Zest AI Launches LuLu Strategy: Generative AI Tool for Enhanced Lending Intelligence

Zest AI unveils Gen AI lending intelligence tool

This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. Following the successful rollout of LuLu Pulse, the platform's first module, LuLu Strategy represents the next phase in Zest AI's comprehensive roadmap for generative AI-powered financial intelligence solutions. In its initial launch, the new offering will be available exclusively to MeridianLink, Inc. (NYSE: MLNK) customers, provisioning financial institutions of all sizes with powerful generative AI tools that they previously did not have. "By equipping financial institutions with advanced generative AI tools like LuLu Strategy, we're not just helping individual organizations, we're strengthening the entire financial ecosystem by fostering greater innovation throughout the sector. Now, financial institutions have better insights to responsibly expand access to affordable credit to Main Street consumers, which strengthens the economy overall," said Mike de Vere, CEO of Zest AI. "This partnership with MeridianLink allows us to scale our solution rapidly across the financial services landscape, empowering regional banks and credit unions with the same caliber of technology that was once the exclusive domain of national institutions." The LuLu platform is a comprehensive suite of tools designed to enable financial institutions to optimize their lending operations and improve portfolio performance. By integrating industry public data and institution-specific data, LuLu serves as a centralized intelligence hub that consolidates multiple data sources into a single, authoritative platform that can be customized to meet customer-specific needs. With the new LuLu Strategy module, financial institutions can access: * Policy simulations: ask LuLu for policy recommendations to achieve certain business objectives or change policy rules and quantify the impact on automation, approval rate, and risk. * Application insights: provide deeper understanding of borrower behavior patterns, analyze application metrics and track borrower statistics over time. * Unbooked application analysis: identify missed opportunities by comparing pricing and performance of funded versus unfunded loans. * Loan performance monitoring: access ongoing intelligence to continuously refine lending strategies with in-depth tracking of loan performance, approvals, automation, and fraud as well as delinquency and charge-off investigations. "While generative AI adoption remains limited among the majority of financial institutions and lenders, LuLu bridges this technology gap, providing intuitive access to powerful predictive models and analytical capabilities that were previously out of reach for many institutions," said Megan Pulliam, SVP of MeridianLink® Marketplace. "Using the power of MeridianLink® Data Connect, the new LuLu Strategy module delivers forward-looking intelligence to MeridianLink customers to help adapt, compete, and win in dynamic markets. Layering LuLu on top of a customer's continually refreshed data set arms them with more insights faster for more agility and flexibility in their lending operations." LuLu Strategy builds on the foundation established by LuLu Pulse and represents the second step in Zest AI's lending intelligence platform. Zest AI has announced an ambitious roadmap for the LuLu platform, with several other modules being released over the coming quarters to support lending operations across compliance, institutional knowledge management, access and pricing.

Zest AI Debuts LuLu Strategy for AI-Powered Lending Decisions | PYMNTS.com

Zest AI says it has introduced a tool to help banks make AI-powered lending decisions. LuLu Strategy is the newest model of the company's artificial intelligence (AI) lending intelligence platform, according to a Monday (May 5) news release. The new offering will -- at least initially -- be available exclusively to customers of digital lending firm MeridianLink, per the release. "By equipping financial institutions with advanced generative AI tools like LuLu Strategy, we're not just helping individual organizations, we're strengthening the entire financial ecosystem by fostering greater innovation throughout the sector," Zest AI CEO Mike de Vere said in the release. "Now, financial institutions have better insights to responsibly expand access to affordable credit to Main Street consumers, which strengthens the economy overall." By teaming with MeridianLink, he added, Zest can scale its solution quickly across the financial services landscape, giving regional banks and credit unions the same level of technology that was once exclusively available via national lenders. According to the release, the platform offers lenders deeper understanding of borrower behavior patterns, as well as loan performance monitoring and policy simulations. In addition to using AI for lending decisions, Zest also employs the technology to fight fraud, something PYMNTS explored in an interview with de Vere last month. "Fraud is only going to get worse with the creation of generative AI," he said. As that report noted, research by PYMNTS Intelligence has found that 28% of consumers fell victim to credit card fraud last year. In addition, 37% said they were "very" or "extremely" worried about falling victim to such fraud. De Vere told PYMNTS that fraud losses are projected to reach $40 billion by 2027, with fraud tools becoming more accessible. For as little as $20 he said, criminals can do things like create fake IDs and pay stubs. The CEO also shared some misconceptions about fraud prevention, such as the notion that fraudsters only target bigger financial institutions. In fact, 80% of banks and credit unions, smaller ones included, reported fraud losses of more than $500,000 last year. "It disproportionately impacts smaller financial institutions," de Vere said. "A fraudster going up against Citi's IT team is probably going to be less successful than [targeting] a tiny credit union that outsources their IT."