Qualia has launched Qualia Clear Essentials, a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature suite available at no additional cost to users of its Core platform — as the company seeks to broaden AI adoption among title and escrow professionals.

While AI tools have become more common, many title and escrow firms remain uncertain about how to implement the technology effectively within their existing workflows.

Qualia CEO Nate Baker said the company believes that hesitation is becoming increasingly difficult for businesses to afford.

“I think the single most important thing happening in the world right now is AI getting better very quickly,” Baker told HousingWire. “Every company, every title company needs to answer the question of, ‘Next month, when AI gets better, how does that instantly cause my business to be better?’

“If you can’t answer that question, you’re going to be on the losing end of AI.”

Qualia Clear Essentials is built directly into the company’s Core platform and includes three primary tools at launch — the Qualia Clear Support Assistant, the AI Order Opener and the CD Processor.

The company is introducing Clear Essentials less than a year after launching Qualia Clear, a broader AI platform designed to automate workflows and perform tasks within transaction files.

According to Baker, Clear Essentials is intended to help companies become comfortable using AI before adopting more advanced capabilities.

“I think that a lot of people hear about AI, and they’re afraid of it,” Baker said. “They’re afraid that it’s going to take their job or replace them, but our view is that AI is going to amplify people and make people far more effective and provide a much better service to people who are buying and selling homes.”

He described the new offering as “a smooth on ramp” for organizations that have not yet incorporated AI into day-to-day operations.

Support functionality

The Support Assistant functions as an AI-powered chat tool that can answer questions about transactions, platform usage and operational issues — accessing information tied to specific files within the Qualia system.

Baker said the assistant is being used for everything from troubleshooting balancing issues to helping employees learn the platform.

“One thing that’s interesting is I expected that this would reduce the number of support tickets that we received from our customers,” he said. “What we’re seeing is that clients are asking Clear Essentials 10 times-plus more support questions.”

The trend suggests employees often need assistance throughout the day but may be reluctant to interrupt managers or contact support teams for smaller questions, Baker added.

Automation benefits

Two additional tools included in the launch focus on reducing repetitive administrative work.

The AI Order Opener extracts information from purchase and refinance contracts and automatically populates order information within the platform.

Users review and approve the information before proceeding.

Baker said the process addresses one of the most time-consuming tasks in title operations.

“Opening an order takes 30 minutes to an hour for the average title company, and you do that on every transaction,” he said. “This just does that entire process. In the last day, I’ve heard many anecdotes from customers saying, ‘This is the best feature you’ve ever launched,’ because they hadn’t been familiar with Clear or with AI.”

The CD Processor is designed to analyze lender closing disclosures, import charges into files and identify discrepancies between lender documents and information already contained in the transaction record.

“It’s a tedious process of identifying differences in documents, and it’s error prone,” Baker said. “That super tedious process of staring and comparing is just automated at this point. Reducing time spent reviewing documents could allow employees to focus more on communicating with homebuyers and sellers — to explain what’s different or why the transaction is happening this way.”

Data protection, future development

Baker said nothing changes with customer and consumer information confidentiality.

“The consumer data is bound by all the same confidentiality that we already have with our customers and with the platform,” he said. “Additionally, we’re reviewing the answers that it is providing to make sure there’s a human in the loop that’s getting it right.”

Looking ahead, Baker said Clear Essentials will continue to evolve as AI capabilities advance.

“I think Clear Essentials is going to be a rapidly changing and evolving product,” he said. “[That could include] core types of documents, more actions, more integration with email.”

For Qualia, the launch reflects a broader belief that AI is becoming a necessity rather than an optional technology investment.

“Maybe a year ago it was optional as a title company to use AI, and today it is a requirement,” Baker said. “If you are not using AI in your business, you will not be competitive today — and you will not be competitive in 12 months.”