This is where AI will always fail, the pair say.
They agree AI will have an increasing role to play in supporting brokers with things like lender research and checking affordability, but they doubt it will be able to replace the person, saying customers would not want to rely on just the algorithm.
Perkins also says he has come across many cases where at first sight the criteria does not fit, but after explaining the case to a lender it gets put through as an exception.
"There are so many people that fall between the cracks of criteria that I think an experienced broker has so much more value to add that the AI just won't do."
Besides, it is the service that counts, not finding the best rate, he says.
"For a mortgage broker finding the best rate of the lenders that can lend to you is probably the easy bit of the job. It's actually getting the deal through and the service, the chasing lenders, chasing solicitors [that's the hard bit]."
carmen.reichman@ft.com
