The 2026 Game Changer Award Winners Are …

In the mortgage industry technology providers are working tirelessly to resolve industry problems for their clients. As a result, we are recognizing new products or updates of existing products that solve a real industry sticking point and improve the mortgage process for the better. Specifically, PROGRESS in Lending is recognizing new solutions and new advances to existing solutions that reshape the mortgage industry and improve the lending process. The 2026 Game Changer Award Winners in alphabetical order are:

AD Mortgage’s Non-QM AUS, or Non-QM Automated Underwriting System, is an AI-powered automated underwriting solution built specifically for the Non-QM segment and integrated directly into the AIM Partner Portal. The product was created to address one of the mortgage industry’s most complex and variable areas: Non-QM lending. Automated underwriting systems are not new to the mortgage industry. For years, AUS technology has supported more standardized loan types where borrower profiles, documentation requirements, and guideline logic are more uniform.

However, the Non-QM segment has historically remained much harder to automate. Non-QM lending serves borrowers with more complex financial profiles, including self-employed borrowers, real estate investors, borrowers using alternative income documentation, DSCR scenarios, Bank Statement programs, ITIN borrowers, and other nontraditional cases. These scenarios often require deeper analysis, more flexible guideline interpretation, and closer coordination between brokers and lenders. This is exactly why AD Mortgage’s Non-QM AUS is so significant. It brings automated underwriting decisioning to the area of mortgage lending where this kind of clarity and structure is needed most. Instead of relying heavily on manual review, multiple consultations, and time-consuming back-and-forth, brokers can use the system to receive automated loan decisions, program-specific conditions, and clearer direction earlier in the process. The tool operates within AD Mortgage’s AIM Partner Portal, where brokers already manage loans and use other digital resources. This integration is important because Non-QM AUS is not a disconnected technology feature. It is part of the broker’s actual daily workflow, helping them evaluate complex borrower scenarios more efficiently and move files forward with greater confidence. These factors led to early adoption and ease of use of Non-QM AUS. Its industry significance is reflected not only in the problem it solves, but also in its measurable adoption. In the first six months after launch, Non-QM AUS was used more than 3,500 times, demonstrating strong partner demand for automation in the Non-QM space. More recently, loan-level data showed that the use of Non-QM AUS in loans that reached Clear to Close increased by more than 23% year over year, from 17,061 loans in the June 2024–June 2025 period to 21,003 loans in the June 2025–June 2026 period. For brokers, this means less uncertainty, faster clarity, and a more structured way to serve complex borrowers. For borrowers, especially those who do not fit standard lending guidelines, it creates a faster and more transparent path to understanding their financing options.

Overall, AD Mortgage’s Non-QM AUS deserves recognition because it applies automated underwriting technology to a segment where automation has historically been the most difficult and the most needed. By bringing speed, structure, and clarity to Non-QM lending through AIM, the product helps reshape the lending process for brokers, borrowers, and the broader mortgage industry.

American Financial Network, Inc. (AFN) has built and deployed The Machine™—a proprietary, enterprise-wide Artificial Intelligence (AI) ecosystem that fundamentally reimagines how mortgage loans are originated, analyzed, processed, and closed. Developed in-house by a family-owned independent mortgage banker, The Machine™ represents a meaningful departure from the bolt-on AI tools and third-party automation platforms that currently define most of the industry.

At its core, The Machine™ is an interconnected network of specialized AI agents—called OttoBots—that operate simultaneously across the loan lifecycle. When a borrower submits an application, The Machine™ activates instantly: documents are classified, data fields are extracted and routed by domain (income, assets, credit, property), and a network of agents begins working the file in parallel. Income is cross-referenced across W-2s, pay stubs, and tax returns. Assets are scored for volatility. Title is reviewed. Compliance is checked. Fraud signals are analyzed. Appraisal data is validated. All at once, with no queue. The underwriting layer—Otto—currently comprises 20 dedicated OttoBots. But Otto is just one domain within a much larger system. AFN’s 2026 goal is 200 agents across the entire mortgage lifecycle. The Machine™ is a platform, not a point solution. The industry significance is direct: mortgage lending has long suffered from excessive manual effort, sequential workflows, and slow cycle times.

