Episode summary
Total Expert CEO Joe Welu on building an always-on AI context engine
HousingWire Daily
· · 31 min · Hosts: Sarah Wheeler · Guests: Joe Welu
Summary
Total Expert is using AI to turn lender follow-up into a more persistent, context-rich service layer for borrowers. Joe Welu said the company’s AI sales assistant and customer IQ platform are designed to give loan officers “perfect memory” of prior conversations while combining servicing data, product and pricing data, consent, and other customer intelligence into every outreach.
Welu said the result is highly personalized, brand-specific conversations at scale, with the company on pace to handle close to 150 million calls this year on behalf of customers. He argued that the biggest shift over the last 14 months has been the rapid improvement in underlying AI models and infrastructure, which now makes possible things like multilingual conversations, better handling of background noise, and more natural handoffs when a consumer seems hesitant.
He also stressed that the company built the system from a compliance-first, enterprise perspective. Human loan officers can be brought in through warm transfers when needed, but the goal is to let AI handle routine engagement, surface opportunities like home equity or debt consolidation, and help lenders improve recapture without adding massive call-center costs.
Key takeaways
- Joe Welu said Total Expert is on pace to do close to 150 million AI-driven calls this year on behalf of lenders.
- Welu said customer IQ combines servicing, pricing, consent, and other data so AI agents can have “perfect context” on each borrower.
- Welu argued that voice AI can help lenders surface home equity and debt-consolidation opportunities that loan officers often miss.
- Welu said the company built the system from a compliance-first, enterprise approach, including do-not-call and consent controls.
- Welu said the technology can trigger a warm transfer to a licensed originator when a borrower hesitates or wants deeper advice.
Notable quotes
“we're on pace to do close to 150 million calls this year on behalf of our customers”
“perfect memory, perfect recollection of every conversation, perfect context about that individual consumer's exact specific things”
“would you like to talk to one of our licensed originators can probably go a little deeper with you answer more of your questions”
How the episode opens
Welcome everyone. My guest today for this sponsored episode is Joe Wayu, CEO and founder of Total Expert to talk about how they're deploying AI to help lenders interact with borrowers at a really personal level that wouldn't have been possible even a year ago. Joe, welcome back to the podcast.
Hey, good to see you, Sarah. Great to have you on. You guys are always uh doing really interesting things. So, of course, we uh Housewar talked to you not too long ago, but I'm excited to have you on Housing World Daily. And of course, we're looking forward to next week having you um at the gathering and uh you are hosting the pickle ball social. You've got a lot of stuff going on.
Yeah. Yeah. Housing wire uh gatherings coming up.
It's a amazing event. Really, it's whole team's looking forward to it. A lot of customers are looking forward to it.
So, see you guys in Austin. So, you know, um I'm talking to executives all the time about AI, about um you know, AI assistance, about how they can uh utilize those to really make things better. Would love to get your perspective on this on, you know, what Total Expert is doing to really help lenders specifically with AI and like make it make sense in a way that's not just like the the most basic thing, but like what the the real value there.
So, would love to, you know, what are you guys doing right now?
Yeah. Well, first of all, the the innovation this past 6 to 12 months has been nothing short of extraordinary in general with with AI and uh our part of that innovation is taking the technologies these breakthrough technologies and then adopting them and building those capabilities into our platform so our customers can leverage them in their businesses.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ai context engine
- always-on ai
- lender borrower communication
- mortgage technology
- personalized ai
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Total Expert
- HousingWire
Watch the episode
Watch “Total Expert CEO Joe Welu on building an always-on AI context engine” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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