In an era where technology often threatens to overshadow human roles, Better Mortgage is charting a different course. By developing in-house AI tools designed to complement rather than replace human expertise, the company is enhancing the mortgage experience for both borrowers and loan officers.
Already, its AI Loan Agent, Betsy, handles over 125,000 customer interactions each month, cutting through administrative drag and unlocking up to $2,000 in sales productivity per funded loan. Meanwhile, nearly 40% of loan files are now reviewed through Tinman’s AI-driven underwriting system, which can generate up to $1,400 in fulfillment cost savings per loan and increase loan officer productivity in terms of loans per month to over 3x the mortgage industry average. These numbers are more than operational wins — they’re proof that human potential is amplified when intelligent systems do the heavy lifting. This enables loan officers to do what they do best: building relationships and guiding borrowers through complex financial decisions.
According to Ziggy Jonsson, SVP of Engineering at Better, “Many seasoned loan officers see Betsy as a digital partner and not a competitor because she helps them provide faster service, stay organized, and close more loans.
Better Mortgage’s technological advancements are anchored by two proprietary tools: TinMan, the company’s end-to-end loan origination system, and Betsy, a voice-based AI loan assistant.
Tinman is not just a backend processor — it’s the control center for Better’s mortgage pipeline. It ingests borrower, property, and loan data, automating underwriting decisions for nearly 40% of loan files. This is an efficiency that has shown the potential to reduce fulfillment costs by up to $1,400 per funded loan. Using Tinman, Better has been able to automate time and labor-intensive components of the mortgage process and reduce its cost to originate by over 40% of the industry average.
Meanwhile, Betsy serves as the intelligent co-pilot on the borrower-facing side. Far beyond a chatbot, she provides human-like guidance through complex application steps. This scale and speed not only create a better borrower experience — they free loan officers from time-consuming prep work.
What makes Betsy and Tinman truly unique is their native integration. Unlike most off-the-shelf tools bolted onto legacy systems, these platforms were designed to work together from day one. Every data point entered by a borrower flows instantly through Tinman, where it can be surfaced by Betsy or a loan officer in real time without toggling between CRMs, pricing engines, or appraisal portals.
This synchronicity eliminates fragmented communication and duplicated data entry, letting originators spend more time advising clients and less time chasing down paperwork. As Ziggy Jonsson put it, “We created an end-to-end loan origination system for the customer, so we don’t need to integrate AI with multiple vendors and potentially receive stale information.”
Betsy isn’t just a chatbot
While many mortgage companies have introduced digital assistants, most are little more than static chatbots that mimic interaction through scripted responses. Betsy, however, was built to operate more like a colleague than a widget. Her advanced conversational AI—developed and trained in-house — allows her to decode the nuanced language of mortgage lending and deliver responses tailored to real borrower scenarios in real time.
She’s capable of guiding a borrower from the first click through to full pre-approval, explaining disclosures, gathering required documentation, and fielding live eligibility and underwriting questions using her access to a complex knowledge graph. And when she doesn’t have high confidence in a response, Betsy doesn’t guess — she escalates the question to a licensed loan officer or schedules a follow-up with full conversation context.
For borrowers, this means faster answers, fewer roadblocks, and 24/7 responsiveness. But Betsy’s most powerful impact may be for the loan officers themselves. With just a click, they can ask Betsy to scan a loan file for open conditions, identify missing documents, or surface key eligibility issues—tasks that would normally take 15–20 minutes now completed in seconds. This gives originators more time for strategic conversations, not administrative reviews.
This dual-facing utility is why Better has positioned Betsy not as a chatbot, but as a digital loan partner: one who doesn’t replace the loan officer, but gives them the freedom to be more consultative, more focused, and more human with every borrower interaction.
Proven results with measurable impact
The effects of integrating Betsy and Tinman into Better’s mortgage workflow aren’t theoretical — they’re already being seen in the numbers. Loan officers using the platform are originating three times the monthly volume of the industry average, thanks to intelligent automation that reduces friction at nearly every touchpoint. Better has also reported a 30% reduction in fulfillment costs—driven in large part by Tinman’s AI-powered underwriting and Betsy’s real-time file analysis.
Maintaining the human touch
At the core of Better Mortgage’s AI strategy is a clear conviction: automation should elevate, not eliminate, human expertise. Betsy was built to work in tandem with loan officers—not in place of them. Every interaction she has with a borrower is fully visible within the Tinman dashboard, giving loan officers complete transparency and the ability to jump in with full context at any point. Her warm hand-off capabilities, including real-time summaries and status notes, ensure a seamless transition from machine to human.
This thoughtful handoff experience isn’t just technically smooth — it’s emotionally resonant for borrowers. The shift from AI to human feels intuitive, not abrupt, reinforcing the trust borrowers place in their loan officer while still benefiting from around-the-clock digital support.
Importantly, loan officers aren’t being sidelined by this technology — they’re being elevated. Betsy surfaces key borrower insights, tracks outstanding questions or documents, and anticipates next steps, allowing originators to step into each conversation already informed. Betsy allows loan officers to focus their energy on building relationships and driving decisions forward.
The scalability of this hybrid model is already visible through Better’s NEO Powered by Better initiative. Partner companies like NEO Home Loans are now able to serve significantly more families without increasing headcount—proof that tech-human collaboration isn’t just efficient, it’s expansive.
Ultimately, Betsy and Tinman aren’t replacements. They’re reinforcements. Together, they enable a concierge-level mortgage experience where accuracy, speed, and human empathy converge. And because Betsy isn’t licensed, she stays firmly in the assistant role, empowering loan officers to deliver smarter, faster, and more meaningful service with every file.