Optimal Blue, a leading mortgage technology and data provider, has unveiled a suite of new artificial intelligence and machine learning innovations designed to help mortgage lenders navigate market volatility and improve profitability. The company announced the launch of Virtual Economist, an AI-powered forecasting tool, alongside several other platform enhancements aimed at modernizing mortgage capital markets operations. These mortgage technology innovations were introduced as part of Optimal Blue’s broader effort to create an intelligent, connected ecosystem for lenders.
According to Joe Tyrrell, CEO of Optimal Blue, the future of mortgage capital markets belongs to platforms that anticipate volatility rather than simply respond to it. The company’s new tools aim to provide lenders with clarity and confidence from origination through secondary marketing and back again, the executive said in a statement.
Virtual Economist Brings AI-Powered Forecasting to Lenders
The Virtual Economist represents a significant advancement in mortgage technology innovations by addressing the disconnect between economic insight and daily execution that lenders face. Chief product officer Erin Wester explained that the tool combines public economic indicators with Optimal Blue’s proprietary lock volume data and applies AI and machine learning-driven forecasting. Teams can test assumptions and prepare immediately through conversational and visual scenario modeling, according to the company.
The platform delivers on-demand predictions without the lag, labor, or subjectivity of traditional forecasting approaches, Optimal Blue stated. It provides real-time rate and volume predictions along with instant scenario analysis for strategic planning purposes. Additionally, users can interact with the Virtual Economist through voice or text commands, while forecasts are presented visually to enhance clarity and support better decision-making.
Profitability Center and Data Enhancements
Among the other innovations announced, Optimal Blue introduced a Profitability Center dashboard designed for use across its product suite. The central landing experience includes access to an economic calendar and predictive insights that help lenders anticipate market movement and plan hedging or pricing actions accordingly, the company explained in a press release.
Meanwhile, the Competitive Data License Plus expands Optimal Blue’s benchmarking capabilities by incorporating anonymized hedging and trading data alongside existing lock and pricing datasets. This enhancement offers deeper visibility into pull-through performance, margin from lock to sale, investor turn times, and best-efforts versus mandatory execution spreads, according to the company.
Streamlined Agency Workflows and Pricing Integration
The Agency Direct feature in CompassEdge modernizes workflows for institutions delivering loans to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks. It replaces manual spreadsheet-based tracking with a centralized environment for loan imports, coverage modeling, and commitment management within the CompassEdge platform.
However, perhaps one of the most practical enhancements comes through Ratesheet Pricing Insights, which connects pricing from the Optimal Blue PPE with CompassEdge margin management. By syncing margin updates directly between systems and embedding market and competitive context into the workflow, the tool surfaces competitive insights before rate sheets are published. This helps ensure rates reflect current market conditions while improving margin discipline, the company reported.
Enhanced User Experience and TPO Channel Integration
In contrast to backend improvements, Optimal Blue also focused on user-facing enhancements with upgraded administrative experiences for both the Optimal Blue PPE and CompassEdge hedging and trading platform. These changes aim to give users faster and more intuitive ways to configure pricing and manage investor relationships.
Additionally, the company built a new connection between its Loansifter PPE for mortgage brokers and Comergence, its counterparty oversight solution. This integration links promotional pricing visibility with counterparty engagement data, allowing investors insights into broker interactions and marketing effectiveness. The goal is to enable investors to better capture qualified leads and accelerate growth across the third-party originator channel, according to Optimal Blue.
The company indicated that some of the announced mortgage technology innovations are live immediately, while others will enter beta testing or phased rollout throughout 2025. Specific timelines for individual features were not disclosed in the announcement.
