I recently had the opportunity to serve as a facilitator at ALTA’s inaugural AI for Small Business Bootcamp. This virtual half-day event gave our industry something it needs more of: real conversations from leaders, IT experts, and professionals thinking hard about where AI fits in our industry and where it doesn’t.
Here’s what stood out to me.
Start Practical, Baby Steps
In the opening session, “Five Ways to Use AI in Your Operations,” Trey Dirks, VP of Product & Technology at First American Title Insurance Company, and Dominic Fahey, Director of AI at FNF Family of Companies, laid out a roadmap for evaluating and testing AI tools, getting started before scaling company-wide.
The message: you don’t need to overhaul your entire operation overnight. Strong prompting skills were called out as a game-changer, and I couldn’t agree more. AI is only as useful as the instructions you give it.
Real Agencies, Real Results
Next up was a panel discussion, “AI in Action: How Title Agents Are Actually Using It Today” Jay Roberts, Chief Technology Officer at Florida Agency Network; Von Scott, Director of IT & Security at the American Land Title Association; and Geoffrey Shi, Director of Data Science at Rocket Close, talk through what adoption actually looks like on the ground.
The honest takeaway: not every workflow is a good candidate for automation, and human judgment still has to be part of the equation. Good reminders for any agency weighing where to start.
From Hype to Honest Impact
Nate Baker, CEO of Qualia, and Cynthia Durham Blair, NTP, Attorney and Member at Blair Cato Pickren Casterline, LLC, took a Q&A format approach that cut through the vendor noise and focused on what small agencies actually need to hear: AI can support business, but only if you approach it with clear eyes about what it can and can’t do.
Nate and Cynthia were candid about the places AI is already delivering real value in title production, and equally candid about the places where it isn’t ready to carry the weight. That balance is exactly what the industry needs more of: honest, informed conversations about where to lean in and where to hold the line.
Reality Check: Why Title Work Still Takes People
Holding that line starts with understanding what the work actually involves. A recent ALTA study* conducted with ndp | analytics confirmed what experienced title professionals already know: more than 80% of purchase transactions require reviewing at least 11 documents tied to a property’s ownership history, and more than one in five require examining over 50 records. Deeds, mortgages, tax liens, probate filings, easements, court judgments… often spanning decades. And finding those records is just the first step.
Nearly 60% of transactions require clearing three to five title issues before closing. Public records are fragmented across thousands of jurisdictions. When defects surface, and they often do, it takes trained researchers who understand the legal and practical complexities of land ownership to work through them. That’s not something you can hand off to an algorithm.
At Capitol Lien, our research is done by people, because that’s what the work requires and what our clients deserve. Technology can accelerate parts of the process. It cannot replace the expertise behind it.
Guardrails Aren’t Optional
This cybersecurity session by Dhanesh Kumar, Chief Information Security Officer at Fidelity National Financial, and Genady Vishnevetsky, Chief Information Security Officer at Stewart Title Guaranty Company, was a wake-up call for anyone experimenting with AI tools without thinking through the security implications. Data exposure, vendor risk, and the unintentional sharing of sensitive transaction information are all real considerations.
It’s a point I make often in my own presentations: treat anything you type into an AI tool as if it could become a public record. Some tools use your inputs to train their models. Some store your data. Some do neither. The difference between a free consumer version and a paid business account can be significant, and most people have never stopped to read the data privacy policy for the tools they already use. Social security numbers, client names, case details, confidential documents… none of that belongs in a prompt without knowing exactly how that data is handled.
The takeaway was clear: evaluate the tools before you adopt them, not after.
If You Don’t Have an AI Use Policy, That’s Your First To-Do
For me, this was the session that tied everything together. Zachary Kammerdeiner, VP and Chief of Innovation and Strategy at CATIC, walked through exactly what a thoughtful AI use policy looks like: defining acceptable uses, protecting sensitive data, evaluating third-party platforms, and setting internal guardrails that protect the business without killing innovation. An AI use policy isn’t corporate red tape. It’s the foundation that allows your team to use AI confidently and responsibly. If your business doesn’t have a policy in place yet, that’s your starting line.
What I Heard in the Breakout Room
After the sessions wrapped up, I facilitated a small peer-group conversation, and it was telling. We kicked things off with two icebreakers: one word for how you feel about AI right now (excited, overwhelmed, skeptical, and so on), and which AI model you use most inside or outside of work, and how often.
My answer was “excited.” I recently switched from ChatGPT to Claude and have been impressed with the jump in capabilities, especially the ability to automate tasks through Cowork. It’s opened up a whole new layer of what’s possible in my day-to-day workflows.
Everyone in the breakout was already using AI personally. But when it came to bringing it into their company’s workflows, the approach was much more cautious and measured. That tracks. Personal use is low stakes. Organizational adoption entails considerations of accountability, data, security, and team dynamics.
That gap between “I use it on my own” and “we use it as a company” is exactly where a solid AI policy lives. And it’s why that session resonated so much.
My Personal Takeaway
AI can absolutely help you work faster, write better, research more efficiently, and show you information you might have missed. But it doesn’t replace the judgment, expertise, or accountability the title and law industries demand. Human first, always.
*Source: Statistics referenced from the American Land Title Association (ALTA) study conducted with ndp | analytics, as cited in HousingWire: “AI can accelerate real estate transactions, but it can’t replace the professional work that protects property rights.”
Please note: Any opinions discussed in this article belong solely to the author, Felonice Merriman, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Capitol Lien.
About the Author
Felonice Merriman is the Marketing and Communications Specialist at Capitol Lien Records & Research, bringing more than 20 years of experience in marketing, publishing, and graphic design to the title industry. She leads multi-channel marketing efforts supporting the company’s records research services and coordinates national conference engagement, blending creativity and technology to strengthen Capitol Lien’s presence in an evolving industry.
Felonice holds an AI Fluency certification through Anthropic and speaks at industry events and conferences on making AI practical and actionable for everyday work. She has presented at the PRIA Winter Symposium, serves as a facilitator at ALTA’s AI for Small Business Bootcamp, and is an upcoming speaker at the Illinois Land Title Association conference alongside Capitol Lien’s Marissa Berends, Certified Abstractor and Industry Relations.
About Capitol Lien
Capitol Lien empowers real estate and title professionals with trusted public record research and due diligence services nationwide. With over 30 years of experience, Capitol Lien specializes in fast, accurate property and title searches, lien reports, and document retrieval that help title agents, underwriters, and legal teams operate their businesses with confidence. The Capitol Lien team takes the hassle out of title research with local experts and innovative tools that make it easier to mitigate risk, stay on schedule, and keep your closings moving smoothly.
Learn more at capitollien.com. Ready to simplify your title research? Send your next order to Capitol Lien and experience the difference trusted diligence makes. Stay in touch with Capitol Lien on LinkedIn for industry updates and information. Reach out! contact@capitollien.com or 800-845-4077
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