Big Think Named 2025 AI Pioneer by Progress in Lending
- Olivia Lee
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Big Think and NexLevel Advisors have been recognized as 2025 AI Pioneer Award Winners by Progress in Lending, honoring organizations that are shaping the future of mortgage lending through responsible and strategic use of artificial intelligence.
For us, this award is not about hype. It is about discipline. It is about helping lenders modernize with clarity, strategy, and measurable outcomes.
Together, Big Think and NexLevel created the AI Readiness Assessment, a structured engagement that helps lenders move from curiosity to capability. The Assessment evaluates a lender’s technology stack, data health, and culture, then aligns leadership on the AI use cases that actually deliver value.
Common impact areas include:
Automating underwriting review
Detecting anomalies in wire instructions
Predicting borrower retention risk
The goal is not to “do AI.” The goal is to modernize with intent, to build systems that think coherently and scale responsibly.
“AI does not create strategy,” said Ruth Lee, CMB, CEO of Big Think. “It reveals whether you have one.”
Within sixty days, participating lenders identify three to five AI use cases tied to measurable ROI. The result is clarity, confidence, and alignment that turn AI from a buzzword into a blueprint for transformation.
What Comes Next
The next chapter of this work is AI Governance—the move from adoption to accountability.
Lenders are realizing that the real challenge is not deploying AI. It is governing it.
How do you ensure fairness, explainability, compliance, and control in a world of automated decisioning?
How do you prove to regulators and boards that your models are not only effective but ethical?
Big Think is expanding its work to help lenders design that governance layer: frameworks that connect risk management, model oversight, and regulatory alignment into a living system of trust.
This is where responsible innovation begins to meet measurable assurance.
Recognition like the AI Pioneer Award reinforces our purpose: to help the mortgage industry modernize with strategy, transparency, and rigor.
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