Michael Ouellette has played a central role in Polly’s AI strategy, helping bring one of the mortgage industry’s earliest AI applications in capital markets to life. As staff product manager for artificial intelligence/machine learning, Ouellette has helped guide the development and continued evolution of Polly AI and its interactive loan officer agent.
Since the LO agent launched in May 2024, Ouellette and the AI/ML team have continued refining the tool, which uses Polly’s product, pricing and eligibility engine to analyze near-miss eligibility, pricing scenarios and suggested actions. During development, he led the discovery phase to identify the main bottlenecks affecting pricing engine workflows, including translation issues and product ineligibility, so the solution addressed real pain points for loan officers and brokers. The team also designed the agent to be highly configurable, allowing each lender’s data and guidelines to be incorporated into prompts and outputs.
Over the past year, Ouellette has helped expand the LO agent’s functionality with more flexibility, automation and real-time decision support. These enhancements include full mobile capabilities that allow loan officers to lock loans and complete post-lock actions from anywhere, as well as AI-powered automation for enhanced near-miss detection and next-step recommendations.
The platform has continued to gain traction under his leadership. Customer adoption nearly quadrupled over the past year, AI engagement more than doubled and monthly interactions increased by 153%. Lenders, including ResiCentral and New American Funding, have reported meaningful productivity gains from the tool, which helps teams move faster while still maintaining a strong borrower experience.
What is one habit that has helped you succeed?
I’m deliberate about maintaining a growth mindset—not as a buzzword, but as a daily practice. I’ve put real time into understanding how language shapes how people approach problems, whether that’s giving feedback to my team or helping my kids work through something hard. At Polly, this mindset is embedded in how we build: staying curious, pressure-testing assumptions, and treating setbacks as information and opportunities to grow. I’m grateful to work with people who push each other to think differently and keep finding ways to elevate the mortgage space together.
Name:
Michael Ouellette
Age:
38
Title:
Staff Product Manager - AI/ML
Company Name:
Polly
