Top U.S. reverse mortgage lenders are entering a new phase in their artificial intelligence (AI) strategy: deploying customer-facing tools to engage more directly with seniors. After achieving operational efficiencies by using AI internally, lenders now plan to roll out chatbots, voice agents and digital prequalification tools to a broader base of borrowers starting in the fourth quarter of 2025. So far, their approach has been incremental — testing new technologies with employees first, then with wholesale and limited partners, and finally opening them up to seniors once feedback loops are in place. “You start internally, like on things that have customer benefit but not direct customer impact, then you learn and expand out your reach,” said Brian Conneen, chief information officer at Finance of America (FOA). At FOA, employees now use a large language model trained on company policies and procedures to answer questions and link back to source documents. That shift has brought “a huge efficiency gain” while reducing escalations to managers, Conneen said. The lender isn’t yet comfortable putting GPT directly in front of customers. Instead, it is piloting AI tools with wholesale partners — considered more sophisticated users — to refine responses and guardrails. “Once we get that feedback, we could expand in a more restricted way to customers asking questions that we would monitor closely, like scripted responses,” Conneen added. Meanwhile, FOA expects to introduce its AI-powered virtual call agent later this year. Seniors will be able to have natural conversations with an AI-powered assistant, which will hand off to a human loan officer if questions become too complex. Longbridge Financial, owned by Ellington Financial, is also developing a voice agent that will allow stakeholders to interact with the company after hours, on weekends and at their convenience for routine tasks. But they will always have the option to connect with a human agent.
Artificio AI streamlines mortgage workflows with automated data extraction enabling 70% faster processing, as Fed rate cuts drive 60% rise in refinance application
Artificio, provider of AI-powered document automation and intelligent data processing solutions, announced how its advanced platform is enabling mortgage lenders and brokers to efficiently handle the unprecedented surge in refinance applications following the Federal Reserve’s recent rate cuts. With mortgage rates falling to 6.35% and refinance applications jumping nearly 60% week-over-week, mortgage professionals are leveraging Artificio’s automated document processing technology to manage the increased volume. Artificio’s intelligent document processing platform directly addresses these bottlenecks by automating data extraction, validation, and workflow management, enabling lenders to process applications 70% faster than traditional manual methods. Artificio’s platform leverages specialized AI agents that work together to intelligently process documents, extract data with precision, and automate complex workflows without coding requirements. The company’s Income Summary Automation Tool has been particularly valuable during this refinance surge, automatically generating underwriter-ready income summaries in minutes. Key capabilities include automated classification, extraction, validation, and summarization of income documents, significantly reducing time spent on manual data entry and income analysis. The platform integrates seamlessly with existing mortgage origination systems and maintains compliance standards.
Artificio AI streamlines mortgage workflows with automated data extraction enabling 70% faster processing, as Fed rate cuts drive 60% rise in refinance application
Artificio, provider of AI-powered document automation and intelligent data processing solutions, announced how its advanced platform is enabling mortgage lenders and brokers to efficiently handle the unprecedented surge in refinance applications following the Federal Reserve’s recent rate cuts. With mortgage rates falling to 6.35% and refinance applications jumping nearly 60% week-over-week, mortgage professionals are leveraging Artificio’s automated document processing technology to manage the increased volume. Artificio’s intelligent document processing platform directly addresses these bottlenecks by automating data extraction, validation, and workflow management, enabling lenders to process applications 70% faster than traditional manual methods. Artificio’s platform leverages specialized AI agents that work together to intelligently process documents, extract data with precision, and automate complex workflows without coding requirements. The company’s Income Summary Automation Tool has been particularly valuable during this refinance surge, automatically generating underwriter-ready income summaries in minutes. Key capabilities include automated classification, extraction, validation, and summarization of income documents, significantly reducing time spent on manual data entry and income analysis. The platform integrates seamlessly with existing mortgage origination systems and maintains compliance standards.
