Title companies evaluating automation vendors benefit from a reliable way to identify genuine industry expertise and to recognize it quickly. According to Jimmy Lewis of TrueFocus Automation, a single well-placed question can reveal how well a vendor understands the way title operations actually work.
The Fastest Way to Test a Vendor’s Knowledge
Lewis says the fastest way to gauge a vendor’s real-world title knowledge is to ask which tasks in a title production environment they would choose NOT to automate. A clear, specific answer shows how much hands-on title experience the vendor brings to the table.
A vendor who answers with specificity, naming tasks like title exam and curative workflows, special decisions for underwriting, moving money, and final fraud reviews, has almost certainly worked in or around title operations. A detailed, confident response points to genuine industry experience, while a more general answer simply reflects a foundation built on automation theory that deeper title exposure can strengthen.
Lewis also recommends a more direct opening: “Be direct with your questions up front, has anyone in your team worked in the title space, or have they worked on a project for a title insurance client?
Why Curative Work Is the Litmus Test
Among the processes Lewis identifies as best kept under human guidance, curative work stands out. Curative processes, resolving title defects, clearing encumbrances, and addressing breaks in the chain of title, are non-linear, judgment-intensive, and highly dependent on context. They thrive on human expertise rather than the rule-based automation that works so well in high-volume, repetitive tasks.
A vendor who recommends keeping curative workflows under meaningful human oversight is, according to Lewis, showing a strong understanding of title production. The same applies to special underwriting decisions, where risk assessment benefits from professional judgment that is best paired with, rather than replaced by, an automated system.
Processes involving movement of funds represent another area where Lewis says human oversight adds clear value. “Financial transactions stay under human control. We put automation where it belongs, on data prep and the administrative workflow that surrounds the money, and we leave the money itself to your team.” he says.
Fraud Detection: Where Tools Help and Humans Decide
Lewis draws a careful distinction when it comes to fraud detection, an area where automation tools add genuine value and where human involvement remains essential. Automated tools can flag patterns, surface anomalies, and highlight transactions that warrant closer scrutiny. The final determination, according to Lewis, is best made by people.
“You definitely can leverage tools to kind of highlight that or expose it,” Lewis says. “But you really want to have people involved in anything where you’re thinking there’s a potential for fraud.”
Vendors with real title experience appreciate this distinction between tools that assist human judgment and tools that replace it. That understanding reflects a firm grasp of title risk and the liability considerations involved in fraud-related decisions.
For title companies, this makes fraud-related workflows another useful diagnostic in vendor conversations. A vendor who pairs an automated pathway for flagged transactions with a mandatory human review step demonstrates a solid understanding of title risk.
What the Diagnostic Looks Like in Practice
Lewis says TrueFocus Automation‘s own scoping process reflects the same framework he recommends title companies apply to outside vendors. The company’s team includes staff with direct title industry experience, and Lewis says that background shapes how TrueFocus approaches new client conversations, particularly around identifying which processes are genuinely ready for automation and which ones are best kept with people.
Lewis describes one project where the distinction between automatable and human-led work played out at scale. A client needed to clear a backlog of roughly 140,000 documents that required e-recording. TrueFocus spent the first few days working the process manually to understand the workflow, then built automation around the repetitive steps. The result cut human involvement from roughly eight to nine minutes per document down to about one minute, with the automation handling the remaining time. That speed allowed the client to keep the full project in-house and complete it on schedule.
The ability to distinguish which parts of a workflow could be automated, and which parts benefited from human judgment, is what kept the project on time and on budget. That same ability is what title companies should look for when they sit across the table from a new vendor.
Jimmy Lewis is the CEO & Co-Founder of TrueFocus Automation, a specialist in RPA (robotic process automation) and AI-driven workflow automation for the title insurance, mortgage, and real estate industries. TrueFocus has developed 840+ automation bots supporting more than 2,500 workflows and has returned over 1.3 million production hours to clients.
This article is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or investment advice. The views and opinions expressed herein reflect those of the individuals quoted and do not represent an endorsement of any company, product, or service mentioned. Readers should conduct their own due diligence and consult qualified professionals before making any investment decisions.
