AI has been around for years, from asking Alexa to tell you the weather forecast to getting your FAQs solved by a chatbot on websites. The IT and comms channel are no doubt early adopters of AI. Channel solutions are constantly evolving and it’s exciting to see the developments and integrations being added to existing solutions or launched in new products, bringing new features and optimising processes more efficiently.
But with the public release of ChatGPT at the end of 2022, AI is now at the forefront of conversations across most of the business world this year. In 2020, it was estimated the UK business adoption rate of AI was at 15.1%. By 2040, the overall adoption rate was predicted to more than double to 34.8%(Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS), and this is likely to be drastically higher given the recent advancements.
So where do leasing companies fit into the AI revolution? The UK leasing industry has been limited to some advances in technology due to regulations, especially when looking at the evolution of the consumer finance market. However, innovation has always remained a core value at Shire Leasing. We invest heavily in our technology and employ a strong team of in-house IT developers. As far back as 2001, we introduced automated underwriting, which at the time was only seen in the consumer finance industry. This was then made accessible to our vendor partners through our Shire Online™ portal.
Many providers within the leasing sector offer ‘portals’ that vendors can use to quote and submit finance applications for their business customers. A few offer automated decisions, typically these portals only offer acceptances for established limited companies with the strongest financial accounts. Where this isn’t the case, it’s often a simple ‘computer says no’ decline.
Shire has made use of AI over the past 3 years, bringing new functionality and disruptive technologies to an industry that is still relatively slow in adopting new technology. We now have a Director of Transformation who leads a dedicated team to analyse all systems from proposal, to payout and collections. As a result of this, earlier this year, we introduced another industry-first to our vendor finance proposition.
Our Shire Online portal now enables channel vendors and resellers to revolutionise the way they serve customers, with an enhanced ability to deliver immediate, automated acceptances for a wide range of trading entities including Sole Traders, Partnerships and even new-start Limited Companies where a guarantee is required.
The new AI technology enables more types of business customer to receive a first-point finance acceptance, improving decision times, enabling sales teams to increase overall conversions.
As the AI revolution continues, it’s important to think about how you can improve your own processes, but also to understand what the partners in your supply chain are doing to add value to your products/ services. By working with a forward-thinking finance provider like Shire, you can gain a competitive advantage and improve your overall sales proposition.
To learn more, contact Shire Leasing’s Dan MacKrell on 07484 116930, or visit www.shireleasing.co.uk/comms-dealer