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- Artificial Intelligence Guide Part 2: 6 Ways Title Companies Can Harness AI
- 5 Tips for Effective AI Implementation
- The Bottom Line
Now that you understand the basics of artificial intelligence, you might be thinking, “This is all great info, but how in the world do I use it safely and effectively in my day-to-day job?”
The rapid advancement of this technology can feel overwhelming, leaving many title companies unsure of how to integrate these tools into their daily operations. In Part 2 of our AI series, SoftPro will guide you with six examples of how you can incorporate AI tools into your operations, as well as five simple steps on how to get started.
1. Marketing
We likely don’t have to convince you how important marketing is for reaching new clients, building awareness about your services, and staying competitive. Yet, title professionals are often so overwhelmed with daily tasks and responsibilities that they leave little time to focus on marketing efforts.
AI could be a powerful tool for supporting your marketing team. In particular, Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Jasper, and DALL-E may assist in creating content for social media posts, blogs, email campaigns, and graphic design. These applications can quickly generate first drafts of various types of content, saving you significant time and brain power. In fact, 88% of marketers now believe their organization must increase its use of AI to meet customer expectations and stay competitive.
Additional AI-based tools, such as HubSpot’s CRM, SalesForce AI, or Optimove could also be leveraged to analyze your customer data, helping your marketing team tailor messages to specific audiences and increase engagement and conversation rates. This frees your teams to focus on the more creative aspects of your marketing strategy, ensuring resources are used efficiently and your efforts have a greater impact.
2. Document Management
Did you know that, on average, employees spend around $120 worth of time each day and 30% of their work time overall on document search-related tasks? This time and cost could be even higher for title professionals who handle large volumes of documents - property records, deeds, mortgages, liens, title insurance policies, closing statements, and other legal and financial documents.
AI could potentially make it significantly faster for title professionals to summarize and extract information from documents. AI tools may be able to quickly analyze lengthy documents and generate concise summaries highlighting key points and essential information. This may make it easier to quickly digest and organize large amounts of information.
The Pythonic integration in SoftPro 360 is a great example of this type of AI. With Pythonic’s intelligent Closing Disclosure (CD) processing, SoftPro users can easily submit CDs to Pythonic to identify discrepancies between their SoftPro data and a lender’s CD. Pythonic’s service then collects transaction information from the existing SoftPro order, compares it with the lender’s CD, and highlights any differences. This integration also provides you the ability to import these changes to your ProForm order automatically, greatly increasing your staff’s efficiency.
Additionally, with Pythonic’s Automated Order Entry, SoftPro users can quickly and efficiently translate purchase details and agreements into SoftPro. Simply forward an email chain, with or without a sales agreement attachment, to Pythonic's service, and Pythonic's machine-learning models will read and extract the pertinent order-related information within a few minutes. The order is then sent back to a customer’s SoftPro instance, and users can review the information, field-by-field and decide whether or not to include or exclude items as desired. The resulting data can be imported into an existing order, or used to open a brand-new order. This saves time and improves accuracy during the order process.
Want to learn more about SoftPro 360 and our Pythonic integration? Click here.
3. Communication
Another example of how title insurance companies can utilize AI is to improve written communication.
Currently, 35% of businesses are leveraging AI for content production. How? While we’ve already discussed using AI tools for marketing content, companies may also use them to assist in drafting emails, creating reports, or outlining other documents, making it easier for teams to communicate internally and externally.
By using natural language processing (NLP), AI may be able to review your written communication and suggest tone, grammar, and style improvements to ensure it aligns with your brand or desired intent.
Additionally, AI may be able to quickly generate templates and standardized responses. This support can enable your employees to focus on more revenue-generating tasks, though it’s important to note that AI can struggle with consistent, uniform responses. So, make sure to double-check all your AI-generated communications for accuracy.
While we’ve already mentioned ChatGPT and Jasper, there is a multitude of tools that can help serve this purpose, including Grammarly, Copy.ai, and Hemingway Editor, that range in scope and price. Make sure to experiment and find what serves your needs best.
4. Data Extraction and Indexing
Data is an extremely critical aspect of a title professional's work. You’re responsible for collecting, entering, protecting and distributing data to the right people at the right time.
According to the American Land Title Association (ALTA), title professionals spend approximately 22 hours to close a standard transaction and 45 hours for more difficult transactions. This time is largely spent on researching and analyzing data.