The Machine™ addresses these structural inefficiencies by routing work in parallel, automatically packaging findings for human review, and delivering files to loan officers already conditionally approved—conditions cleared, variances resolved, edge cases documented—before the LO has logged in. The result is fewer touches, fewer errors, and faster closings across AFN’s national platform of approximately 1,400 mortgage professionals. Every credit decision at AFN remains in the hands of a human underwriter. The Machine™ is designed to eliminate the tedium around the decision—not the decision itself—reflecting a responsible AI model the broader industry is still working to define.

Arrive Home’s recent redesign of its Earned Equity Program (EEP) into two distinct offerings — EEP Pathway and EEP DocLight — deserves recognition for the structural shift it represents in how the mortgage industry approaches underserved borrowers. Rather than treating “non-traditional” as one catch-all category, Arrive Home built two separate frameworks: Pathway removes the Social Security Number and FICO score requirement for ITIN holders and certain visa-status individuals, while DocLight uses FormFree’s RIKI tool to qualify gig workers and self-employed borrowers on cash-flow and asset data instead of tax returns. That split matters industry-wide because conventional underwriting is built around a single profile — W-2 income, an established credit file, a Social Security Number. Borrowers who fall outside that profile, whether long-term renters with strong payment histories but no FICO score, or self-employed earners with healthy cash flow but no two years of tax returns, have historically been locked out regardless of actual creditworthiness.

EEP’s bifurcation directly targets that mismatch, giving correspondent lenders two precise, well-bounded, FHA-aligned products matched to real borrower circumstances instead of asking them to take on undefined exception risk. The market’s response has been the clearest signal of significance. Arrive Home now works with six of the nation’s top 10 mortgage lenders, has helped nearly 13,000 Americans become homeowners, and grew revenue 30x over three years while scaling its team 20-fold to keep pace — including nearly 2,000 borrower inquiries in a single recent month. That adoption curve doesn’t happen unless lenders see a credible, compliant way to extend credit they couldn’t responsibly offer before.

For an industry under constant pressure to close the affordability and access gap without compromising loan quality, EEP’s bifurcation offers a template other lenders and program administrators can study and adapt: segment the underserved market by real borrower profile, build documentation standards around how people actually earn and manage money, and pair it with a long-term purchase contract structure that gives borrowers time to become mortgage-ready. That kind of industry-shaping influence is exactly what this recognition is meant to highlight.

Most mortgage servicers already know AI can help them. The problem isn’t awareness: it’s execution. BlackWolf Advisory Group’s AI Assessment & Implementation Service was built specifically to close the gaps for servicers. The company was founded by Managing Director Mirza Hodzic, who has more than 20 years’ experience in mortgage servicing across operations, compliance, audit, and leadership. 

The new AI-focused service from BlackWolf helps mortgage servicers identify, validate, and implement AI-powered and custom technology solutions. To deliver on this, BlackWolf combines deep mortgage servicing expertise with dedicated software engineering capability through its partnership with Authority Partners, a firm with 28 years of software development experience.

The problems BlackWolf’s service targets are ones servicers deal with every day: loan boarding inefficiencies, loss mitigation workflow bottlenecks, compliance monitoring gaps, subservicer oversight challenges, and exception management processes that still rely heavily on manual effort. BlackWolf focuses on the highest volume manual tasks in servicing, including document classification, data extraction, loan boarding validation, and escrow analysis. AI processes them with greater speed and accuracy than human review.

Blue Sage Solutions expanded its embedded AI capabilities across the mortgage lifecycle through new advancements within the Blue Sage AI ecosystem, including SageVision, AI Studio, and Voice AI. Unlike standalone AI tools or disconnected overlays, Blue Sage AI is embedded directly within the company’s cloud-native Digital Lending and Digital Servicing Platforms, allowing lenders to automate workflows, improve operational efficiency, and enhance borrower experiences within a unified environment.

