Mortgage 1st

Using AI to shape the future of mortgage advice.

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From an AI Opportunity Workshop in November to a live agentic system announced on stage in February. A major AI transformation in under three months, delivered without adding headcount.

< 3 months
workshop to live system
10×
more qualified leads
< 1 min
to first client contact

Initially, my experience with AI was limited to using tools like ChatGPT to help make things sound better in emails and business communications. So, I approached RiverAI a bit sceptically, wondering whether it could really add value to my business. However, during the first session I was immediately blown away by the ideas the team brought to the table. The scale of what we could achieve in our business, with their support was truly game changing.
The team has been incredibly hands-on, always available, and they’ve explained everything in clear, understandable terms to both me and my team. Working with them has been a pleasure every step of the way.
The ideas they’ve shared have been not only exciting but have the potential to grow our business and position us as market leaders in our industry. RiverAI’s cutting-edge approach is exactly what we need to stay ahead, there is no way we could have hired a team internally to implement this level of AI first transformation, so I can’t wait to see where this partnership takes us.

Jon Stones – Mortgage 1st

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The challenge

Double the business, without doubling the team.

“We are leading the way in the mortgage and protection market. But we can’t grow fast enough. We want to double in size in 2026.” — Jon Stones, Managing Director.

We reframed the ambition as a plan for growth: what if you could write twice as many mortgage and protection policies, without hiring more staff?

Thinking practically

Where AI could work across the business.

Sales & marketing

Behaviour-based segments, communications tailored to each customer’s goal, and automated follow-ups, with predictive insight into when someone is likely to refinance or need protection.

Outcome: better targeting and higher conversion, with less manual effort.

Customer experience

AI assistance that supports human expertise: instant answers and booking, proactive flags for customers who need extra guidance, and smarter matching to the right adviser.

Outcome: a smoother, more responsive experience that still feels personal.

Operations

Automation across adviser and support workflows, from lead handling and scheduling to unifying data across systems, with intelligent document processing and orchestration.

Outcome: faster processes, fewer errors, and more time for clients.

Product & service innovation

Personalised summaries and visual mortgage options, data validated for accuracy, and proactive next-step recommendations from remortgage timing to protection reviews.

Outcome: scalable personalisation that deepens long-term relationships.

The pace

From workshop to live system in under three months.

November 2025

An AI Opportunity Workshop mapped how the business runs and prioritised the first projects.

February 2026

The agentic system was announced live on stage at Mortgage 1st’s annual company conference.

An AI-first vision

Harness AI to deliver faster, smarter mortgage solutions, guided always by our people, with expertise, empathy and integrity.

AgentONE · First project

Qualifying leads: 45 steps down to one.

We started with the most expensive lead source. Brokers complained the leads were low quality; the CEO complained they cost too much. The old adviser process ran to 45 steps and 15 to 60 minutes of manual, multi-person effort per lead.

Before

45 steps · 15–60 minutes · multi-person

Lead comes in (around 80 a day)
Adviser presses to accept in email
Adviser assesses the lead
Accepts in Unbiased, adds a note
Adviser creates the lead in the LMS
Adviser allocated
Adviser contacts the lead

After

Under 1 minute · a single human action

A Lead Assessment Engine sorts every lead into Hot, Golden, or deferred
A leader dashboard shows the picture live
Automations create the lead, allocate an adviser by round robin, and send confirmations
Errors are caught and clearly explained
Morty makes the first SMS contact in seconds

Meet the agents

Three agents, one human-led process.

Morty

Front-of-house nurture agent · SMS and WhatsApp

Morty makes the most of the first 15 minutes of a new lead, before and during adviser allocation, out of hours and at weekends. It welcomes the customer, asks quickfire questions, introduces their named adviser, and offers to call now, wait, or book a time. The adviser stays in control; Morty does not give advice, replace advisers, or make lending decisions.

Sub-agents

Nurture
Refresh Nudge
Template Emails
Calendar Booker
Completion Helper
Unqualified Refund Capture

Mindy

Back-office orchestrator · rich web chat

If Morty talks to people, Mindy talks to systems. Mindy handles stage-one data collection so the admin and adviser have everything in an easy, GDPR-safe format. Customers upload documents; Mindy extracts and structures the data, confirms it, flags any gaps, and tells the adviser when approval is needed. Compliance checking stays with a person.

Sub-agents

Collect
Fact Finder Assistant
File Summariser
Fraud Checker
Affordability Summary
Call Transcription
Data Formatter

Medi

Protection agent · voice

Medi is a voice agent that talks a customer through their medical history, current health and dependants to find the most suitable protection policy. The consultation runs through six stages: greeting, medical history, current health, dependants, lifestyle and preferences. The adviser maintains control throughout.

Sub-agents

Protection Q&A Bot
CIE Report Generator
Protection Booker

Results by numbers

What changed on Morty’s first project.

Measure	Before	After
Golden accepted leads per day	8	40
Hot leads per day	0	40
Mean time to first client contact	35 mins	< 1 min
Human inputs per lead	45	1 or 0
Average refunds per month	13	0
Average input errors per month	21	0
Monthly emails per adviser	2,453	574
Admin minutes per lead acceptance	30	0

The table of agency

The full agent landscape.

Nurture

Unbiased Leads
Unqualified Refund Capture
Refresh Nudge
Calendar Booker
Template Emails
Affordability Summary
1st Contact
Fraud Checker
Data Formatter

Collect

Completion Helper
Fact Finder Assistant
Call Transcription
File Summariser
Stage 1 Data Collection

Protect

Protection Booker
Medical Voice Capture
CIE Report Generator
Protection Q&A Bot

Wow, what a month February was for new business. Not just beating the previous record month, but absolutely obliterating it. Well done Team M1, and a massive shout out to Rhys Schofield for the best individual month from an adviser in company history.

Jon Stones – Mortgage 1st

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