One of Australia's biggest banks hopes to see customers apply for home loans using an AI tool

By KAAREN MORRISSEY FOR AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: 04:12, 26 May 2026 | Updated: 04:12, 26 May 2026 The day is coming when Australians will be able to apply for a home or business loan via artificial intelligence without even speaking to a human. That's the view of Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which is already eyeing agents that can complete the income verification and other stages of a borrowing application. They aren't quite there yet, but the nation's biggest bank has taken a step forward after revealing it's been pilot testing the CommBank Companion, an agentic AI-powered tool that will live inside its mobile banking app. The tool, the bank says, will allow retail and business customers to ask questions and find information about their goals - like buying a home, financial health, cash flows and savings - using the customers' own readily available information, completely human-free. However, the conversational tool won't be making direct recommendations about bank products, given it's not meant - or allowed - to substitute for financial advice due to banking industry rules and regulations. The intention is that the customer will be in control, especially in terms of what they choose to do next, subject to terms and conditions. This is a big step up from a banking chatbot, CBA says, because the companion can take action as it resolves questions, acting intuitively, and it gets to know you and your likes and preferences. For example, say 'Alex', 28, wants to buy a home and one weekend sees a property that she likes.  The day is coming when Australians will be able to apply for a home or business loan via artificial intelligence without even speaking to a human Commonwealth Bank is already eyeing  agents that can complete the income verification and other stages of a borrowing application In CBA's world, she would ask the companion how much it's worth and how to reach her deposit goals, and receive the answers in real time.  With a plan now in place, the companion would continue to act as a guide to help Alex save.  'This certainly takes us beyond ... customer-facing chatbots. This goes well beyond that,' general manager of customer channel and data Sam Hemphill said. CBA claims the companion is the first customer-facing front-end agent to be developed by a big four bank in Australia.  Macquarie Bank, which isn't a big four, offers Q on its app, which it describes as an agentic support tool. 'This is going to become a massively intense competitive space,' CBA's group head of retail banking services Angus Sullivan said. 'My expectation is that the native app experience will become increasingly a conversational and agentic digital experience at the core of how our customers engage.' More than nine million Australians – around 33 per cent of the population – use the current banking app daily, logging on an average of 1.4 times per day, according to CBA data.  The companion is already being tested by 2,000 bank employees and 10,000 small business customers, and will be rolled out in stages. It's set to go 'live' with thousands of retail and business customers by the end of June. The CommBank Companion reveal comes ahead of the bank's AI client conference in Sydney on Tuesday, where the heads of OpenAI, Coles and Canva will be speaking about the outlook for AI adoption. The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.