AI will not replace human judgement in specialist lending, experts say

14 October 2026

Artificial intelligence (AI) will enhance rather than replace human decision-making in specialist lending, where complex cases will continue to require human judgement, industry experts have said.

Speaking during an AI and Future of Mortgage Advice panel at the Brightstar Specialist Lending Expo 2026 at the London Stadium on Wednesday 7th October, Hope Capital chief financial and operating officer Kate Cowan said technology was helping the lender improve processes but could not replace human expertise.

She said: “We use technology to enhance what we can do, rather than actually do the job for us.

“It’s not where it needs to be where you can say, ‘I can replace that complete function or that complete person’.”

Cowan said this was particularly important in bridging and specialist lending, where cases frequently fall outside a straightforward set of criteria.

“Every deal is different. Every deal is unique,” she said. “That’s where technology doesn’t replace us.”

She warned that over-reliance on generative AI could also create additional work and risk, particularly if users stop properly interrogating its output.

Cowan said tools such as ChatGPT, Claude and Copilot could generate impressive-looking communications but sometimes overcomplicated relatively straightforward issues.

She added: “People will become lazier. Loads of people have the plugins for Claude or Copilot on the side of their emails, and they’re generating all these emails, but actually, are they reading them?

“Is what they say what they actually think, or is it what the computer thinks it wants to think? That’s going to cause issues further down the line.”

James Tucker, chief executive of Twenty7Tec, agreed human involvement remained crucial, pointing out that even as his firm's use of AI had boosted development productivity, outputs still needed validating.

However, Tucker predicted AI could pose a greater challenge to advisers operating in the mainstream mortgage market.

He said there was “no question” that mainstream lenders would use AI tools to pursue customers directly.

Tucker said: “Mainstream lenders are going to go after customers in that way via these tools, and they will be successful as a result of it.”

But he said the same threat was less pronounced in specialist lending because of its complexity, grey areas and the difficulty of translating lending appetite into simple rules.

He predicted adviser share of straightforward “black and white” mortgage cases would decline as lenders push further into direct distribution.