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ENGAGEMENT PROFILE

Transforming Lending and Document Intake with Measurable Cost Reduction and ROI

by Dr Shelly Mahon

INDUSTRY

Banking / Financial Services

PRIMARY USE CASE

Lending & Document Intake Automation

FOCUS

Driving efficiency and measurable ROI

SOLUTION

Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) + Workflow Automation

PROJECTED OUTCOMES

Based on Zia’s ROI analysis

  • $575K+ projected annual savings ($2.05M 5-year value)
  • 80% projected reduction in manual effort
  • 50% team capacity reallocated to higher-value work
  • 15M+ pages processed annually
  • Break-even projected at 8 months

TECHNOLOGY

Zia’s SentieroAI Bridge
Tungsten TotalAgility

Industry Context

At top US banks, lending operations face mounting pressure to reduce cost per document and accelerate processing without adding headcount. Intake automation and exception-based workflows are consistently cited across industry research as the highest-ROI targets for back-office transformation.

CEO PERSPECTIVE
“For a top-15 US bank, the economics of migration matter as much as the technology. SentieroAI Bridge moves the existing environment forward automatically, with AI applied in flight, and delivers ROI in months. That is what makes the move to an enterprise-scale platform like TotalAgility economically defensible at this size.”

Mike Mahon, President and CEO, Zia Consulting

Overview

A large regional bank focused on commercial and consumer lending needed to modernize document intake and improve efficiency across its lending operations. Manual processes and fragmented systems were limiting scalability and increasing operational costs.

To support this transformation, the bank partnered with Zia to implement an AI-powered automation solution combining SentieroAI Bridge and Tungsten TotalAgility. This enabled a faster, lower-risk transition to AI-driven, end-to-end automation while preserving existing investments and scaling workflows across the enterprise.

The Challenge

The bank relied on manual, document-heavy processes to manage lending workflows, creating operational bottlenecks and inefficiencies:

  • Manual indexing and document handling across multiple systems
  • Slow file pickup and delayed processing cycles
  • High operational costs driven by manual effort
  • Limited scalability as document volumes increased
  • Resource constraints impacting lending turnaround times
  • Earlier attempts to replace the capture system with a fully AI-driven application proved prohibitively expensive and fell short on capability

The Solution

Zia implemented an AI-powered automation solution combining SentieroAI Bridge and Tungsten TotalAgility. The Bridge accelerated migration by carrying forward existing logic, training, and configurations, letting the bank start its AI journey without a full rebuild. TotalAgility then scaled automation enterprise-wide, moving the bank from point capture into fully automated, exception-based processing.

Solution Components

SentieroAI Bridge (Migration Accelerator)

  • Automatically recreates existing document processing logic
  • Carries forward prior training and configurations
  • Applies AI-driven processing and insights
  • Reduces migration time, cost, and risk
  • Enables immediate adoption of AI automation without a full rebuild
  • Preserves previous technical investments (~50% projected)

Tungsten TotalAgility (Enterprise Automation Platform)

  • End-to-end workflow orchestration across systems
  • Intelligent document processing (IDP) at scale
  • Full orchestration tooling beyond initial IDP
  • Exception-based processing and decision-making
  • Integration with core banking and enterprise applications
  • Extends automation across lending, onboarding, and operations

Integrated Capabilities

  • Multi-channel document intake (email, scan, digital)
  • AI-driven validation and data accuracy
  • Real-time visibility into workflows and performance 

Time to Value

  • 16-week structured implementation across 4 phases
  • ~75 document types AI-trained during implementation
  • Break-even projected at 8 months, full ROI within Year 1

Projected Business Impact

Based on Zia’s ROI analysis: $2.05M net value created over 5 years against $838K total investment.

  • Reduces cost per document and overall operating expense
  • Accelerates loan processing and improves borrower experience
  • Increases operational capacity without adding headcount
  • Improves data accuracy and reduces manual errors
  • Establishes a scalable foundation for future growth

    Why Zia

    • Deep expertise in banking and document-driven workflows
    • Proven ability to implement TotalAgility for end-to-end automation
    • Ability to move beyond capture to full workflow orchestration
    • Low-risk migration approach with parallel validation
    • Scalable platform supporting future automation use cases

    Ready to Explore Similar Results?

    Zia helps financial institutions automate document processing, streamline workflows, and scale operations with confidence.

    Schedule a Banking Automation Strategy Session

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