Copperlane Founders: Prioritizing Adoption Over ROI in Mortgage AI

Copperlane co-founders Athan Zhang and Brianna Lin discussed mortgage artificial intelligence adoption strategies during a recent interview, housingwire.com reported. Zhang serves as the company’s chief executive officer while Lin holds the position of chief operating officer.

Building Technology Around Existing Loan Officer Workflows

The company developed from a mix of technical backgrounds and firsthand family exposure to the mortgage sector. Copperlane combines product engineering with face-to-face customer research.

Zhang explained that meeting loan officers in person allows the company to understand established processing steps.

Prioritizing Software Adoption Before Measuring Return on Investment

Lin noted that purchasing technology alone does not guarantee business results. Leadership buy-in represents only the initial phase of implementation.

There are quite a few intermediate steps that you actually need to take still to get there. One of the biggest ones that we see is driving adoption with LOs.

Brianna Lin

Because loan officers rely on established toolsets and routines, introducing external automation creates friction. Vendors share responsibility for ensuring users adopt the platform successfully through hands-on initial support. Zhang emphasized that first impressions dictate whether users embrace new habits.

Measuring Automation Success Through Reduced Human Intervention

Copperlane measures adoption by tracking how many human interventions are removed from a single loan file. The company’s artificial intelligence agent, named Penny, handles significant workflow portions and manages handoffs between stakeholders.

Lin stated that partial automation rates of 50 or 70 percent fall short of operational utility. Platforms must achieve 95 percent automation or higher to deliver genuine value.

Anticipating Industry Breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence

Zhang projected that broader artificial intelligence adoption across the mortgage sector is inevitable. He believes a major breakthrough experience will force reluctant firms to update their operations.