From IPO to AI: Michael Tannenbaum, Figure’s CEO on transforming the future of mortgage lending

What does it take to lead a public company that’s changing the face of mortgage lending? Michael Tannenbaum, CEO of Figure, joins Diego Sanchez to unpack the company’s strategy for growth, innovation and partnership in an industry under pressure to modernize. From balancing compliance with cutting-edge technology to building a team that can scale with speed, Tannenbaum offers a rare look behind the scenes. 

The conversation explores why AI and blockchain are transformative tools for mortgage origination and servicing. Tannenbaum shares how Figure makes these complex technologies tangible for lenders. He offers insights for industry professionals, shares his vision for the future of lending technology and highlights the trends likely to define the industry over the next few years.

Figure, which recently went public, has always placed strong emphasis on its partner relationships. “We do a QBR process that I get very involved in where we do business reviews with all our partners,” Tannenbaum said. “We’re constantly joining calls—sales calls, product calls, operations calls—to make sure we hear that feedback.” He added that customer reviews and complaints are piped directly into company Slack channels and that even management offsites are sometimes held at partner offices. “We’re pretty partner-oriented,” he said. “It’s a big part of our DNA.”

That partner focus is reflected in their approach to technology. “We have over 200 partners, and almost 80% of what we do is B2B,” Tannenbaum said. “Through either an API or a web app, they can offer this great Figure mortgage product to their customers with very limited technology integration.”

Figure first made its mark with home equity products, but its suite has expanded. “We started in home equity, and that’s what we’re known for,” he said. “But now we’ve launched first-lien mortgages, non-QM products like bank statement loans and DSCR loans. The pricing is really comparable to what you’d get in the agency space.”

Tannenbaum described how the company’s growth and IPO readiness were driven by deliberate leadership evolution. “When I came to Figure, I had the mandate to take the company public,” he said. “We brought in people like our CFO and chief legal officer who had that public company experience — but I also wanted to keep as much of the existing team as I could and double down on what was working.”

Balancing innovation with compliance has been central to that success. “Our chief legal officer, Ron Chilemi, was himself a regulator,” Tannenbaum said. “You can’t just do finance and tech without regulatory. You need all three — finance, regulatory, and technology — to bring real disruption.”

Artificial intelligence, he said, plays a key role in the company’s next phase. “We built a ‘stare-and-compare’ killer, which eliminates the need to manually verify that data is consistent across documents,” Tannenbaum said. “We do a mortgage for about $1,000 versus the industry average of $12,000 — and a huge part of that is due to AI.”

“The next step,” he continued, “is enhancing the role of the loan officer. AI is meant to help them do more — better social media marketing, smarter outreach, and stronger customer engagement.” Ultimately, Tannenbaum sees AI enabling lenders to “optimize borrower scenarios — right product, right time, right channel — boosting conversion and customer satisfaction.”

Blockchain, too, remains central to Figure’s strategy. “We’ve standardized capital markets across a common set of origination processes,” Tannenbaum said. “By putting loan data on the blockchain, all buyers can rely on the same diligence. That takes out 80% of the costs of quality control and third-party diligence.” The result, he said, is a “very liquid and deep capital market” that lowers costs for both lenders and homeowners.

Looking ahead, Tannenbaum believes mortgage companies must prepare for volatility and automation. “You’re seeing these very short dips and spikes in rates,” he said. “By the time you hire for the refi boom, it’s gone. You’re going to need more automation.”

Tannenbaum addresses the question that’s on everyone’s mind. Is AI going to replace people? “The future isn’t about automating the loan officer away—it’s about enabling them to do more,” he said. “As the industry evolves, lenders will broaden their product suites and leverage technology to build deeper, more flexible relationships with their customers.”