The expanded capabilities address several of the mortgage industry’s most persistent operational challenges, including manual document review, underwriting inefficiencies, fragmented workflows, servicing complexity, and disconnected systems. SageVision modernizes document processing through AI-powered classification and extraction, AI Studio helps automate underwriting and conditions management, and Voice AI introduces intelligent servicing interactions with real-time borrower engagement capabilities. The industry significance lies in Blue Sage’s operational approach to AI.

Rather than positioning AI as an experimental feature, Blue Sage has embedded intelligent automation directly into the lending lifecycle in ways that are production-ready, auditable, and aligned with the compliance and workflow realities of mortgage lending. This enables lenders to modernize operations while maintaining the visibility, governance, and operational control required in a highly regulated industry.

Default Analytics offers loan-level title surveillance for servicers, lenders, and RMBS investors by monitoring active loans for undisclosed transfers and after closing, where title insurance stops looking. This shifts title risk from reactive discovery (at default or foreclosure) to early detection, cutting buyback exposure and investor losses.

Default Analytics addresses a massive gap in post-closing fraud protection in the $12T+ mortgage market. Active surveillance reduces lender liability, GSE buybacks, and systemic risk while boosting compliance and stability. This positions servicers/investors to get ahead of evolving threats.

Default Analytics is the leader in Shadow Loan Fraud surveillance, detection and resolution. As experts in finding and solving fraudulent, unauthorized, title transfers, our end-to-end solution and services can help mitigate client losses by millions each year. Since 2000 the company has been partnering with Banks, Credit Unions, Servicers, Investors, Mortgage Insurers, and Title Companies nationwide.

Income Qualify from Equifax is a first-in-market solution that transforms the early stages of mortgage qualification by delivering income and employment data from The Work Number® to mortgage lenders during the prequalification and pre-approval phase alongside the Equifax consumer credit file. Income Qualify gives mortgage lenders access to key data points such as SSN confirmation, employer name, job tenure and prior-year total income before origination even begins, empowering mortgage lenders to conduct an initial assessment faster and with less burden on the borrower.

Historically, mortgage lenders have pulled credit first and income and employment data later. Lenders had to request documentation from borrowers and manually review pay stubs and W-2s, frequently facing delays that pushed out time to close and increased origination costs. Borrowers, meanwhile, were left with uncertainty about their eligibility and faced the burden of assembling paper-based records early in a process that may not yet be firm. Income Qualify breaks this pattern by surfacing verified income and employment data at prequalification, a stage where, historically, only credit data was available. Lenders can now perform an initial debt-to-income (DTI) ratio assessment, verify the borrower’s stated income, confirm employer information to reduce name-match errors on Government-Sponsored Enterprise platforms, and establish a clearer picture of the borrower’s tenure and near-term income necessary for underwriting. All of this happens earlier and with less burden on the applicant.

Mortgage lenders are navigating an intensely competitive market for qualified buyers, and any friction in the prequalification process creates risk of borrower drop-off or competitive loss. Income Qualify from Equifax directly addresses this by empowering lenders to act faster, reduce the cost of early-stage verification and make better informed decisions. By helping lenders qualify more borrowers with confidence at the front end of the funnel, the product also supports broader affordability goals, helping more U.S. consumers access home ownership and the generational wealth that comes with it.

Experian’s Mortgage Loan Performance (MLP) Dataset transforms mortgage capital markets analytics by unifying consumer credit, mortgage tradeline, and residential property data into a single integrated view powered by Experian’s AI-driven pinning technology.

The solution connects 245M+ consumer credit profiles, 120M+ residential properties, and 150M+ homeowners with up to a 90% match rate, creating one of the industry’s most comprehensive mortgage intelligence ecosystems that covers all product types, including conforming, FHA, and VA, non-QM, jumbo, CES, and HELOCs. The product delivers 20+ years of loan performance history, refreshed monthly consumer, property, and loan-level insights, identification of originators and current servicers across 100% of residential mortgages, and near-complete coverage of mortgage originations, property valuations, CLTV, and borrower credit attributes. This enables lenders, servicers, investors, and capital markets participants to improve MSR valuation, prepayment forecasting, recapture strategy, delinquency monitoring, credit stress testing, reserve forecasting, and accurately capture market sizing, as well as portfolio benchmarking, in a single environment.