AI tools have shown great promise in data extraction and working with documents. There are many AI-powered tools that may be able to process and extract essential information from documents such as deeds and title policies, reducing the time and effort required for manual data entry. These tools use NLP to understand and organize data, creating easily searchable and accessible records.
5. Language Translation
The number of limited English proficient (LEP) US households has tripled over the past four decades. With over one-fifth of the US population speaking a language other than English at home, there's a significant opportunity for those who serve this demographic.
AI-powered translation tools may be an excellent tool to translate emails and other communications to break down language barriers. This capability is particularly valuable in diverse markets, where understanding and responding to client needs in their preferred language can boost customer satisfaction. Note: while these tools are good for communication, the level of accuracy may not be sufficient to accurately translate important transaction documents.
While ChatGPT and Google Translate offer free and easy-to-use translation capabilities, specialized tools like DeepL provide more contextually appropriate translations and are optimized for professional environments.
By integrating AI translation services, title companies can offer more inclusive and accessible services. However, while these tools are good for communication, their level of accuracy may not be sufficient to translate important transaction documents accurately. Use with caution.
6. Fraud Detection
Fraud is perhaps one of the greatest existential threats to our industry. It is increasingly sophisticated, leveraging advanced technologies to deceive and exploit vulnerabilities. Just like us, fraudsters are leaning into AI to boost their efforts.
As Rick Diamond, Vice President and Agency I.T. Director at Fidelity National Financial, shared, "AI can enhance a hacker's process and it’s a real problem. At the same time, we must also use AI to protect ourselves. Many AI security tools can help you do this. But you need educated professionals who understand the role AI plays on the nefarious side and the good side of security."
One of the most promising applications of AI in fraud detection and security is its ability to analyze vast amounts of data in real-time, identifying patterns and anomalies that would be nearly impossible for humans to detect. A number of the leading software security tools are experimenting with AI tools to improve their ability to detect and flag suspicious activity.
However, it's important to note that AI is a tool, not a replacement for human expertise. AI-powered systems could potentially be used to instantaneously monitor transactions, flagging suspicious activities and potential fraud attempts. But it's up to trained professionals like you to interpret these alerts and take appropriate action. Machine learning algorithms can continuously improve their detection capabilities by learning from new data and becoming more adept at recognizing and thwarting new types of fraud, though they still require human oversight.
Additionally, AI may be able to enhance security measures by automating threat detection and response, reducing the time it takes to mitigate risks. This proactive approach can help prevent fraud and strengthen the overall security infrastructure, ensuring your organizations stay one step ahead of cybercriminals.
5 Tips for Effective AI Implementation
Now that you know some best-use cases for AI in your organization, it's crucial to approach this integration thoughtfully.
Here are five tips for effective AI implementation:
- 1. Start Small and Scale Up: Begin with pilot projects to test the waters and understand AI’s impact on your processes. By starting small, you can identify areas for improvement and gradually scale up as you gain confidence and see positive results.
- 2. Ensure Data Quality: The effectiveness of AI largely depends on the quality of the data it’s trained on. Ensure you’re using high-quality, accurate data to train your AI systems. Clean and well-organized data will yield much better outcomes and help avoid costly errors, inefficiencies and liabilities.
- 3. Focus on Training and Education: Equip your team with the necessary skills to leverage AI tools efficiently. Provide training on how to use AI technologies and best practices for their implementation.
- 4. Establish Clear Policies and Guidelines: Develop and enforce policies for responsible AI use to mitigate potential risks. Clear guidelines help ensure that AI is used ethically and securely, protecting sensitive information and maintaining compliance with regulations. Make sure to regularly review and update these policies to keep pace with evolving AI technologies and standards.
- 5. Maintain Human Oversight: While AI can automate many tasks, it’s essential to maintain a balance between automation and human expertise. Your team will be crucial for interpreting AI-generated insights, making critical decisions and providing the personal touch that your clients will continue to value.
The Bottom Line
The future has arrived, and incorporating AI into your title company will likely be a necessity in the coming years. But it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. We’ve given you some tips on where and how to get started, but the easiest way to begin is to identify a small, manageable pilot project to test its impact.
Remember to also explore powerful AI integrations within SoftPro 360. SoftPro is committed to delivering superior solutions to the real estate title, closing and escrow industry. If you’d like to learn more about how you can utilize our industry-leading software solutions, reach out today.
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Note: The inclusion or exclusion of a company or service mentioned above does not imply endorsement or lack thereof for any particular product or service. It is essential to thoroughly vet any vendor, product or service you choose to use.
