're they're working
16:5016 minutes, 50 secondswith to ensure that they're bad not bad actors, you know, they're not fraudulent. And there's actually been a few cases recently where um that's
16:5716 minutes, 57 secondsactually uh happened and yeah, using the services saved them.
17:0217 minutes, 2 secondsYeah. which is you know paramount by having those like gu well I say it's a well-known fact that generally within
17:0917 minutes, 9 secondsthe AI world guard rails don't work but because um and I'm assuming this but you should correct me if I'm wrong but
17:1717 minutes, 17 secondsbecause you've got certain types of systems and iOS um securityurities in
17:2217 minutes, 22 secondsplace AI and other even API access to areas is really like finite and secured
17:3117 minutes, 31 secondsabsolutely Absolutely. Um, and it's especially when you're integrating with with with companies such as, you know, credit bureaus such as Illen and Equifax, they're very very security conscious.
17:4217 minutes, 42 secondsYou know, they're dealing with very personal information as well. Um, in fact, to the point where, you know, they audit us before we're able to integrate with that. So, yeah, you've got to
17:5117 minutes, 51 secondsyou've got to adhere to a very high standard when you're working with um API integrations.
17:5717 minutes, 57 secondsYes. And so would you say that financable handles some of that like factf find or document collection for
18:0418 minutes, 4 secondsparts that may be not collected at the beginning of a CRM process.
18:0918 minutes, 9 secondsYeah. Exactly right. So you could in theory and some people do do this you could build your whole application within financable. Um that's possible.
18:1718 minutes, 17 secondsUh but really what we do is we sort of help finish the process. Um because you
18:2518 minutes, 25 secondsknow you might gather say 80 to 90% of the information but then you may not be aware of some other details that you
18:3218 minutes, 32 secondsneed to be able to submit that uh application to a specific lender. Every lender has different requirements. You know they all have their idiosyncrasies
18:4018 minutes, 40 secondsand it's difficult to kind of remember all of those in the back of your head.
18:4418 minutes, 44 secondsSo that's why we've got that within financable to kind of help you finish your your process and ensure that you're you're all, you know, there and correct and then you can lodge the deal.
18:5418 minutes, 54 secondsNice. And um I guess what are some of the biggest hurdles that you've seen in
19:0219 minutes, 2 secondsthe integration process in moving from one place to another and using financial in that process in terms of somebody integrating with us or us integrating with someone else?
19:1219 minutes, 12 secondsEither or. cuz I think there's two processes. There's first you want to integrate but then someone also wants might later on want to integrate with
19:2119 minutes, 21 secondsyou cuz um again data in data out people have both those needs.
19:2719 minutes, 27 secondsYeah it's um yeah so integrating with any API is is a is a pretty challenging process in itself. Um every API is
19:3519 minutes, 35 secondsdifferent. Uh every API is built differently. Um there's different types of APIs that exist as well. Um so not all APIs are the same. Um so trying to
19:4519 minutes, 45 secondsnavigate that um is is pretty tricky. Um the biggest challenge in itself is being able to map data. So you know when
19:5219 minutes, 52 secondsyou've got a finance application you you could have upwards of 100 fields that you need to to fill in. Um but then you've got to match that data to someone
20:0020 minuteselse's API. So then you've got to take those 100 fields and then map them to the other side. Um so once you connect the dots then you've got to do things
20:0820 minutes, 8 secondslike data transformation. So you might have it as a number in your side. They might have it as a string. For those who don't know what a string is, it's just text.
20:1720 minutes, 17 secondsUm, so you've got to be able to translate the type of data as well. So it's a bit of a slow process, a lot of, you know,
20:2520 minutes, 25 secondstrial and error to to get through. Um, but yeah, so integrating with any API is a challenge in itself, especially with
20:3220 minutes, 32 secondswith how many different kinds that exist out there in the market.
20:3620 minutes, 36 secondsYeah. And ultimately if we were to smooth out this process what would happen is somebody obviously would do their initial factf find of the client
20:4520 minutes, 45 secondsthen they would come into financable and do the is it lender research?