By eliminating fragmented datasets and manual data stitching, Experian is helping the mortgage industry make faster, smarter, and more predictive decisions across the entire loan lifecycle, helping narrow the data and insights gap between the consumer and capital markets.

LoanCare’s CoreSync is a next-generation, API-driven mortgage servicing solution that embeds servicing functionality directly within a lender’s existing digital ecosystem. Rather than redirecting borrowers to a separate servicing portal, CoreSync enables homeowners to make payments, access loan information, review documents, request payoff quotes, manage HELOCs and interact with their mortgage account entirely within their financial institution’s mobile app, online banking platform or website.

The solution also provides real-time servicing data to branch personnel, creating a seamless experience across digital and physical channels. CoreSync represents a significant advancement for the mortgage servicing industry because it addresses one of the most persistent challenges in subservicing: maintaining brand continuity and customer engagement after loan origination. Historically, even private-label servicing solutions often required borrowers to leave their lender’s digital environment to complete servicing tasks, creating friction, confusion and a disconnect from the institution’s brand. CoreSync eliminates these barriers by bringing servicing directly into the lender’s digital experience through modern API integration.

At a time when consumers expect seamless digital experiences across all financial products, CoreSync empowers lenders, banks and credit unions to retain ownership of the customer relationship while leveraging LoanCare’s servicing expertise behind the scenes. The result is a more cohesive borrower experience, stronger customer engagement, improved retention opportunities and a new standard for what private-label mortgage servicing can deliver.

NewDay USA launched NewDay Home, a home-buying solution that lets qualified veterans and active-duty service members buy a home with no money down and no upfront closing costs. Through NewDay Home, qualified borrowers can secure a fully underwritten, credit- and income-approved mortgage with no money down at competitive rates.

Veterans and service members who are unable or prefer not to deplete their personal savings for closing costs can use NewDay Advantage for a combined loan structure that finances closing expenses over five years, with interest fully refunded if repaid within one year. NewDay’s enhanced proprietary loan origination system is what makes this possible, qualifying borrowers for both the mortgage and the Advantage in one streamlined approval. The industry significance is rooted in the barrier the product addresses. One of the most significant challenges for veterans and service members looking to buy a home is not always the monthly mortgage payment, but the need to save enough money to cover closing costs. A recent survey by NewDay USA of 1,238 service members and veterans found that 45% don’t have enough saved to cover closing costs, and 18% have nothing saved at all. Even when they do have enough cash on hand, many do not want to wipe out savings that may be needed for other priorities or emergencies. As a result, they are often trapped in paying rent, which Rental Housing Journal reports has increased an average of 31% over the last five years. This matters because homeownership remains one of the clearest paths to long-term financial stability.

According to the latest Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, the typical U.S. homeowner has a net worth of $430,000, compared to just $10,000 for the average renter. Yet despite the significant advantages of VA home loans, only about 22%, or roughly 3.9 million of the nation’s 18 million veterans, take advantage of this benefit. Year to date, 34% of NewDay Home’s Purchase Pre-Qualifications have included the NewDay Home Advantage product, showcasing the need for this home buying solution among veterans and their families.

NonQMVerifi, powered by USTaxCerts, is expanding its lender subscription model designed to solve one of the largest causes of fallout in NonQM lending: “CPA friction.” Self-employed borrowers are unable to obtain CPA letters because they self-file taxes, use national tax chains which prohibit employees from issuing verifications, or work with tax professionals who refuse to cooperate with lender requests.

The new program allows selected lenders to offer borrowers access to IRS licensed, evidence-based verification letters for as little as $99 through an integrated operational workflow. Instead of relying on random uninsured CPA letters, lenders receive audit-ready bank statement verification letters and P&Ls backed by ten-point due diligence reviews and $2M per-file E&O coverage. The industry significance is substantial. The program improves pull-through, reduces operational friction, standardizes documentation, mitigates repurchase and adverse action exposure, and helps lenders compete more aggressively for self-employed borrowers.