Gopuff launches AI-powered personalized shopping platform featuring hyper-local insights, real-time inventory tracking and live micro-fulfillment center video feeds
Gopuff has a new digital commerce experience it says creates a personalized storefront tailored to each individual customer’s life, location and habits. New features for both desktop and mobile web include: Personalized recommendations: Items and categories will appear based on each individual’s order history, surfacing frequently and recently purchased products and categories as well as personalized recommendations and customized offers on a shopper’s birthday. Hyper-local insights: Customers can now see what items are popular in their area, statistics about their city’s order history, and more information. They can also see other customers in their city placing Gopuff orders on a live heatmap. Real-time local inventory: Customers see only what’s available in their exact location, with the site leveraging their IP address to display what’s available before they log in. Easier navigation: A new shopping experience designed specifically for the web features a left-hand navigation “mega-menu” that provides greater visibility into all of Gopuff’s categories and subcategories. Dietary/health info: Customers can browse an item’s calories, fat, sodium, carb and protein content with a new Nutrition tab that also features dietary callouts like “vegan” or “gluten free.” All categories can also be filtered by dietary restriction or preference. Other new features include seeing the name of the employee preparing their order and receiving real-time, item-by-item packing updates, a live video feed from a Gopuff micro-fulfillment center, and a view of the delivery driver’s vehicle make and model on the order tracking screen. In addition, the revamped digital interface offers new layout and visuals on the homepage, inventory search in any language with live translation and predictive results, and a new video starring real Gopuff customers. While the redesigned interface and new features were designed specifically for the desktop and mobile web shopping experience, Gopuff will also bring some of these new capabilities to its app in the coming months.
Lloyds Merchant Services launches comprehensive embedded payments infrastructure supporting digital wallet integration and instalment financing for enterprise merchants
45% of UK adults are comfortable leaving the house without a wallet or payment card because they know they can use a digital wallet, such as Apple Pay or Google Pay, to pay. For retail CX leaders, that opens up enormous opportunity. This is especially relevant for younger and digital-native consumers, who are more likely to use mobile wallets and embedded finance options than Baby Boomers. With the right integration, the payment becomes the loyalty moment. The checkout becomes the emotional touch point. Retailers need payment platforms that can flex across channels — from POS terminals to mobile to ecommerce. They need partners that understand not just authorization and settlement but UX and data flows. And they need solutions that are built with regulation in mind — from PCI compliance to fraud risk and SCA (Strong Customer Authentication). At Lloyds Merchant Services, our work with leading retail partners focuses on exactly that: helping merchants simplify the complexity behind the scenes so they can unlock moments of magic with customers out front. From integrating with top wallet providers to deploying embedded lending solutions like FlexPay, we’re seeing firsthand how retail CX is transforming at checkout — and how brands that get this right are outperforming their peers on conversion, retention and engagement.
EltegraAI platform automates requirements generation from business documents with end-to-end traceability and pre-configured regulatory compliance frameworks
Eltegra has launched EltegraAI, a next-generation AI-powered product management platform designed to transform how enterprises approach product lifecycle management. EltegraAI streamlines key elements of the product development process, from requirements generation and compliance validation to modernization and integration, providing enterprises with the tools they need to accelerate delivery, reduce risks, and ensure scalability. EltegraAI is designed to help organizations navigate the complexities of product lifecycle management. Its AI-powered capabilities enhance essential processes such as requirements generation, automated compliance, and traceability, empowering enterprises to make informed, data-backed decisions and significantly reduce operational complexity. EltegraAI’s key features include: Industry-based AI-Driven Requirements Management: Automating the creation of detailed, compliant requirements from business documents to accelerate product planning. End-to-End Traceability: Ensuring complete alignment from business requirements to code, providing transparency and visibility throughout the SDLC. Automated Compliance & Risk Management: Pre-configured regulatory frameworks for industries such as healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing, ensuring compliance from the outset. Modernization & Integration: AI-assisted analysis of legacy systems, producing accurate roadmaps for modernization while ensuring minimal disruption and maximal ROI. AI-Powered Testing: Automatically generate test cases linked directly to requirements, improve coverage, and reduce manual effort.
TD Bank deploys automated treat machines across 14 branches using motion sensors to dispense free dog biscuits as customer engagement strategy
The “automated treat machine” at this TD Bank dispenses free dog biscuits to your canine companion. The device resembles the familiar self-serve cash kiosks we all use, complete with a digital screen. But it displays “dog-centric content,” according to the bank. A different kind of ATM has arrived at a bank in Boston. The TD Bank location at 535 Boylston St. now has an “Automated Treat Machine” (ATM) for customers’ dogs to enjoy. The first ATM was unveiled in 2024 in Philadelphia, and the company plans to expand to 14 other stores in the U.S. “This ATM is for our canine friends. You would see a dog biscuit be dispensed from this machine as opposed to cash,” said Tim Blake, TD Bank Market President for Consumer Banking and Retail. The ATM is essentially a smaller version of what the humans use, but instead of inserting a bank card, a motion-activated sensor detects when a dog is looking to make a withdrawal. Once the dog steps onto the mat, free treats drop in the bowl below. “Throughout the years, we already had treats and water for dogs as they arrived in our stores, but this is going to be where we take it to the next level,” said Bruno Horst, TD Bank Boston Retail Market Manager. The owners need to have an account with TD Bank, as dogs are not able to deposit treats for future withdrawals. If they are not looking for a treat, the dogs can indulge in some pet-friendly content on the ATM screen.
