Pennymac Financial Services has chosen Amazon Web Services (AWS) generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools as part of its plan to “change how mortgages are made”.
The US mortgage lender is expanding its current deal with AWS to include the tech giant’s GenAI offerings.
The arrangement has seen Pennymac develop a natural language virtual assistant using the Amazon Nova Sonic foundation model, which, according to AWS, combines speech understanding and generation to create more human-like voice conversations.
The new agreement with AWS will also see the modernisation of Pennymac’s proprietary mortgage servicing platform, known as Plaisse, through the cloud.
Jim Follette, chief digital officer at Pennymac, said the company is changing “how mortgages are made”.
He added: “Our AI-driven virtual assistant and the continued modernisation of Plaisse are the next stage of a deliberate, long-term strategy to deliver a superior, seamless journey for our borrowers.”
The mortgage firm said it is “replacing fragmented legacy processes with an immediate, conversational borrowing experience”.
The natural language virtual assistant is capable of real-time voice interactions for phone calls. It engages users to identify new loan opportunities, deliver online application links and schedule priority callbacks around the clock. Human loan officers retain ultimate decision-making authority.
Separately, in Europe, Dutch bank ING is removing laborious manual processing for mortgage applications through its latest AI agent.
The bank is extending its use after successfully piloting AI for mortgages, saying it will be able to make faster mortgage decisions as AI takes over the gathering and checking of documents and movement of cases between different systems.
The AI agent looks over applications to understand them, explain possible outcomes and identify ways to move forward. A human employee will then make final assessments and decisions. The AI agent for mortgage processing was piloted in March this year, and the bank is now prepared to roll it out to the live environment.
In a blog post, banking trade association UK Finance said: “Digital natives are entering the housing market with expectations shaped by instant everything: real-time notifications, same-day deliveries and seamless online transactions. When they encounter traditional mortgage processes, the contrast feels stark.”
It added: “The opportunity lies in technology that preserves essential safeguards while delivering the speed and transparency modern customers expect. AI and automation aren’t about cutting corners; they’re about doing the same thorough job more efficiently.”
A recent survey by Zopa and Juniper Research found that GenAI will save 187 million labour hours, mainly in back-office roles, and that 27,000 jobs could be displaced by 2030.
For example, Commerzbank recently announced plans to cut 3,000 jobs – around 8% of its workforce – as it increases its AI investment, set at €600m over the next four years. The bank expects the AI investment to generate €500m in additional value each year from 2030 onwards.
Banks are gaining huge benefits from AI today, with Lloyds Banking Group’s Financial institutions sentiment survey for 2025 finding that 59% of surveyed firms reported AI-driven productivity gains in the past 12 months, compared with 32% in the 2024 survey.
