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The DigListen in as Equipment Finance News editors interview the leaders in the industry, on both the lender and dealer sides of the table, to discuss new developments, trends, opportunities and more.. Author: Equipment Finance News
Listen in as Equipment Finance News editors interview the leaders in the industry, on both the lender and dealer sides of the table, to discuss new developments, trends, opportunities and more. Language: en Genres: Business News, News Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Podcast: Tech enables small lenders to compete with industry titans
Episode 11
Monday, 14 April, 2025
Tariffs can be considered a business problem, knowing the fact that we are a 1.4 trillion industry, and I would say close to 30 to 40% of the equipment probably is going to be impacted in some way, shape or form. Right in terms of data, crane, we cut across data, CRM and AI, it's there in our name itself. So then, if we, if you have to break it down right data, for example. So when, when you come across tariffs, you want to ensure that you're talking about how you can go from a descriptive to a predictive to a prescriptive model when it comes to tariffs and their business impact, right? By that, what I mean is just to break it down in layman terms. Descriptive is what's happening with tariffs, right? Ai, data can actually give you those insights as to what's going on when you move from descriptive to predictive. You can use data to analyze what is going to happen right in the future, right? So with tariffs kicking in, how are things going to change? Right? That is something that you can go from a descriptive to a predictive phase, and then when you go to the next level, which is prescriptive, that's where the magic happens, right? Prescriptive is the phase wherein, if what you have predicted happens, what are you going to do about it? Right? What are the actions that you're going to take about it, right? So these are the three phases that we have in our mind as we view tariffs as a business problem, and then how does that manifest as a solution? Right? So you want to have the you want to have a better grip on demand, on supply, on pricing, and you want to have, like, competitive rates and stuff bearing in mind that demand, that supply and the pricing, right? So that is what it will enable equipment, equipment financers to achieve by using data. So that's the first part of the three areas that I wanted to cover, right data. AI, I mean, obviously with tariffs kicking in. I mean, more people will want financing, but it will be harder to get right. Yeah, yeah. So, so that's where AI comes in. You want to do credit scoring, you want to kind of mitigate your risk. You want to monitor your portfolio, right? You want to de risk your portfolio. So that's where AI can play a very active role, and you can ensure that those who are deserving, those who have the credit worthiness, do get approved, right in spite of the tariffs at at higher prices, and the credit scoring and the credit decisioning becomes much, much better, yeah, so that's the second perspective I have on the AI pillar. Out of the three pillars that I spoke about, right? We first covered data. Second, we spoke about AI. And the third thing, from our standpoint and our vantage point, is CRM, right. So by that, what I mean is customer relationship management. Think about software like Salesforce. Think about software like dynamics, right? So, if you are a broker, if you are a lender, if you are a lessor, if you are a captive, if you are a non captive, right? If you are an OEM, all of the businesses, right? They have their single source of truth, which is their customer relationship management. So in the age of tariffs, or when we are talking about tariffs and the impact to the equipment finance industry, we want to ensure that you are personalizing for your end customers, right. So the personalization can only happen if you have solid customer relationship management, right? So I'll give you an example. So if you are a manufacturer in the age of higher tariffs, right, you might offer like a 0% interest deal. You might offer like a longer payment plan, right? So if you want to compete with manufacturers, with OEMs, right? If you're a finance company, if you're a non bank, or a non captive or a bank, how do you compete with your with the OEMs who are offering these kind of deals when the tariffs increase? So in that case, right? You can have personalized finance deals chopped out using the power of your CRM, if you know your customer, your end customer, well, if you know your end customer better, right? You can use that for personalized finance, and that's what CRM can help you achieve, right, right? Quinn, right. So that's our vantage point. Hopefully that was helpful. I tried to break it down into simple terms, and I tried to break technology and AI down into three areas, right, our perspective on data, our perspective on AI and our perspective on CRM and how they come together, right, to ensure that you can have like competitive rates offered. You can have personalized finance offered, and you can compete. You can do better credit scoring. In credit risking, and you can run your business better, yeah,no, that's super interesting. And I haven't even thought about the point of how, you know, as these tariffs kind of create these challenges, how, how? Yeah, using AI to make effective credit decisions, right? How that could become, you know, increasingly important. And one thing I was wondering, as far as the as far as like data collection to train the AI on, I'm wondering if there are any kind of previous global events that we can maybe turn to as examples, right, like, for instance, like the pandemic, right? Like the we did, obviously different, but some of those challenges that we saw there, as far as you know, supply chain disruptions, those are some, some like possible outcomes with the tariffs and stuff as well. So wondering if, you know, we if there's any opportunity there to use data from previous global events to help equipment finance navigate some of these challenges.Great question. Quinn, and I mean, you got it spot on, right? We experienced supply chain issues. We experienced issues towards operational efficiency at the backdrop of COVID, which is relatively recent event, five to four years ago, right? So we have seen that. So, I mean, we might experience that right with with our country negotiating with other countries in terms of the reciprocal tariffs and stuff. I mean, a lot of decisions are going to be made. Manufacturers might shift countries, and they might set up factories elsewhere, hopefully here in the US. So we might experience based on the demand, right, based on certain types of equipment which is in high demand, to your point. And just like you mentioned, I think we are most likely to experience supply chain issues, disruption, operational efficiencies and stuff. So I think that's exactly where AI can can come in, and you can kind of optimize your inventory, right? So at data cream, for example, we get into discussions where you're talking about trunk stock in terms of mid devices, inventory management and stuff like that. So you want to ensure that high ticket items or items which a lot of businesses need, which are in high demand, are easier. I mean, you're not. They're not spending time sitting in, sitting on the shelf somewhere, right? Likewise. I mean, if you can, if you can understand that, hey, I mean, there's going to be this disruption, or the manufacturers is going to make some strategic decisions. I mean, that's where you can use AI and ensure that, basically, the operational efficiency is their supply chain issues are mitigated. So absolutely. I mean, I think we can look at those prior events like COVID, we can look at those macro scenarios, right to ensure that they are not entering into the same territory and they're not getting impacted by those same kind of issues due to tariffs. So, yeah, absolutely, I think it, I think it definitely can help, absolutely,yeah, and I mean even tariffs too, right? Because, I mean Trump, he imposed tariffs during his first term as well. Obviously, maybe not to this, this degree, but, but, you know, I think there's some, some precedent there. And one thing I'm wondering, if, for maybe those, those lenders out there who maybe they just, they're new to AI, they haven't used it very much. And, you know, I think about some of those relatively simple AI tools out there, like, large language models, right? I'm wo...
