How to Use AI in Title Operations: ChatGPT & Automation | Title Agents Podcast Ep28

you will face many defeats in life, but never let those like yourself be defeated. And that kind of goes with AI, right? Like, don't let AI control you. Don't let it defeat you. Get ahead of the curve and just build and work with it.

I mean, that's the only thing we can look forward to. In a world where change is the only constant, Mo Shamil stands at the forefront, guiding title professionals to not just grow their businesses, but to master the art of innovation. With every episode, you're handed the keys to unlock unparalleled growth and stay ahead of the curve. Get ready for a transformative journey. All right.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Talent Agents podcast, your go-to resource for innovation, strategy, and growth in the talent industry. I am your host, Mo Shamil, CEO of Alltech National Title. Today, we're diving into one of the most transformative topics, shaking up not our industry, but literally the world, artificial intelligence or AI. I know it's the phrase du jour, whatever you want to call it, but it's really moving at the speed of light and beyond. It's just so fascinating.

And join us today, a very special guest, Hope Ottaviani, our very own Director of Operations here at Alltech National Title. In this episode, we'll explore the challenges, opportunities, and the future of AI in the talent industry, and how we can use cutting-edge tools to stay ahead in this fast-evolving market. So grab your coffee, lean in, and let's leap into innovation together. Welcome, Hope. Hello, everybody.

I'm happy to be here. That's awesome. Well, tell us a little about yourself. How did you get started in the talent industry first so people can get to know you? Yeah, sure.

So Hope Ottaviani here. I started in the title industry about 13 or 14 years ago. A quintessential experience of any title person. I started as a receptionist, and then I went to foreclosures and residential resale, some short sales, and then into management. And here I am, ready to grow the company and move forward with my partner, Mo.

We are going to get this company growing with AI and beyond. So I'm excited to be here. That's awesome. So Hope, as you know, AI is becoming a big part of the conversation across many industries, and especially ours. And from your perspective, what do you think now is the right time?

Why do you think it's the right time for companies, especially the talent industry, to start embracing AI? I know it can be a scary word, but what are some baby steps, do you think? Yeah, I mean, right now, I mean, there's no good time. You just got to take the plunge. And as a title company, you have to be ahead of the curve.

I mean, you got to embrace the innovation, embrace the fear. Because by incorporating and adapting this evolutionary product called AI, right, you just have to build it into your process. And when you adapt it, there's no fear, because you know how to mold it, you know how to kind of feed it and build it into your workflows and processes. So now is the time to get it in the door, start building it, start feeding it, give it the knowledge of the title industry world, and just be one with it. So you got to proactively implement it with your team, so that when it does become mainstream, if not already, you're the first one fearless of the unknowns, because you have made it a part of your daily workflow.

So now's the time. So I literally, I kind of, I giggle looking at some of our strategy meeting notes from five, six, seven years ago, how before even Chad JP came about, we're talking about using AI bots in our workflows. Way ahead of anybody, but now it's another level. Yeah, it was so bizarre years ago, looking at all my notes and how much time I spent on doing that. It's like, AI can do it for me now.

Let's talk about a broader landscape. How do you see AI transforming how title professionals approach their work at a more of a high level? Then we can start digging a little deeper into some tools and automation. Yeah. So I mean, just like I said, for me, operationally, AI has just, it's kind of removed the headache, right?

It's removed all the time that I was spending years ago. I've only been managing for eight or nine years, but I spend so much time on, on PowerPoints, on notes, on checklists, on compliance packets. Oh my gosh. Now you just feed the knowledge that you have up here and it produces a final product for you in seconds. And then you can use that final product and then just build off of it and continue feeding the AI engine.

And then you can have a final product within five minutes. So it's, it's just so bizarre how far AI has come, but you can utilize it to build the framework for you and then get that final professional product so much faster and way more efficient than what I was doing years ago. It's just, it's just a huge time saver. And it helps think you like outside the box. For me, I don't think of myself as an outside the box thinker.

I'm an implementer, but now I can work with AI and cohesively come out with a product. And it's like my best friend, like I just use it. I feed it. The thoughts are there, but I just can't come up with that product. So I use it day in and day out just to, to get those operational products that you need for any given, you know, process.

That's awesome. I know how, uh, I remember like, it seems like, like literally ages, if not decades ago, like when Chad 2P2 came about late 2022, I think the November 22. And that was fine and dandy. Like, uh, it's all about content and you can do social media posts and do, uh, copyrights and all that stuff. But it's fine.

Like now it's another level. I always joke, Hey, I have the brightest, smartest, most amazing executive assistants in the world. It's actually true. It is my, my, uh, the most brilliant executive assistant you could ever have. So as a, as a company, we started integrating AI tools, streamline operations, and it has decision-making.

What excites you most about the possibilities these tools offer? For me as an operational leader, just saving time and saving resources. I mean, in the past, we just spent so much money, so much wasted time researching on stuff that we could do in seconds now. So instead of wasting time and money on outsourcing those mundane questions or duties, AI can create a formal agreement for you, a formal professional presentation for you, a compliance packet, an onboarding packet. So the things that I do and handle day in and day out with mergers and acquisitions and HR and all that stuff, I have resources internally in the industry, but AI is my resource now.