20:5120 minutes, 51 secondsYeah. Yeah. So we've got we've got a lender panel where we show all the quotes the criteria the policy of the lender and then you can kind of select
21:0021 minuteswhich one you want and then go from there. And then by selecting the ones you might think are the most suitable
21:0621 minutes, 6 secondsfor your client, it will then say, "Hey, you've got all this data, but you might be missing this, this, and this. Go collect it." That's right. Exactly.
21:1621 minutes, 16 secondsAnd then once they've got it back in, obviously you have a system to audit and make sure that IDs are all correct and true. And then boom, you head it over to the lender.
21:2621 minutes, 26 secondsThat's it. You got it. [laughter] I'm just making sure we've got all like the bucks in the row and making that you
21:3421 minutes, 34 secondsknow workflow smooth and easy because obviously everybody has their own broker process but generally at the end of the day submission is the same.
21:4321 minutes, 43 secondsThat's right. Yeah. I mean generally speaking well it is the same but it's also very different. Every lender has their own process for submission. So,
21:5221 minutes, 52 secondsyou know, even us talking about it simplifying the process, it's still a little tricky. You know, you still have to think it through. Um, so you can
22:0122 minutes, 1 secondimagine um how much more complicated it is when you do it. Um, actually, because every lender has their own process. So,
22:0922 minutes, 9 secondsyou've got to try and remember all the different ways these lenders operate.
22:1322 minutes, 13 secondsUm, and so that's often the frustration with a lot of brokers is um, you know, having to do things so many different ways. So you'll find that brokers will
22:2222 minutes, 22 secondshave comfort. They'll have a few lenders that they'll work with because they're comfortable or they're happy with how those lenders work and then they might
22:2922 minutes, 29 secondsforego other lenders that might be too difficult to work with even if their product is superior because the process is clunky.
22:3722 minutes, 37 secondsYeah. Exactly.
22:3822 minutes, 38 secondsAnd so now obviously AI being a big part of any integration or any software
22:4522 minutes, 45 secondsproduct or service, how is financeable using AI?
22:4822 minutes, 48 secondsYeah. So we're using AI in two ways. Um the first one and the one we adopted right away was help like using AI uh
22:5622 minutes, 56 secondstools to help our day-to-day. So um our developers all use AI assistance in their coding um which you know they
23:0523 minutes, 5 secondsanecdotally they say has improved their efficiency by like two to 3x um which is quite significant. Um and that's great
23:1323 minutes, 13 secondsfor us because we're still a startup. Um we're still operating with funding. Um, so we're not, you know, u sustainable
23:2023 minutes, 20 secondsyet. Um, it means that we don't have to hire as many developers to to work in the business. So we're we're saving money and still being really efficient
23:2923 minutes, 29 secondsin um in our output. Um, so that's so that's the key way we're using AI uh in the business. Um, on the flip side
23:3623 minutes, 36 secondsof that, we're also incorporating AI into the product and the the key feature that we're using AI for is the
23:4423 minutes, 44 secondslodgement. So um as we spoke before there's APIs. Um so for those who don't
23:5123 minutes, 51 secondsknow what an API is um it's uh an application programming interface. Um it's a really fancy term for basically a
23:5923 minutes, 59 secondscomputer program to talk to another computer program and exchange data.
24:0424 minutes, 4 secondsUm so a perfect example would be um what's happening today. So you know with this interview you set it up by sending
24:1124 minutes, 11 secondsme a calendar invite. um in that calendar invite was um some links to this uh video call, right? So like a
24:1924 minutes, 19 secondszoom like a teams. Um so those two programs, so the the teams or the Google meet and the calendar
24:2824 minutes, 28 secondsinvite or sorry the calendar program, they're different programs, but the way they speak to each other to know that there was an invite and then here's the
24:3524 minutes, 35 secondscall is via an API. And that's that's putting it simply. Um, so there's lenders out there that have APIs you can
24:4224 minutes, 42 secondsintegrate with, but there's only a handful of them. And then there's a lot of lenders that actually don't have APIs. Um, but they might still have a
24:5024 minutes, 50 secondsbroker portal where the broker would go and input the data and submit the deal.
24:5424 minutes, 54 secondsU, what we've done is we've taken AI and built an automation that allows the broker to automatically take the data
25:0325 minutes, 3 secondsfrom their application within Financeible and populate it in the lenders portal. So, you know, to put it
25:1025 minutes, 10 secondsreally simply, it's like automated copy and paste. So, it does all the work for you.