The core question being asked across the industry is simple: “How much would your bank statement volume increase if all self-employed borrowers had access to $99 verification letters?” Lenders, AE’s, brokers, and operations leaders interested in participating in the current lender selection process are encouraged to connect with founder Danny Flucke, who is an invited panelist at the upcoming IMN NonQM event in Dana Point.

RealtyBid, a Covius Solution, has integrated FoxyAI’s computer vision and AI-scoring technology directly into the RealtyBid platform, delivering instant, image-based property analytics at the point of auction. This update gives RealtyBid users real-time access to three powerful data layers: AI-powered condition and quality scores generated from listing photos, return-on-investment projections powered by Blue Book International that layer estimated renovation costs on top of FoxyAI’s valuations and an AVM that considers property characteristics, market trends and hyperlocal comparables.

The industry significance of this update is substantial. REO disposition and default servicing have historically relied on physical inspections, manual review and subjective assessments to price and transact on distressed assets, a process that is slow, inconsistent and difficult to scale. By embedding AI-driven condition scoring and valuation intelligence directly into the auction workflow, RealtyBid is fundamentally changing how the industry evaluates assets.

Lenders, servicers and investors can now make instant, data-driven decisions on property condition and value, dramatically compressing timelines and enabling high-volume portfolio review at a scale that was previously impractical.

ServiceLink’s newly launched CloseNow™ solution enables lenders to reach their cycle time goals – including for same-day closings, without increasing their risk – ultimately providing lenders with the opportunity to maximize their home equity profitability while delivering a borrower experience that improves pull-through and may drive repeat business. CloseNow is a tech-enabled home equity workflow, unlocked by access to instant property information. By aligning timelines and workflows, it combines early access to property information with accelerated title processes and the capacity to schedule closing appointments and order limited valuation products. This ultimately unlocks one-day closings, helping lenders to meet borrower expectations while providing best-in-class service.

Today’s borrowers expect the same – or better – speed for home equity loan transactions as they do for personal loans and credit card applications. While average industry turn times have remained virtually the same year-over-year, a small number of lenders are closing in as quickly as one day. ServiceLink’s 2026 State of Homebuying Report, which polled more than 1,500 U.S. residents who purchased a home in the last two years, reinforces the desires of today’s borrowers. While 35% of respondents said they expect to close on their home purchase in two weeks or less, 50% said they would expect to close on a home equity loan in the same time frame. CloseNow makes that possible. So, how does it work? It utilizes an accelerated title process, instantly delivering key fields of information to support lending decisions at point-of-sale. This includes more than 100 fields of information, including property tax, mortgage and deed information, legal and vesting details and involuntary lien information. Property reports can be delivered in four hours or less and are completed with automated curative and review processes. Instant closing scheduling at point-of-sale then allows the lender and borrower to lock in a closing date early in the process. A time saving measure for borrowers, ServiceLink also recently introduced an all-day signing window for remote online notarization (RON). Instead of selecting a date and time slot for RON appointments, lenders and borrowers now can simply select their desired closing date – which can be that very day, if their lender’s workflows allow for it. Borrowers sign onto ServiceLink’s closing platform at any time on the selected day to complete their closing with a signing agent that specializes in real estate transactions. Finally, lenders can order any required appraisal products, from AVMs to full appraisal, utilizing a network of pre-vetted appraisers, which includes fast turn times, often two days or less when a desktop valuation is needed.

CloseNow reduces turn times, cutting overhead and infusing borrower-facing technology, which may make home equity lending more profitable, while managing risk. CloseNow may improve profitability by locking in borrowers early, slashing timeframes and increasing pull-through rates. By delivering a closing timeframe and experience borrowers have come to expect, CloseNow also helps lenders drive borrower loyalty, while employing a product cascade that uses leading-edge technology.

