After Covid, the pressure to move fast was everywhere.
In mortgage servicing, it was critical that customers received communications with the most up-to-date information — reflecting new state and federal regulations, relief options, and changing requirements. People were already overwhelmed. The last thing they needed was confusion, incomplete data, or guidance that no longer applied.

We were under intense pressure to expedite changes. Letters had to be modified. New ones had to be created — both manual and automated. The stakes were real: a single unclear or incorrect letter could cause unnecessary fear, lead someone to make the wrong financial decision, or erode trust during an already fragile moment.

What mattered most wasn’t speed — it was care.

So we made intentional choices:

• We slowed down just enough to validate accuracy.
• We insisted on clarity over convenience.
• We built checks into the process instead of bypassing them.
• We centered the borrower’s experience in every decision.

Those choices weren’t just operational.
They were ethical.

And as I think about AI today, I keep coming back to this:

👉 AI will learn what it means to be human from us.

If we don’t establish clear parameters — through policy, process, and leadership — we aren’t creating innovation. We’re creating a weak foundation that won’t be able to support a future in which we all thrive.

Ethical AI isn’t about perfection. It’s about modeling the values we want reflected back at scale.

For me, that means deliberately embedding:

• Empathy — taking the time to understand another person’s reality, not just optimizing for efficiency.
• Responsibility — recognizing that when our decisions affect others, we sometimes have to put their needs ahead of our own.
• Care for consequences — understanding that if something benefits me but harms others, it isn’t a solution worth accepting.

These aren’t abstract ideals.
They are operational choices.

As AI becomes more embedded in how decisions are made, communications are generated, and outcomes are shaped, we must ask more of our leaders — and of ourselves. Stronger parameters. Clearer boundaries. Guardrails that protect people, not just productivity.

Because ethics isn’t a constraint on progress.
It’s what ensures progress is worth sustaining.