25:1525 minutes, 15 secondsUm, and the reason we've done that is because these lenders aren't going to build their own APIs. So, having that
25:2325 minutes, 23 secondsautomated submission um, you know, isn't going to be possible with them. So, we decided we're going to build it on their behalf. And that's um, and AI has helped
25:3125 minutes, 31 secondsus enable that. Doing that before would have basically been near impossible. So, um I did a recent video on the
25:3925 minutes, 39 secondsdifference between an AI automation and an AI chat um and generative AI just to kind of break down the differences
25:4725 minutes, 47 secondsbecause a lot of software people are saying we do AI and I'm like uh are you really? Anyway, [laughter]
25:5525 minutes, 55 secondsum but what I like and I did mention actually you as a team in it is that this is closer to what we would call AI agents.
26:0526 minutes, 5 secondsYeah, it's agentic AI.
26:0726 minutes, 7 secondsAgentic AI. And the key difference between an AI automation and a gentic AI is that your robot is doing intelligent
26:1826 minutes, 18 secondsstuff um is what I call it because an automation does not do intelligence. It it does straight up copy and paste. But
26:2526 minutes, 25 secondsby having a gentic AI, it's almost like you know trying to learn two languages.
26:3026 minutes, 30 secondsYou've said over here these are the things I need to submit. But the lender portal over here is in French. Yeah.
26:3826 minutes, 38 secondsUm and this is English. And so your agent is going, "Okay, English. These things need to go over to this lender
26:4726 minutes, 47 secondsportal that's in French." And it's doing the interpretation and copying and pasting the right fields in the right places um to do that.
26:5626 minutes, 56 secondsYeah, that's exactly right. So that's what the AI helps enable. Um the ability to translate the data that you have on
27:0327 minutes, 3 secondsfinance. So like I said, an application could have upwards of a 100 fields. Um so if we were going to go and do that manually with every lender that existed,
27:1227 minutes, 12 secondswe'd never, you know, we'd never get to the end of it. We'd constantly be having to to map. So this allows us to to do that without having to manually map all
27:2027 minutes, 20 secondsof those fields ourselves. Um the other thing that it does is it also helps you navigate any issues with your data. Um
27:2927 minutes, 29 secondsso let's say you've you you know you made a mistake with the type of um data that you inputed. So, you know, let's say you put the the date of birth
27:3727 minutes, 37 secondsbackwards, like if you use the American um format, when it goes into the lender portal,
27:4327 minutes, 43 secondsit'll understand the the format that it should be in and then actually apply the the correct format um of the data. So,
27:5327 minutes, 53 secondsyou know, there's there's lots of these little um I suppose um helpers that AI Yeah. that that come
28:0128 minutes, 1 secondalong with that that actually smooth out the process even more. So, it's it's more than just, you know, the copy and paste um translating the data from
28:0828 minutes, 8 secondsEnglish to French. Um it's also correcting all of your, you know, um your typos or spelling mistakes as well. Yeah.
28:1628 minutes, 16 secondsAnd just for clarity of purpose, it's not English to French. We're just using that as an [laughter] analogy of interpretation of data just in case you
28:2428 minutes, 24 secondscatch it in the middle here. [laughter] Yeah. We're not we're not applying for for finance in Paris. No.
28:2928 minutes, 29 secondsNo, no, no, no. So ultimately, you know, AI or even APIs. It's it's two kind it's like two languages or two positionings
28:3828 minutes, 38 secondsand we're just trying to interpret to interpret [laughter] one data to the next data and make sure that the information syncs and is
28:4728 minutes, 47 secondscorrect. And then obviously from here, this is where the human in the loop matters. Uh because you would check everything that the AI agent put in to make sure it's all correct.
28:5828 minutes, 58 secondsYeah, that's right. So this isn't uh an automation that happens, you know, behind closed doors. It's not a black box where you hit the button and it
29:0629 minutes, 6 secondsdisappears and you kind of just sit there and cross your fingers and I hope that works out. Um no, this this is an a helper agent. So it's supposed to
29:1329 minutes, 13 secondssupport you in the process. So you still have to log on to the Linda portal um start the automation and then it'll go
29:2029 minutes, 20 secondsthrough um start populating the data on its own and there might be points where it'll stop and ask you to intervene. So
29:2829 minutes, 28 secondslet's say um a good example of this and and we've done this by design because the broker still needs to be involved in
29:3529 minutes, 35 secondsthe process um for various reasons. Uh a good one is if there's a declaration that they have to make to say that they've done the right thing by the customer. you know, all the information
29:4429 minutes, 44 secondsthey've inputed is um accurate and is true. Um the agent can't do that on behalf of the broker. The broker actually has to action that themselves.
