Quality Equipment Finance boosts efficiency by 30% with AI

Quality Equipment Finance says it is reaping the benefits of AI deployment in areas including data ingestion, data analysis, credit adjudication and fraud prevention.  

The Carmel, Ind.-based lender has boosted efficiency by an estimated 30% by accelerating internal processes and maximizing data with AI tools, Managing Director Paul Fogle told Equipment Finance News.  

For example, Quality Equipment Finance uses LLMs to “populate the data received into our Salesforce on the front end” to streamline underwriting, he said.  

“We have built a system based on AI to tear apart credit reports and really segment what’s there. We use AI to look at bank statements and really sift through those automatically.” 

— Paul Fogle, managing director, Quality Equipment Finance

Data-powered insights 

AI-driven data analysis is especially beneficial for portfolio management, Fogle said, noting that the lender has “thousands and thousands of data points” to evaluate.  

AI tools lead to more informed predictions and a deeper understanding of “what the bad deals have in common, what the good deals have in common,” he said.  

“We’re constantly trying to build a better mousetrap, trying to find things that we hadn’t necessarily accounted for,” he said.  

For credit adjudication, Quality is using AI to help “digest” borrowers’ information to provide faster, more accurate funding decisions, Fogle said.  

And the independent lender uses AI tools for fraud prevention, catching suspicious activities while eliminating hours spent on risk analysis, he said.  

AI also is streamlining sales by extracting comps data including mileage, hours, retail prices and auction values, Fogle said.  

Previously, “it took a little more digging than it does today to just type that stuff in and get good good intelligence back,” he said.  

Quality’s third-party AI vendors include underwriting platform Kaaj.ai and data solutions provider Tamarack Technology, according to those tech companies.  

Industry trend  

Quality’s ramp-up of AI deployment signals an inflection point for an industry that is just beginning to embrace the technology. 

For independent equipment financiers, “AI is leveling the playing field” by providing “the same capabilities that were once reserved for the largest financial institutions,” Mark Bonanno, president and chief revenue officer of North Mill Equipment Finance, stated in a July 16 report by the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association.  

Similar to Quality Equipment Finance, North Mill has zeroed in on AI tools that enhance credit decisioning, documentation, pricing and fraud detection, Bonanno said. 

Equipment lenders also are adopting AI for compliance, information retrieval and asset management, according to previous EFN reporting.  

The global market for AI in lending is projected to hit $37.3 billion by 2030, up from $11.6 billion in 2025, according to a report today by the Business Research Company.  

In the meantime, Quality Equipment Finance plans to continue exploring AI tools and “find better ways to do things,” Fogle said.  

Check out our exclusive industry data here.