We sat down with Michael Clark, Director of Software Development at Lenders Cooperative, to talk about how the company is putting AI to work, the opportunity it creates for lenders, and what it means for the industry.
Q1How is Lenders Cooperative using AI in the unified lending platform today, and where are lenders seeing it first?
Credit memos are one visible example: AI helps teams summarize and refine the narrative. We’re also building custom products that use large language models to streamline the broader lending process, from document intake through funding. That means connecting information, reducing repetitive work, and helping teams move a loan forward with fewer manual handoffs. The goal is to put AI to work throughout the process so lenders can spend more time on borrowers and credit decisions.
Q2How is AI changing the way your engineering team builds and ships software day to day?
AI is a working partner across development, helping us explore approaches, write and review code, build tests, and investigate issues. We’re also building automations across the business, including loan teams, customer support, reporting, and operations. Reducing that recurring manual work gives engineers more capacity to deliver features for customers. It also lets each team focus on the work that needs its expertise. We still own the quality of what we build and the results it produces.
Q3Our engineers build alongside bankers and lenders on our own staff. How does that daily collaboration shape the AI features you create?
Our bankers, underwriters, and SBA specialists show us exactly where the work gets stuck: missing documents, repeated reviews, or information that has to be entered again. Working alongside them helps us identify the most valuable opportunities for automation and design tools around how lending actually works. They also help us test whether those tools solve the problem. That daily collaboration turns firsthand experience into practical improvements for our loan teams and customers.
Q4Where do you see the biggest opportunity for AI in commercial and small business lending over the next few years?
The biggest opportunity is connecting the entire process, from document intake through funding. Too much time goes into chasing information, repeating reviews, and coordinating the next step. Combining experienced lending teams with well-designed AI automation can reduce that friction and help them handle more loans without adding the same amount of manual work. That can improve the economics of smaller loans, shorten the path to funding, and give borrowers and lenders more time for meaningful conversations.
“What excites me most is combining our people’s expertise with AI tools designed for the work they do. That gives every team more capacity and helps move loans from document intake through funding with less friction.”
Q5What does AI mean for loan officers, underwriters, and credit teams? Does it replace judgment or sharpen it?
It sharpens judgment and expands what experienced people can accomplish. When AI helps organize documents, prepare analysis, and surface gaps, loan officers and underwriters can focus on the particulars of the borrower and the exceptions that need attention. The lender still evaluates the evidence and owns the decision. We’re building tools that give strong teams more capacity to apply their expertise across more loans, with less time lost to repetitive preparation and coordination.
Q6Lending is highly regulated. How do you balance innovation with security, compliance, and explainability?
Security, compliance, and explainability have to be part of the architecture from the start. As we build custom AI products, we think through what information each step needs, what actions it can take, and where human review belongs. The more work you automate, the more those boundaries matter. Our approach is to define the controls, test the workflow, and make the results understandable and reviewable. That discipline needs to extend across lending, support, engineering, and operations.
Q7What should community banks and credit unions be doing now to prepare for AI in lending?
Start with a costly, repetitive workflow, and bring in expertise that understands AI architecture, data security, and your compliance obligations. There are plenty of tools to buy; choosing the right ones and knowing how they fit together matters more. Establish a shared approach across teams: approved tools, appropriate data use, clear ownership, and measurable results. Then prove the value and expand. That helps smaller institutions avoid wasted spending and disconnected experiments while building a foundation they can grow with.
Q8What is the biggest misconception about AI in lending that you would like to clear up?
That using AI means giving everyone a chatbot. We’re designing products from the ground up that connect to large language models through APIs and put them to work inside business processes. The opportunity is to help work move forward: process documents, identify missing information, prepare analysis, and coordinate what happens next. That thinking applies across lending, customer support, engineering, and operations. The value comes from how well the whole process works and how much more our people can accomplish.
Q9When borrower financial data is involved, how do you approach privacy and data security with AI?
Building our own software means we have to understand every place borrower information goes, including the AI providers behind our integrations. We look at what data each task needs, who can access it, where it is processed, how long it is retained, and whether it can be used for model training. Those questions shape the architecture and provider choices. As automation expands across teams, a consistent approach to data handling becomes even more important.
About Michael Clark
Director of Software Development, Lenders Cooperative
Michael leads the engineering team behind the Lenders Cooperative unified lending platform. He brings more than 20 years of experience across security, hardware, networking, software design, and product lifecycle management.
A Triplebyte Certified Engineer, Michael focuses on building secure, user-friendly products and is always learning and exploring new ways to apply technology.
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See AI at work in the Lenders Cooperative platform.
From credit memo narratives to document intake, see how lenders move loans forward with less manual work.