The Intermediary – February 2026 - Flipbook - Page 70
T E C H N O L O GY
Opinion
As tech evolves,
customer success
remains key
E
veryone is talking
about artificial
intelligence (AI).
And who can blame
them? Automation has
incredible benefits.
When implemented correctly, AI
and technology mean faster, smarter,
more powerful ways of working.
But as the industry accelerates
towards an AI-enabled future, a more
uncomfortable question is emerging:
What happens when technology
advances faster than the people using
it? Because right now, the industry is
aligning automation with progress,
and if we’re not careful, customer
success could pay the price.
The industry could do better
AI and automation absolutely belong
in mortgage technology. They remove
friction and enable brokers to focus on
advice rather than admin. However,
while smarter systems may streamline
workflows, they do not reduce the
need for human support.
As platforms become more
sophisticated, they also become more
complex. Without equal investment
in customer success, automation will
generate more problems than it solves.
We might be able to reduce paperwork
and admin with AI, but without
dedicated customer support to help
brokers, we risk replacing inefficiency
and admin with under-utilisation
and frustration.
Maintaining connection
2026 research from Accenture into
the future of banking highlights
a striking trend: even as financial
services become more digital,
people are increasingly nostalgic for
human interaction. If that’s true in
everyday banking, it is even more true
in mortgages.
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The Intermediary | February 2026
Mortgages are complex, regulated
and emotionally charged. Brokers
don’t just need powerful systems –
they need confidence in how those
systems support advice, compliance
and client outcomes. That confidence
cannot come from technology alone.
Supporting the customer
One of the most overlooked
assumptions in mortgage technology
is that customer support is a cost to be
managed. In reality, customer success
is part of the product itself.
Customer success is not about
fixing issues if something breaks. It’s
about ensuring brokers consistently
realise value from the technology they
invest in. As platforms evolve, the gap
between what technology can do, and
what brokers actually use, widens.
Without proactive, well-resourced
customer success, even excellent
technology risks being perceived as
difficult, frustrating or poor value.
And once that perception sets in, it’s a
tricky road back.
Success in practice
In practice, there are clear signs that
technology is genuinely supporting
advisers, rather than simply
automating tasks. One indicator
is whether advisers have multiple
ways of geing help when they need
it, whether they are mid-case and
able to jump on live chat, pick up the
phone or follow up by email. Another
is whether support fits around the
working day. Access to training
videos, guides and FAQs allows
advisers to revisit information in the
evening or quickly find an answer
without having to wait for a response.
Strong customer success also
shows up in proactive education, not
just reactive support. Regular live
webinars or walkthroughs of new
POLLYANNA PUDDEPHAT
is head of marketing
at Mortgage Brain
features help advisers understand how
technology should be used, rather
than discovering changes through trial
and error.
Who delivers that support is just
as important. A dedicated customer
success team is beer placed to
understand how advisers actually
work than a generic helpdesk,
particularly when dealing with
complex or time-sensitive cases.
Clear, reliable communication
should underpin all of this, so that
advisers are not le guessing about
updates or changes but are given clear
guidance on what improvements
mean in practice for their workflow
and, ultimately, for their clients.
The real differentiator
As AI becomes embedded across
mortgage technology, featurelevel differentiation will become
an outdated prospect. Platforms
will look increasingly similar on
paper. What will not be easy to
replicate is excellent, human-centred
customer success.
Providers who invest properly
in customer success send a clear
signal: we are invested in broker
outcomes. That commitment shows
up in smoother onboarding, stronger
adoption, greater confidence and
longer-term relationships. Technology
should amplify human expertise, not
aempt to replace it.
The companies that lead the
next phase of mortgage technology
will be those that stop treating
customer success as an operational
necessity and start treating it as a
strategic advantage. ●