TrustEngine’s MortgageCoach platform has introduced a suite of AI-powered enhancements that transform how loan officers build borrower presentations. Historically, creating a comprehensive, consultative mortgage presentation required significant time, technical know-how, and manual data entry. This was a process that often put high-quality borrower communication out of reach for less experienced loan officers, even though it remained a top differentiator for top producers. With these new capabilities, loan officers can go from a blank screen to a complete, personalized borrower presentation in under 30 seconds.

The update introduces three flexible workflows for generating a presentation: natural language input (typing notes or speaking a scenario aloud, with sessions carrying over seamlessly between mobile and desktop), document or screenshot upload (turning competitor fee sheets, call transcripts, or spreadsheets into a counter-strategy presentation), and guided, Mad Lib-style templates for loan officers who want speed and structure. Together, these workflows meet loan officers wherever they are in their workflow and however they think — whether that’s jotting quick notes between appointments or formalizing a strategy from a borrower’s documents.

The industry significance lies in democratizing a skill that has historically separated elite producers from the rest of the field: the ability to translate complex loan options into clear, compelling, borrower-ready advice. By embedding AI directly into the origination workflow, MortgageCoach is not simply automating paperwork, it is making sophisticated borrower advisory accessible to every loan officer regardless of tenure or experience. At a moment when speed-to-engagement and borrower trust are critical, competitive levers, this kind of capability has the potential to reshape origination standards across the industry, raising the floor on borrower communication quality industry-wide rather than just lifting the ceiling for top performers.

Veros Real Estate Solutions (Veros®), a trusted innovator in mortgage technology, specializing in enterprise risk management and collateral valuation, is nominating its comprehensive technology updates that enable the Uniform Collateral Data Portal® (UCDP®) to seamlessly support the new Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) 3.6. As the technology provider behind the gateway through which appraisal data is submitted to government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs).

Veros delivers the mission-critical technology infrastructure required for one of the most significant modernization efforts in more than a decade. The industry’s transition from the UAD 2.6 format to the new UAD 3.6 standard modernizes how appraisal data is structured, validated, and analyzed. Veros expanded the submission process, which already processes millions of submissions each month, to support these new data requirements and enhanced validations. This foundational infrastructure upgrade supports higher data quality, deeper analytics, increased process automation, and a more modernization-ready appraisal ecosystem.

Furthermore, Veros extended this modernization collaboration to support alignment with UAD 3.6 to the Electronic Appraisal Delivery (EAD) portal. This coordinated, industry-wide approach reflects Veros’ commitment to advancing technology and operational workflows in tandem, helping the entire housing finance ecosystem transition to a more efficient and data-driven future.

The Xactus Mortgage Intent Index (XMII) is the industry’s first real-time measure of borrower mortgage demand. Built from millions of verified credit inquiries processed daily through Xactus360, Xactus’ Intelligent Verification Platform, XMII tracks early borrower behavior across pre-application, application, and pre-close stages.

The industry significance is substantial. For decades, mortgage professionals have relied on indices that measure applications, rate locks, or closed loans. These are lagging indicators; by the time they move, lenders are already behind. XMII flips that dynamic by measuring demand at the very first touchpoint: the credit inquiry. This gives lenders, capital markets participants, and economists a forward-looking signal weeks before traditional benchmarks reflect any change. The index updates daily and is presented weekly, making it practical for operational decision-making across staffing, marketing, pipeline management, and capital markets strategy. In a market that can swing 50-80% season to season, having a true leading indicator is not a nice-to-have; it is a competitive necessity.

No index like XMII has existed before. Traditional mortgage market indices, including those from MBA and other industry bodies, are built from application submissions, rate locks, or funded loans. These data points capture activity that is already well underway. XMII takes a fundamentally different approach by sourcing data from verified credit inquiries, the moment a consumer first signals intent to pursue a mortgage, before any application is submitted. The data powering XMII flows from Xactus’ verification network, one of the largest in the mortgage industry, and is fully anonymized and aggregated to ensure compliance and consumer privacy. Proprietary models then analyze patterns and apply rigorous statistical methods to produce a single, easy-to-understand index value.