Guided by AI: How Structured Playbooks Are Helping Brokers Tackle Complex Deals

For brokers working in complex lending scenarios, the challenge is rarely a lack of opportunity — it’s navigating the process.

Transactions such as startups and business acquisitions often require deeper discovery, more nuanced structuring, and a clearer articulation of the borrower’s story. Unlike standard deals, there isn’t always a clear template to follow, which can slow progression from initial conversation through to application.

This is where a new approach is emerging: combining structured deal playbooks with AI to guide brokers through complexity, rather than leaving them to build the process from scratch.

At CFI Finance, this concept has been embedded into a newly developed broker portal, designed specifically for non-standard transactions.

Built-in playbooks for non-standard deals

The platform includes built-in playbooks tailored to scenarios such as startups and acquisitions, prompting brokers with the key questions and information required at each stage of the deal. Rather than relying on experience alone, brokers are guided through a structured discovery process that ensures critical details aren’t missed.

In practice, this is particularly relevant in scenarios where deals are less straightforward — for example, where a borrower has limited trading history, or where multiple moving parts need to be brought together in an acquisition. In these situations, having a structured set of prompts can help brokers capture the full picture early, rather than needing to revisit clients multiple times to fill gaps.

Once captured, that information can be transformed into a clear deal summary with a single action, removing the need to manually rewrite or reformat client data. From there, brokers can move directly into an application, creating a more continuous path from discovery to submission.

According to CFI Finance CEO Phil Chaplin, the goal was to support brokers in areas where deals are often the most complex.

“In these types of transactions, knowing what questions to ask is half the challenge. The playbooks are designed to guide brokers through that process, while AI handles the heavy lifting of turning that information into something structured and ready to progress.”

Meeting deals where they start

The platform also reflects the reality that many deals don’t start neatly within a single system.

Brokers can import an existing application — including one prepared for another lender — and have it automatically interpreted and summarised. They can also take something as unstructured as an email chain with a client and convert it into a clear, structured application summary in a single step.

This includes extracting key deal information and highlighting elements such as applicant experience, which can be particularly important in assessing startup and acquisition funding.

A broader shift in broker technology

This combination of guided workflows and AI-enabled processing points to a broader shift in broker technology.

Rather than focusing purely on speed or automation, newer tools are increasingly designed to support decision-making and deal structuring — particularly in areas where transactions are less standardised.

For brokers, this may help reduce the cognitive load associated with complex deals, while also improving consistency and clarity in how those deals are presented to lenders.

It also shortens the gap between discovery and application, allowing brokers to progress opportunities more efficiently without sacrificing depth or quality.

As the broker channel continues to evolve, platforms that combine guidance, structure, and intelligent processing may play a growing role — particularly for those operating beyond vanilla lending scenarios.