29:5229 minutes, 52 secondsThey have to be the one that um directly um you know says yes to that declaration. Yeah.
29:5929 minutes, 59 secondsAnd that's Yeah. And that's important because you know we don't want people you know for compliance purposes coming back and saying hey I didn't say yes to
30:0630 minutes, 6 secondsthis. The agent did so I'm not liable for anything that's happened. So in that way the broker is still responsible for
30:1430 minutes, 14 secondswhat they have to do. Um so there might be moments where there's broker in the loop. Um the other times it might um it
30:2230 minutes, 22 secondsmight want the broker to intervene or the user to intervene is when something goes wrong. So the AI isn't perfect um and it can get things wrong sometimes.
30:2930 minutes, 29 secondsSo it'll ask you to resolve whatever issues happening and then you can continue. So in this way it's actually superior to an API. if something goes
30:3830 minutes, 38 secondswrong with the API um then it's it that's it. So it's e it's it's a binary sort of proposition where it either
30:4630 minutes, 46 secondsworks or it doesn't. So 100% or zero. Um with this it it you can go as far as you want it to go. So if something goes
30:5430 minutes, 54 secondswrong you can fix it and continue on. So the the likelihood of success is much higher than just a traditional API.
31:0231 minutes, 2 secondsNice. And I guess this kind of brings into the future of what AI and tech um
31:0931 minutes, 9 secondsmight happen. Where do you see the biggest gains?
31:1331 minutes, 13 secondsUm I think it's exactly what we're talking about and and also what I mentioned before and how we're using AI within the business. So you know I think
31:2331 minutes, 23 secondsthere's a lot of talk not just in our industry but you know in generally about you know whether AI is going to replace
31:3031 minutes, 30 secondspeople or take over jobs. Um, and I I don't agree with that. I, you know, AI is a tool and it's really good at
31:3731 minutes, 37 secondscertain tasks. So, what it'll do is it will replace tasks, but it can't replace everything that a person does. So, looking at the future, AI is going to be
31:4631 minutes, 46 secondssomething that enables people in their jobs that they're doing, make things easier, do things quicker, it's going to empower them, um, rather than actually
31:5431 minutes, 54 secondsreplace what they're doing. And you know, as we were talking just before about um the automation, we still the
32:0132 minutes, 1 secondthe the person the human is still a vital part of that process. It's not going to replace them. The AI is never going to be perfect. And so, you know,
32:0932 minutes, 9 secondsin talking to brokers who have started using our our automation, um they'd have dedicated people whose sole uh job was
32:1832 minutes, 18 secondsto take the data from their CRM or their broker platform and then input it into the lenders portal. Now that with this
32:2532 minutes, 25 secondsin place um you know your fear would be well those people are going to lose their jobs. Well actually what these brokers have done is they're now
32:3332 minutes, 33 secondstraining up those admin people to become brokers so that they can generate revenue for their business. So they've gone from um costing money to now making
32:4232 minutes, 42 secondsmoney because of this automation. So you can see that it's actually making things better for people as opposed to you know ruining people's lives.
32:5132 minutes, 51 secondsYeah. And I guess this is the key thing is that if you can move much more faster and efficiently and smoother and you get
32:5832 minutes, 58 secondsall those systems and those processes all organized in a way, it just creates capacity to do more.
33:0533 minutes, 5 secondsThat's that's exactly right. Um and and that's what's happening, you know, with with some of these brokerages. They're already paying for um these people in
33:1433 minutes, 14 secondstheir business, but now these people get to make money for the business as opposed to just purely costing money.
33:1933 minutes, 19 secondsAnd it's because the they've got these tools now that make the process more easier, much more efficient. Um and it um unlocks
33:2833 minutes, 28 secondsu these resources to be able to do other things.
33:3133 minutes, 31 secondsNice. Are you happy to take us through a little tour of Financeible? Yeah, sure. Awesome. So, here we are.
