This month, TD Bank (TSX: TD) announced that it had reached a major milestone in the bank’s “enterprise-wide AI strategy” with the launch of its first agentic AI model, which will streamline the application process for mortgages and Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOCs).
After OpenAI’s ChatGPT exploded onto the scene in 2022 and set off the current AI frenzy, AI labs around the world have been focused on developing chatbots, but the latest frontier is “agentic AI,” which can work through a series of tasks with minimal human intervention, similar to a real-world personal assistant.
This is the kind of AI that TD Bank is using to review mortgage and HELOC applications. The AI agents will “create application summary memos by classifying client documents, extracting key information, calculating client income and validating figures against select policy requirements” while also “performing consent checks and searching for any discrepancies before generating a concise summary for underwriters.”
According to TD Bank, the switch to AI is expected to reduce the application review process from an average of 15 hours to under three minutes.
TD says this integration will be overseen by its Trustworthy AI team, “which evaluates AI models on privacy, security, fairness, accountability and explainability and ensures they pass a rigorous series of checks and balances before they come into contact with humans.”
In a press release, TD Bank called the integration a significant first step.
“This launch is a foundational step in the Bank's enterprise-wide AI strategy, which aims to combine advanced machine intelligence with human expertise to deliver faster, simpler and more personalized banking experiences,” said TD Bank. “The introduction of Agentic AI into [Real Estate Secured Lending] reflects how TD is scaling next-generation AI technologies across the organization to drive efficiency, improve decision-making and move closer to its goal of generating $1 billion in annual value from AI in the coming years.”
“Agentic AI is enabling us to deliver what clients tell us matters most — speed and simplicity,” added TD SVP of RESL Mohit Veoli. “By providing confident decisions earlier in the homebuying process, one of life’s milestone moments, we’re meeting our clients where they need us most, making the experience simpler and faster. This is just the beginning of how we’re using AI to evolve the mortgage experience and bring our promise of being more human to life.”
TD Bank says it is also “exploring opportunities to introduce Agentic AI in other businesses across the Bank.”
The AI being used was developed by TD through Layer 6, a Toronto-based AI lab founded by Tomi Poutanen, Jordan Jacobs, and Maks Volkovs that was acquired by TD Bank in 2018.
Earlier this month, TD Bank and Layer 6 also introduced the TDI Virtual Assistant, a client-facing generative-AI-powered chatbot for the bank’s insurance division. TD Bank said TDI Virtual Assistant made TD “the first home and auto insurer — and a first among Canada’s Big Five financial institutions — to introduce an unauthenticated, client-facing generative AI Virtual Assistant.”
