(PLANO, Texas) — NEWS: Optimal Blue today announced the general availability of Virtual Economist, the first on-demand forecasting tool for mortgage capital markets leaders powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML). Revealed in beta at the annual Optimal Blue Summit in February 2026, Virtual Economist is now available to all Optimal Blue Product, Pricing, and Eligibility (PPE) Engine and CompassEdge clients at no added cost.
Virtual Economist combines public economic data with Optimal Blue’s proprietary lock volume data into machine learning models to deliver real-time rate and market volume forecasts, along with instant scenario analysis to support strategic planning and market analysis. Optimal Blue lock volume data reflects more than 35% of all mortgages locked nationwide.
The tool enables users to explore and visualize various scenarios related to interest rates, including the 10-year Treasury, MBS spread, and Primary-Secondary Spread (PSS), providing market-level forecasts and scenario analysis for informational planning purposes. Users can personalize their experience through their selection of an AI avatar economist, with options for both voice- and text-based engagement for a natural, conversational experience that can help inform their own decision-making.
“Like every Optimal Blue innovation, Virtual Economist is grounded in a deep understanding of both the mortgage market and the broader macroeconomic influences that drive volume, coupled with accurate and proven AI power,” said Erin Wester, chief product officer at Optimal Blue. “Virtual Economist is what true agentic AI is supposed to be, not automating buttons, but facilitating an actual conversation with your data. This is not about what already happened, but instead we combined explainable AI-powered forecasting with conversational intelligence, giving lenders not only a forecast of what’s to come, but the ability to understand the drivers behind it, explore scenarios, and ask follow-up questions in real time.”
Added Wester, “Speed of informed decisions is what will keep leaders ahead of shifts, whether those are market changes, new leadership at the Federal Reserve, or emerging data tools that can help mortgage professionals evaluate the impact that different macroeconomic scenarios will have on their pipeline.”
INTRODUCING THE OPTIMAL BLUE AI LABS
As part of Optimal Blue’s continued commitment to AI-driven innovation, the company today also launched the Optimal Blue AI Labs.
Designed to support and accelerate the company’s internal AI efforts and the delivery of trusted AI capabilities for mortgage lenders, the Optimal Blue AI Labs serve as a central hub and incubator for the company’s AI initiatives. Led by Kevin Foley who serves in the newly created role of director of AI Labs, the initiative delivers added focus and transparency around how Optimal Blue identifies, evaluates, develops, and governs AI across its product ecosystem, with an emphasis on enabling measurable lender value, embedded workflows, and disciplined speed of execution in a highly regulated market.
“While many mortgage technology companies are still trying to figure out how to deploy AI that actually works, Optimal Blue is extending our lead, beyond the 12 AI products that we have already deployed, at no cost to our clients. With our investment in the Optimal Blue AI Labs, we are accelerating our AI first approach, to not just deliver more agentic automation, but introduce new forms of AI,” said Joe Tyrrell, chief executive officer at Optimal Blue. “We are introducing ontological AI that leapfrogs Model Context Protocol (MCP) and provides both context and relation to our large language models (LLMs), unlocking innovation across pricing, hedging, trading, capital markets analytics, workflow automation, and customer-facing intelligence.”
Mortgage lenders can benefit from and engage with the Optimal Blue AI Labs in several ways, including through faster delivery of high-value AI capabilities as the company accelerates the path from AI concept to production-ready capability, as well as through enhanced customer feedback loops featuring listening sessions and work groups, and more.
To learn more about innovation happening at Optimal Blue, clients are encouraged to register for the company’s 2027 Summit taking place Feb. 1 – 3 in Scottsdale, Ariz., and to take advantage of early bird pricing before it ends Oct. 31. Registration is open at https://Summit.OptimalBlue.com.
Visit https://OptimalBlue.com to learn more.
ABOUT OPTIMAL BLUE
Optimal Blue powers strategic performance across the mortgage capital markets ecosystem. As the industry’s only end-to-end capital markets platform, our technology, data and integrations bridge the primary and secondary markets to help lenders of all sizes optimize performance – from pricing accuracy to margin protection and every step in between. Backed by over 20 years of proven expertise, our modern, cloud-native technology delivers the real-time automation, actionable data and seamless connectivity lenders need to navigate market volatility and scale for growth. To learn more about how Optimal Blue helps deliver measurable ROI, visit OptimalBlue.com.
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