33:3833 minutes, 38 secondsThis is Financible. This is our sort of like landing page. Um so, I'm going to take you through a quick tour of uh how we put together an application. Um, so
33:4733 minutes, 47 secondsthere's two things that might happen in using Financeible. Um, if you've got a CRM or somewhere else where you gather the information for a deal. Um, you
33:5633 minutes, 56 secondswould integrate with us via API and then you'd send that data in, create an application in Financeville and all your data populated. So, you know, you might
34:0334 minutes, 3 secondscome in and it's pre-filled and it looks something like this. Okay. Um, now, as I mentioned before, you can actually build
34:1134 minutes, 11 secondsan entire deal within Finance World. So you have that ability and we've done that because like we said we don't know which parts of the application you haven't finished off when you get here.
34:2134 minutes, 21 secondsSo we give you the ability to finish off any parts of it once you've arrived.
34:2534 minutes, 25 secondsOkay. So there's two parts to the financial form. Obviously the application form that you see in front of you with the um the data fields and then on the right is our lender panel.
34:3534 minutes, 35 secondsSo that's where we're showing the lender quotes, the criteria, the policy uh and you know all the pricing. So, let's get
34:4334 minutes, 43 secondsstarted. I'm not going to go too deep into this. Um, I'm going to show you a couple of things in terms of how we make it easier for brokers. Um, so we're adding the asset details right now.
34:5334 minutes, 53 secondsWe're integrated with a couple of APIs here. So, the first one is Blue Flag.
34:5834 minutes, 58 secondsIt's a database with vehicle information.
35:0135 minutes, 1 secondSo, we can go and get the details of the vehicle, prepopulate that into the application. So, rather than having to manually enter in everything, it's uh
35:0935 minutes, 9 secondsit's all done for you there. So these are some of the little uh um the little like features that we have to to help
35:1735 minutes, 17 secondsbrokers be really efficient within the platform. Um as I mentioned before, we're also integrated with some government databases like the Australian
35:2535 minutes, 25 secondsbusiness registry. So we can go and get business information. This is really important for commercial deals because you want to know time in business and GST. These are two of the biggest criteria in commercial asset finance.
35:3735 minutes, 37 secondsOkay. Um, as you can see, we're integrated with ASICH, with Equifax, and then you can get more information around
35:4435 minutes, 44 secondsthe commercial entity that you're doing a deal with. If you click the button, we pull the data populated in the
35:5135 minutes, 51 secondsapplication. As you can see here, we populated more information. We've got the asset file. Um, we've prepopulated
35:5835 minutes, 58 secondsany of the beneficial uh owners of this particular entity. So as you can see here we've got additional entities that are beneficial owners and then any of
36:0736 minutes, 7 secondsthe um interested party. So we've got a couple of directors here in Darren and myself. So as you can see it's pretty
36:1436 minutes, 14 secondsquick and easy to put together an application. So once you've kind of gone through and done that on the right here you can come in have a look at the
36:2236 minutes, 22 secondsdifferent lenders that you might be interested in sending this deal through.
36:2636 minutes, 26 secondsSo you can go and you can check the criteria and you can see here we've met most of the criteria. we're missing out on one. Uh you can also check the uh
36:3536 minutes, 35 secondsfields that are required by this particular lender and that are missing.
36:3936 minutes, 39 secondsSo you can go and finish those off and then send the the application over. And then we provide things like you know the different rates like your effective
36:4736 minutes, 47 secondsrate, comparison rate, um you know the loan amount, any brokerage fees that uh are related to that particular lender's product.
36:5636 minutes, 56 secondsAnd then once you're done, you go and submit the application. And so once ultimately you've gathered all the data,
37:0337 minutes, 3 secondsyou've chosen your lenders and then the upload upload of application. Um we have a demo but we'll probably not play it
37:1237 minutes, 12 secondsright now but maybe a little later of how even the AI agents uh do that actual process and lodgement. Um but you were
37:2137 minutes, 21 secondsjust pointing to lodge AI over in the side there. Yes.
37:2637 minutes, 26 secondsHow does uh that help brokers? So lodge AI is that agent that uh takes your data and then lodges the deal for you. So it
37:3537 minutes, 35 secondspopulates the information in the broker platform. So that little badge tells you that this lender has been set up with that agent.
