Google Cloud has been developing a product, called Document AI, which uses machine learning to read and understand unstructured documents.

Now it has unveiled, in preview, its first vertically specialised tool, called Lending DocAI, for the mortgage industry.

Lending institutions currently have to process hundreds of pages of borrower paperwork for every loan - a heavily manual and expensive process. Lending DocAI processes borrowers’ income and asset documents to speed-up applications, using a set of specialised models, focused on document types used in mortgage lending, and automating many routine document reviews.

This, says Google, speeds up mortgage workflow processes, reducing the complexity of the process for both lenders and borrowers while ensuring regulatory compliance.

In a blog aimed at the industry, Google Cloud product manager Sudheera Vanguri writes: "Our goal is to give you the right tools to help borrowers and lenders have a better experience and to close mortgage loans in shorter time frames, benefiting all parties involved.

"With Lending DocAI, you will reduce mortgage processing time and costs, streamline data capture, and support regulatory and compliance requirements."

Mortgage fintech startup Roostify is already using Lending DocAI for its point-of-sale digital lending platform.

Rajesh Bhat, CEO, Roostify, says: "The mortgage industry is still early in transitioning from traditional, manual processes to digitally-enabled and automated, and we believe that transformation will happen much more quickly with the power of AI. And if you are going to do AI, you’ve got to go Google."