AI transforms B2B onboarding through natural language processing for document parsing, computer vision for anomaly detection and real-time fraud risk scoring
Across financial services, supply chain management, and enterprise software, AI is showing how the math of onboarding can be transformed in three decisive ways: compressing time-to-value, cutting error and redundancy, and scaling personalization without scaling costs. A new generation of artificial intelligence systems, built to parse language, spot anomalies and orchestrate workflows, is beginning to attack inefficiencies in onboarding. Instead of calculating onboarding in months of revenue lost, hours billed or staff tied up in data entry, executives can now imagine a model where the cost curve bends toward zero. Natural language processing models can ingest contracts, identity documents and tax forms, extracting the relevant entities in seconds. Computer vision systems flag anomalies in a scanned driver’s license as reliably as a human compliance officer. Machine learning models trained on historical fraud patterns can score risk in real time, escalating only the most ambiguous cases for manual review. The result is a front-loaded compliance process that reduces days to hours. Entity resolution algorithms, once the province of academic computer science, are now increasingly being applied to enterprise data sets to reconcile multiple versions of the truth. Instead of a compliance officer manually cross-checking a supplier’s address against half a dozen systems, a model can probabilistically match records and flag discrepancies. Personalization scaled revenue, sure, but it also scaled expenses. Artificial intelligence reframes the problem by moving personalization from a manual task to an algorithmic capability. Taken together, these shifts add up to more than operational efficiency.
Retailers implement wholesale-based tariff arbitrage using merchant-of-record intermediaries reducing tariff expenses by 30-60% through B2B2C transaction structures
Retail companies spanning from the luxury sector to lower-value goods are using a tariff arbitrage strategy within their supply chains to lower tariff bills and keep costs down for consumers. The business model, called B2B2C (business-to-business-to-consumer), is changing the way retailers handle orders placed by consumers on a company’s website, routing the transaction to a wholesale platform. Typically, an item purchased online is directly sold to the consumer. But with President Trump’s trade war hitting the retail sector hard and hitting many manufacturing hubs where retailers source goods with high tariffs, this type of transaction is now more often being handled through a middleman company that acts as a merchant of record, acting on behalf of the retailer as a U.S. entity. ESW and Global-e are companies that act as a merchant of record for retailers selling products into the United States. Once a U.S. consumer purchases the product on a retail website, the actual transaction is routed to the retail middleman that can purchase the product at a wholesale price from the retailer. The middleman company ships and pays the U.S. tariff on the product’s wholesale price on behalf of the retailer. According to Eric Eichmann, CEO of ESW, the difference in paying tariffs on the wholesale rather than the retail prices ranges from 30%-60%. Some logistics experts describe it as an example of how clever entrepreneurs can rewrite playbooks on the fly to succeed in evolving markets. Others worry that “tariff hacking” is not a sustainable long-term strategy and ultimately cannot keep inflation down.
Cluster Reply delivers Riverty’s integrated customer service platform combining intelligent routing, automated context recognition and Microsoft Copilot voice capabilities
Cluster Reply, the Reply company specialised in digital platform solutions leveraging Microsoft technologies, has partnered with fintech company Riverty to accelerate the rollout of a pioneering customer service platform – delivered in record time of just 100 days. The new solution empowers Riverty to deliver efficient, empathetic customer support across all channels while creating a robust foundation for future AI-driven automation. The platform leverages Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service and integrates Riverty’s AI vision from the outset. Initial features such as intelligent routing and automated context recognition are already live, with Microsoft Copilot Studio integration in progress. This will enable advanced voice and chatbot capabilities that independently and empathetically handle simple customer inquiries, ensuring that technology enhances, rather than replaces, the human experience. By consolidating all telephone, chat, and email inquiries into a single interface, Riverty’s service teams gain real-time visibility, faster response times, and reduced stress. Live dashboards and automated reporting enhance transparency and provide the basis for ongoing optimization as AI adoption expands. Designed for scalability, the platform is prepared to support additional countries and customer segments as Riverty grows – extending human-centric service across its footprint.