37:4237 minutes, 42 secondsNice. And that makes that whole process from where an agent like is. And once lodge AI is clicked, it then starts that
37:5037 minutes, 50 secondswhole process of opening up this particular lenders login panel and then go through that lodgement process with them.
37:5837 minutes, 58 secondsExactly. Right. Nice.
38:0038 minutesHey, it's Katie and Phil back here. We realized that we did not go through the agentic process. So, we thought we would
38:0838 minutes, 8 secondsdo a demo and talk through how the Lodge AI actually works. Phil, thank you for coming back and doing this with me.
38:1738 minutes, 17 seconds[laughter]
38:1738 minutes, 17 secondsThat's okay. My pleasure. Anytime.
38:1938 minutes, 19 secondsAlways happy to um Yeah, always happy to chat to you.
38:2338 minutes, 23 secondsThanks. Um, so people understand what is happening with Lodge AI as an aentic process. Do you want to bring it up and let's walk through it?
38:3038 minutes, 30 secondsYeah, sure. Sounds good. So, um, why don't I jump into it and we can talk through it as we're going. Okay.
38:3738 minutes, 37 secondsYeah. So, one of the things I guess we've noticed here is that, um, instead of it being Lodge AI, because this is an older video demo that we're doing, it's broker loop in this one.
38:4738 minutes, 47 secondsYeah. So, this was during our beta stage. So, this was an internal, um, project name for it. Um, so it's not called broker loop. That was just what
38:5538 minutes, 55 secondswe called it in in our team. It's actually still called Lodge AI. and the badge looks a little little better than this one.
39:0239 minutes, 2 secondsYeah. So, if you're confused, um just know that if you still click Mod AI, um this is kind of the process that the agent goes through.
39:1039 minutes, 10 secondsYeah. All right. So, let's get into it.
39:1339 minutes, 13 secondsOkay. So, to kick off the process, you click the upload button and that'll open up a little screen, a little dialogue that asks you to select any documents
39:2239 minutes, 22 secondsthat you want to include. And then there's just a little disclaimer to make sure that you've downloaded the appropriate application to uh to be able to start the process. And then we're in.
39:3139 minutes, 31 secondsSo right now the agent is navigating to the lender's portal, the lender's web application, opening it up, and is about to start the login process. There we go.
39:4439 minutes, 44 secondsI can show how [laughter] shows how good I am.
39:5039 minutes, 50 secondsOkay. And so right now it's doing the uh agent login. It this is all agentic right now like nobody's touching a thing.
39:5839 minutes, 58 secondsSo actually it's partly agentic but the login process is still manual. So we still ask the broker to login
40:0540 minutes, 5 secondsthemselves. And there's a couple of reasons. Uh one for security sake we don't want to be responsible for someone's credentials. Um so they still hold their own credentials and login.
40:1540 minutes, 15 secondsAnd the other side of it is it gives lenders a bit of peace of mind that we're not, you know, doing this without the brokers, you know, um, actioning it.
40:2540 minutes, 25 secondsOkay. But now the initial login was, it kind of opens the window and the, um, the broker actually logs in themselves.
40:3440 minutes, 34 secondsBut then right now, where are we up to?
40:3640 minutes, 36 secondsIs this aic or is this this is all agentic. So the only thing the broke had to do was input their username and password, hit continue and
40:4440 minutes, 44 secondsthen that was it. So this has all been agentic.
40:4740 minutes, 47 secondsSo everything after login has been agentic and the agent has been able to take over.
40:5440 minutes, 54 secondsThat's right. So the agent So the agent navigated to the portal, went to the login page, then the broker inputed
41:0341 minutes, 3 secondstheir login details, hit continue, and then it's been agent ever since. So, what you're seeing right now on your screen, it's flying through all the input fields and and all the little
41:1241 minutes, 12 secondsdifferent modals and screens. It's the agent. It's the agent. Okay. Right now, it's the agent.
41:2141 minutes, 21 secondsThat's right.
41:2241 minutes, 22 secondsSo, we're like what we're doing right now where we're sitting and watching.
41:2641 minutes, 26 secondsThat's all like I mean, sure, you know, as a broker, you're busy. You could be actually doing phone calls and following
