Amazon’s handy virtual assistant Alexa is now capable of finding your next home thanks to a latest feature in the smart speaker technology called Amazon Echo Mortgage Skill which allows users to find the best home mortgage rates and local advisors in their area by simply asking Alexa.
A new feature introduced by an app called UKMortgages allows people to search for best mortgage rates in the U.K. by simply asking Amazon’s virtual assistant, Alexa
Alexa’s New Mortgage-Search Feature
Voice Controlled AI technology is slowly taking over smart homes around UK, with the popularity of virtual assistants like Siri and Google Home. A front-running in Smart Speaker Technology is Amazon’s Echo, which uses the power of AI to provide assistance to homeowners around the world.
But just how useful is Amazon’s innovative technology in helping you find answers to some of the most fundamental questions in life – like finding a house with the best mortgage rates? Developers are now dipping their toes in these waters to test the limits of AI and find out what else it is capable of.
Finding a new home has never been easier than it is today with Amazon’s Smart Home Speaker which is a staple gadget in homes across the UK. A new feature called UK Amazon Echo Mortgage Skill now allows users to ask Amazon’s friendly virtual assistant Alexa about the best mortgage rates and mortgage advisers in their area.
Users who search for mortgages through Alexa are asked a few basic questions such as the amount they are willing to borrow, how much their new home costs, whether they have taken a home loan before or if they are first-time property buyers. Based on the answers, the smart home assistant navigates the user to a handy broker app called UKMortgages which allows users to compare loans and find a mortgage that is best suited to their needs.
The App Behind the New Feature
Launched in 2012, UKMortgages is a market leader in providing assistance to property buyers in U.K. The app, with over 2 million users, has now added a new voice recognition feature called Mortgage Skill which allows users to interact with Amazon’s smart speaker directly without going to the website or the app, and ask Alexa to look for a suitable mortgage. The smart home assistant searches through 10,000 mortgage entries in the UKMortgages and accurately responds to user’s question within seconds.
The smart assistant also tracks the best fixed and variable mortgages and sends a summery of all the results to the user’s Alexa app. Makers of UKMortgages called the initiative ‘groundbreaking’ and said that the app was the first in its industry to use AI for helping customers find the information they need to buy a new property. The Mortgage Skill feature uses the Echo device’s post code and searches for mortgage advisers in the user’s local area. The top ten search results including contact details of the advisers are sent to the Alexa App.
Launched in 2012, UKMortgages has over 2 million users and is a market leader in providing assistance to property buyers in U.K.
The app doesn’t require Echo users to register before using the Mortgage Skill feature. In order to use this free service, simply tell Alexa to ‘open UKMortgages’ and the home assistant will give you the choice between finding a local adviser or searching for mortgage.
Boosting Customer Leads
Mortgage advisers who wish to be listed in the app only need to pay a license fee and be a customer of Mortgage Brain sourcing. Mortgage companies can also register themselves on the website to boost their businesses by providing business description and contact details so that customers can get in touch with them easily.
Mortgage providers and advisers can also utilize UKMortgages’ AI technology to check if the business details they have provided on the website are correct. All they need to do is ask Alexa to open the website and access a host of products to boost their customer leads.
UKMortgages CEO, Mark Lofthouse, says that buying property is the biggest decision of anyone life, and with so many mortgage options available on the market with varying payment options, rates and set-up fees, customers can become overwhelmed with information and find it difficult to make the right decision.
With the new feature, users can find the best mortgage rates for their requirement in a matter of seconds, and all they need to do it to use the information the app gives them and contact the local mortgage advisers in their area for further enquiry.
