Most people in equipment finance would rather spend their time on a customer, a deal, or a problem than on the work that happens around it.
Yet, a meaningful amount of time still goes toward processing information, moving data, and handling routine work. As AI becomes more practical in everyday work, companies have a new opportunity to rethink how that work gets done.
Quentin Cote, Managing Director of Commercial at Concord, puts it simply: “This is still a very human business.”
Customers bring individual circumstances. Vendors build relationships. Complex decisions require context and judgment. AI can change the work surrounding those interactions without changing what makes them valuable.
So, where can AI take work off the plate without taking people out of the process?
Some of the work involved in equipment finance is highly repeatable. Processing documents, moving information between systems, checking for missing data, and working through routine steps all take time, even when they require little judgment.
AI is well suited to that kind of work. Quentin sees two broad roles for AI in equipment finance: automation and decision support. Automation handles repeatable processes that machines can perform consistently, giving people more capacity for work that requires judgment.
Equipment finance companies are already putting that idea into practice. In a recent ELFA article, Amur Equipment Finance reported reducing credit processing times by roughly 20% to 25% after streamlining its credit workflow and introducing AI-assisted processing.
That is where automation becomes more than an efficiency play. Time spent moving information, chasing routine tasks, or working through processes can become time spent with a customer, on a complex deal, or solving a problem that needs context.
Once AI starts handling more of the work, it can also help people make better use of the information behind it.
More information, delivered faster, only matters if people can turn it into better decisions. AI can help by making relevant information and patterns easier to surface and work with across pricing, underwriting, market segmentation, and portfolio management.
Equipment finance companies are already putting this into practice. ELFA recently highlighted Elevex, where AI helps underwriters analyze lease documents and surface missing information during secondary-market transactions. The company reported that its mid-ticket underwriters increased their review capacity from one or two transactions a day to as many as 10 to 20.
AI can expand the number of decisions a team can evaluate, but it does not eliminate the need for judgment. An underwriter still has to weigh what the information means in the context of the customer, the transaction, and the market. The technology gives people more information to work with, while their experience determines what to do with it.
If AI can help a team process more information and evaluate more decisions, the value ultimately comes down to what people do with that added capacity.
In equipment finance, that capacity can show up in the relationship itself. A financing request may look straightforward in the data, yet something about the customer’s business calls for a closer look. A vendor may bring an opportunity that falls outside the usual financing structure, or a portfolio trend may raise a question worth investigating. Experience helps people recognize those moments and use the information in front of them to ask better questions and have more productive conversations.
“The opportunity with AI is to give people more time to understand the business behind the transaction,” says DelRoy Stauffer, Vice President of Commercial Sales at Concord. “That can lead to better conversations with customers and vendors, faster responses when something changes, and more attention on the decisions that actually move the business forward.”
Faster processing and better access to information give people more room to focus on customers, vendors, and the decisions that require their experience.
AI is becoming another part of the equipment finance operating model. Its value will depend on how well it fits into the work happening around it, from the processes that move information to the decisions and relationships that drive the business forward.
That means looking beyond what AI can automate on its own. The bigger opportunity is to connect automation and decision support to the way teams actually work, so better information and less manual effort translate into more time for the work that requires experience, judgment, and relationships.
Concord helps equipment finance companies bring servicing, portfolio data, and technology together in the day-to-day operation of their portfolios. That gives teams access to the information and workflows they need to keep work moving, while creating more capacity for the decisions and relationships that require their attention.
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