Australian brokers aren’t behind on AI. They’re flying blind.

The 700+ brokers I’ve spoken to across those three cities aren’t behind. They’re further ahead than they give themselves credit for.

But Connective’s AI Readiness Report, released last month and based on a survey of 300+ Australian brokers, confirmed what I was seeing from the stage. Brokers are on the tools. They’re using them. The problem isn’t adoption. The problem is that 97 per cent have no formal AI policy, 65 per cent have no documented strategy, and 40 per cent have zero governance framework.

They’re not behind. They’re flying blind.

And in an industry where compliance, licences and professional reputations are on the line every single day, that’s a problem worth fixing.

The Connective report rates broker AI readiness across five pillars. Strategy and mindset scores well. Brokers believe AI is essential and they’re eager to adopt it. But governance and responsible AI is rated the least mature pillar of the entire study. Most brokers are using AI regularly without guardrails, without policies, and without a clear understanding of the risks they’re running.

The broker quotes in the report say it plainly: “Someone in the business is playing with AI, but nothing formalised" and “I don’t know where to start.”

That’s not a technology problem. That’s a strategy and safety problem. And it’s the most urgent one in the industry right now.

What flying blind actually looks like

Deloitte submitted a half-million dollar government report with six references to academic papers that didn’t exist. AI invented them confidently. Nobody checked.

If it can happen to Deloitte, it can happen to a broker.

The risk in broking is more specific. A rate cited incorrectly. A policy detail fabricated. A client communication that implies advice it shouldn’t. An agent that goes rogue. In every one of those scenarios, it’s not the robot’s licence on the line. It’s yours.

This is why guardrails aren’t optional. They’re the foundation everything else is built on.

The aggregator tools are coming. And there’s more to do beyond them.

LMG, Connective, Quickli, AFG — they’re all building AI tools into their platforms. What they’re building is real and brokers should use every bit of it. These tools are focused on the loan process. Serviceability, file notes, document handling, pre-lodgement checks. That’s exactly where they should be focused and it’s genuinely valuable.

But as a business owner, there’s a whole other dimension to your working week that’s yours to own. The marketing that builds your profile and attracts your ideal client. The content and thought leadership that sets you apart in a crowded market. The client communication that keeps people coming back and referring their friends. The referral partner relationships, the team operations, the business growth activities that don’t live inside any loan process.

That’s not something any platform can install for you. It’s personal. It’s specific to your business, your voice, your clients and your goals. And the brokers who take ownership of that dimension — who set up AI to support their whole business, not just their loan workflow — are the ones who are going to build something genuinely different.

The three things brokers actually need

Based on what I’ve seen working with brokers across the country, the gap between where most brokers are and where they need to be comes down to three things.

First, guardrails and a compliance policy should be installed into your AI. Not a PDF to download and file away. An active set of instructions that runs on every single AI interaction, covering BID, NCCP, ASIC requirements and your aggregator’s standards. The Connective report found 97 per cent of brokers don’t have this. It’s the highest-priority fix.

Second, you need a broker-specific prompt library built for your entire business. Just five prompts focused on the highest-repetition, most time-consuming tasks in your workflow can easily return up to 10 hours a week.

Scale that up to a 50-prompt broker playbook — covering lead generation, marketing and sales, client communication from first inquiry through to settlement, lodgement, compliance and BID evidence, team operations, internal comms, HR, recruitment, annual reviews and client retention — and you have a complete blueprint for how your business uses AI. Something you and your team can pick up and use on any task, any day of the week.

Third, AI need to be trained on your business. Your ideal client, your point of difference, your writing voice, your USP. This is the piece that transforms AI from a generic tool into something that actually sounds like you. Every email, every piece of marketing, every client communication through the lens of your specific business. This is yours to build and nobody else can do it for you.

Where to start

The Connective report recommends brokers shift from experimenting to embedding AI in repeatable workflows. That’s exactly right. The brokers I’ve seen get the most out of AI aren’t the ones who know the most about it. They’re the ones who’ve set it up properly. Guardrails in place, prompts ready to go, AI that knows their business. And then they use it consistently.

The gap isn’t knowledge. It’s installation.

Adam Franklin is an AI educator, keynote speaker and trainer at AI Edge. He has been training mortgage brokers and professional services firms to implement AI safely and effectively across Australia.

His AI Edge Masterclass for brokers - which gives brokers a compliance handbook and an AI prompt library customised for their business, installed and ready to use - will be held virtually on Wednesday 8 April, and in person in Sydney on Wednesday 23 April and Melbourne on Wednesday 30 April.