Brokers urged to embrace AI or face extinction

Speaking to Broker Daily ahead of his keynote at the upcoming Finance360 roadshow, Russell Easther, director at digitalbrief, explained that brokerages relying solely on standard home loan volumes and traditional lead generation activities will need to diversify in a rapidly cooling property market.

As property values fall at their fastest pace in 40 years and economists are predicting a further cooling in the housing market this year – Easther said that brokers need to leverage practical digital technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) to expand into adjacent revenue streams and retain existing clients – or risk facing extinction.

According to Easther, rapid advancements in generative AI platforms over the past year have lowered the barrier to entry, giving brokers an accessible path to address operational challenges and uncover new lending opportunities across commercial, asset and personal finance.

“The pace of change, particularly in the last six to 12 months, has been so rapid,” Easther said.

“The way we go about the process of marketing, media and sales now allows us to address common business problems in a much faster way. And what would have been really tedious, long, or sometimes even just too expensive even for smaller providers, is now achievable with these AI tools.”

For brokerages assessing how to navigate market shifts, Easther noted that getting started with operational efficiencies is the critical first move.

“I think the key here … is just to get started. Is to not be on the fence. It’s actually just to get in and get started,” he said.

Interrogating existing data to drive diversification

A key priority for brokers navigating changing market conditions is conducting structured analysis on the data already sitting inside their customer relationship management systems, the digital specialist said.

By applying AI to existing client profiles, brokerages can identify distinct cross-sell avenues rather than relying entirely on a steady flow of new residential purchases.

“One of the great things about brokerage is that you get a lot of information from your client and you can do a fair amount of fact-finding way more than many other businesses.

“But what I see in the market is that brokers aren’t leveraging that information and going for it,” Easther said.

“If you’ve got a list of 100 clients, and you’ve got their date of birth, for example, you know everyone’s age. And then you could figure out what segment of your list is in their 30s, in their 40s, in their 50s, what percentage has a small business, what percentage of PAYG, etc.

“You then know that, if you were going to sell another product off the back of the residential finance, what would be the most appropriate based on their age group. AI can spot that very, very quickly.”

Easther added that expanding relationship value within an existing customer base delivers far greater operational resilience than focusing solely on acquisition in a slower lending climate.

“It’s a lot easier to sell a new product to an existing customer than it is to find a new customer and sell the first product,” he said.

“I know that’s not sexy to upsell your existing clients. We always want new clients. But what seems intuitive is actually incorrect. What we should want is to try and grow our existing database.”

However, building new funnels is also key to expanding a brokerage’s flows, with Easther noting that consumers are increasingly shifting towards conversational platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude for their credit advice.

“AI has created a brand new channel … it’s about getting ranked in their large language models (LLMs). That’s really how AI has impacted how brokers can reach new markets,” Easther said, adding he will reveal best practices for ranking in LLMs at Finance360.

Balancing AI with high-touch trust

While the digitalbrief director said AI can help free up time for brokers to bring in new business, he cautioned against relying on complete automation at the expense of genuine personal connection, which remains the cornerstone of broking.

“Dealing with a broker is quite a personal experience and that relationship is really sacred. It takes many years to build up and can take minutes to lose it,” he said.

“Just because we have the tools doesn’t mean we are qualified to review the outcome to know whether it’s good or not … We can get there faster, better, more strategic provided we are proofing.”

Learn how to protect your business at Finance360

Russell Easther will deliver a practical, hands-on workshop at the upcoming Finance360 roadshow, equipping brokers with live demonstrations and real-world AI applications to scale their businesses.

The Finance360 event – which has been designed specifically to help brokers diversify their offering as the house market cools – reflects a broader strategic scope designed to tackle a critical question facing contemporary broking and accounting practices: where to identify the next source of sustainable business growth in a softening mortgage market and changing tax environment, and how to execute on those opportunities.

Hosted by broker specialist Jason Back, Finance360 equips mortgage brokers and accounting professionals to diversify across multiple high-yield debt products, including commercial mortgages, commercial self-managed super fund lending, cash flow solutions, personal lending, asset finance, bridging finance and reverse mortgages.

The updated event structure strips away generic product training, focusing instead on practical market execution led by key industry strategists.

“Jason and I are going to be delivering a lot of content across the whole day, but we’re building in times where participants can pull out their laptops and actually do AI and then share their experiences,” Easther said.

“I’ve been to AI events where they just talk and don’t do. This is going to be quite the opposite. We’ll be doing AI live demonstrations, and then you get to follow along straight afterwards.”

Finance360 is a free-to-attend event travelling along the east coast this November:

• Melbourne: 17 November at Zinc at Federation Square

• Sydney: 19 November at The Epping Club

Seats are strictly limited. To register for your free ticket and see the full event agenda, click here.

[Related: Major new diversification event, Finance360, launches]

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