And, and, and I, at least gives me a framework and then I can bounce ideas. I already have something I can give to my underwriters, whatever, like, Hey, here's what we have. Now we can collaborate off of that, but I built it right with AI. So for me, it's just saving time and saving resources. Awesome.

So can you share some of the challenges as a company we're trying to address we're aiming to solve? And it's only, as I said, it's only the beginning, like literally it's in infancy stages and the tools we're using, the tools we're looking to use in the future, kind of, we just said it's a work in progress. And it just, this is like first, we're only the first inning, the bottom first, but it's not first inning. Yeah. I mean, and there's so much we can do with it, but right now, I mean, off the top of my head, high level data entry and like reading the contract.

So I know the platform we utilize it, it already has some features that are, you know, in augmenting as we go, but data entry, reading the contract, putting all that stuff in quicker saves a lot of time with my data entry people. And then order, pacer, Patriot, rundown searches, even responding to messages, like AI can create a professional response quickly. So you don't have to do like a whole paragraph or something outlining a closing statement. It can read and then produce a message for you. So that allows us to respond quicker, allows us to incorporate automation with the AI messaging within our system.

And then it adds the details, like the AI tool that we're building out and read the details from the file and produce a message with all data effectively. And it's accurate. So that kind of maintaining that professional approach with the personal touch is kind of huge with our workflows. Awesome. Can you talk about the title GPT, that AI we've built?

And I know it's still, we built it over a year ago and a year ago might as well be a decade ago. The technology I'm looking at it today seems archaic, but at the end it was kind of trying to beef it up, make it smarter and better. But what was the purpose of building title GPT? Well, I'm glad you mentioned it because I didn't know if we were going to touch on that today, but I'm really excited about the title GPT is kind of like a way for your escrow officers or production people to bounce ideas off of or ask this engine any sort of underwriting question, if you will, instead of having going to go to the council. Now, I wouldn't rely on it, but simple questions like what are some probate requirements in Wisconsin?

What are the transfer and death requirements? And what are the LLC requirements for this certain state? So we have fed it a bunch of knowledge. We've built it. We've added all the knowledge we can, but now my production people can ask the questions quickly and get a response even quicker.

You don't have to go to the underwriters or attorneys and wait for days. Oh, we can't go to closing because I'm waiting for a response on a simple answer. So, I mean, sure, you could comb through the manuals and all these documents and sites, but now all of that is consolidated in one region. So the title GPT has been a huge resource. We're continuing to build it, but it's just something easier, especially for a national company that you can just ask a question and get the answer in seconds.

Yeah, that's as you know, like this, our industry is aging and all that with the brains of the industry, they're retiring, but they're retiring soon. So definitely we're not getting that huge I mean, sure, you could comb through the manuals and all these documents and sites, but now all of that is consolidated in one region. So the title GPT has been a huge resource. We're continuing to build it, but it's just something easier, especially for a national company, that you can just ask a question and get the answer in seconds. Yeah, and it's, as you know, like this, our industry is aging and all the brains of the industry, they're retiring, about to retire soon.

So it's definitely, we're not getting that huge influx of a young generation. And there's a little gap of knowledge is going to be even wider because the next few years is more of our savvy experience and the writers attorneys retire. So the purpose for a little bit of the whole title GPT is to take that knowledge out of that experience and put it like in an AI. So our junior processors, that's where our professors, paralegals, how can access like answers and data quickly. Our underwriters, God bless them, they have all the resources, but sometimes it's very hard to find an answer to a question because our website, it's a massive, massive, like a maze.

There's so much information, but it's so hard to get it quickly to that answer, which kind of frustrates people. Sometimes they'd rather call somebody or email somebody and wait versus getting that quick answer right away, where at the end of the day, it's our instant gratification. Yay. True. We want information now.

Yeah, and I hate having to read through a bunch of information to get to seven pages later. Finally, I find the answer I need when I can just type it in and get it a lot quicker. So you're right. This is an instant gratification world that we're living in and we have to be with the curve. We gotta be quick.

Embracing AI often requires a mindset shift. And we've kind of been working on this for the last couple of years through our AI committee, a couple of years ago, and we keep evolving and working on it. What are some ways you've worked to get the buyer from the team as we adopt this technology? Yeah, well, I know we have the AI committee, of course, and I'm constantly pushing some AI tools out there and bots and certain ways of how to implement in our processes. And I always, on my regional calls and the committee calls, I always ask, hey guys, I don't know everything.

I need to rely on people who think differently. And that's why you have people, you work with people smarter than you because you can use their knowledge to improve the product. And it's not just the workflows or the processes, but how do you build AI into that product better? And so I always bring it up in our committee meetings and all that stuff. And I really just, I think it's just constant reiteration.

You just talk to them and bring it up just to not be as scared of it. Like, let's build it in. And our platform has that already built in. People are already starting to using it. It's just that repetition.

And bringing it up in the meetings and just making sure that it doesn't fall to the back. Right? Constant reiteration. And we're really touching more on operations and sales and marketing is another level. I mean, it's amazing, from creating quick content for social media, for blogs, for even asking questions for podcasts.

I mean, it's so amazing how you give it some context and it creates a content for you. Just it's incredible how fast and how perfect and amazing it is. If you go back and forth, if you give it enough context, it'll just create some amazing kind of content for you. I agree. The power of the prompt.

It's how you ask the prompt. That's where the power is. That is so true. You really have to ask the right questions. And that's how I get such a good product because I feel like I just feed it a lot of knowledge.

And it's all up here. I feed it all the knowledge and then it gives me a beautiful product. That's exactly what I was trying to put on paper. Sorry, not paper, but on a document, so we don't do paper. Exactly.

What's been the most rewarding or surprising aspect of working with AI tools so far? I would just say just the leadership stuff. Like I mentioned before, I love that I can do a PowerPoint in seconds. I love that I can utilize it to respond to clients by incorporating the automation with the AI messaging, the leadership stuff for me. And the reporting.

So as a leader, I have a lot of duties. I get a lot of reports. I got a lot of transition timelines for mergers and acquisitions. So for me, it's just the saving time. And it's just all that knowledge and putting it down onto a document, if you will, and getting it out of my head.

Because that's what I got to do. And it's just been a huge impact for me. If you could fast forward five years from now, what do you hope, Ms. Hope, our team has accomplished by using AI in innovative ways? I would love to incorporate more bots in the title chat GPT.

Right now, it's still elementary with our production team, but I want it to become second nature to go to the title chat GPT instead of going to underwriters or me. I mean, a lot of people come to me and look, I know a lot of things. I'm a jack of all trades, master of none, like Mo says all the time. But I think it'd just be easier to mitigate that time spent on mundane questions by just relying on that title chat GPT. So really making that and feeding it and giving it more knowledge, especially real-time knowledge, maybe syncing the title chat GPT to real-time websites.

Because right now you're feeding the manuals, but if it was real-time, that would be great. I know chat GPT is, but title, that's a different game. So that would be great. And then hopefully just getting people more comfortable with it. I know right now the fear is still there.

People still say Terminator and AI is going to take over the world, and it is. You might as well go with the flow. I mean, use it to your benefit. That's the whole thing is don't let it own you, you own it. It can't take over unless you feed it that knowledge, you feed it all the information and you build it.

So think of it as your baby, you create it. So I hope people have less fear in the future. I think one of my favorite people is Tony Robbins. And as he says, people may be scared of AI taking their jobs but AI is going to take jobs that people do not use AI. Exactly.

It's a very powerful way to look at it. If you're not using AI, that's when it's going to be bypassed by people that use it. Yeah, that's so true. Like stop being scared of it, it's going to happen. Like that's why I love you, Mo, is just because you've never been scared of it.

You've always had that innovation approach. And it's like, we've always been ahead of the curve. We've been digital and paperless since 2011. I don't even know how to do a paper file, thanks to you. That's awesome.

Well, we've literally, as our audience, if you have questions, feel free to reach out to me or to Hope, we're here to kind of hold your hands and ask any questions you may have. And we're getting close to wrapping up this episode and I would love to keep this monthly call or maybe even have some other people from the industry join us, more like a panel. So it'd be a good way to collaborate as an industry on adopting AI and using it to the best of its abilities. So what's your favorite quote that inspires you to approach work and innovation? I've always loved Maya Angelou.

I've loved everything she's written. So I would say, you will face many defeats in life but never let those like yourself be defeated. And that kind of goes with AI, right? Like don't let AI control you. Don't let it defeat you.

Get ahead of the curve and just build and work with it. I mean, that's the only thing we can look forward to but yeah, I love Maya Angelou. How about a favorite book? I would say, and I don't read a lot, but I loved the book, The Art of Manipulation. And I would say by Omar Johnson, instead of looking at how you can get people to do what you want, how do you get AI to do what you want, right?

So I thought that was a good play, you know, The Art of Manipulation and then just utilizing your resources around you, build it into AI to get AI to do what you want. Awesome. Well, that's the wrap up for today's episode in the Talent Agents podcast. A big thank you to Hope Ottaviani for sharing your insights on AI. And today's conversation got you thinking about how to bring AI into your operations.

Be sure to check out the show notes for links and resources and title gpt.ai. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode packed with actionable strategies and expert insights tailored for title professionals like you. This is Mo Shamil reminding you to keep pushing, keep innovating, and let's navigate the future of talent together. See you next time. Thank you, Hope.

Bye. And that's a wrap on today's journey with Mo Shamil from the Title Agents podcast, reminding you that mastering the art of innovation is key in the title industry's fast-paced world. If you're finding it tough to keep up with the changes and challenges, remember, you're not alone. Our calendar is open for you. Find the link in the show notes and let's connect.

Make sure to hit subscribe to not miss out on strategies that elevate and insights that empower. Together, we'll navigate the future of the industry. I look forward to our next meeting in the upcoming episode. Keep pushing, keep innovating, and see you in the next episode.