Is Your Title Data Clean Enough to Automate? What to Check Before You Start

Many title companies come to automation hoping it will fix a messy process. In practice, it usually works the other way around. Automation performs well on organized, consistent data and struggles when the underlying information is scattered or indexed in different ways.

Jimmy Lewis, CEO and Co-Founder of TrueFocus Automation, has turned down work for exactly this reason. His view is that knowing when a workflow isn’t ready is just as important as knowing how to automate one that is.

Why Inconsistent Data Breaks Automation

Lewis explains that most of TrueFocus’s production automation pairs robotic process automation (RPA) with generative AI, a combination that has delivered strong results. The company is also exploring agentic AI in select new implementations, with guardrails and validation checkpoints that catch errors before they affect a file or client.

Whatever the approach, a human stays in the loop wherever AI is used. Experienced title professionals review the output so mistakes don’t become business risk.

Clean data still matters. RPA expects the same information in the same place and format every time. When data varies, the bot has nothing reliable to follow. More adaptive AI can tolerate some variation, but validation still depends on a consistent standard for what “correct” looks like.

“If the data isn’t presented in a fairly structured and uniform manner,” Lewis says, “then it’s probably not something that the automation that we currently build is going to be successful at.”

A Common Example: Internal Title Plants

Lewis points to internal title plants as a frequent challenge. Some companies maintain their own plants, but the information isn’t indexed consistently. One record may be organized one way and the next a different way, depending on who entered it and when.

That’s why TrueFocus assesses data readiness early in every engagement. When the data is inconsistent, the team tells the client up front that automation may deliver less lift than expected, so there are no surprises after implementation. With some recent accounts, that meant recommending a cleanup of the database and indexing first, or starting with the parts of the workflow where the data is already consistent.

Lewis also noted that AI tools built for less structured data are maturing quickly. As they do, TrueFocus will evaluate them with the same guardrails and human oversight it applies to all of its AI work.

What to Check Before You Talk to a Vendor

A few practical questions can tell you whether your data is ready.

Is information indexed the same way across your records? If two people on your team would record the same document differently, a bot will run into the same inconsistency.

Can you describe the process step by step? If the workflow depends on judgment calls that change from file to file, it may not be a good candidate for rules-based automation.

Who will own the cleanup? If your data needs work, someone has to be responsible for standardizing it before or alongside the automation project. That work doesn’t go away by handing it to a vendor.

Why a Vendor Who Says No Is Worth Listening To

A vendor that agrees to automate everything is not necessarily doing you a favor. If the project fails because the data wasn’t ready, you’ve spent money and time with little to show for it.

A vendor willing to say “not yet” is protecting your investment. It also gives you a clear next step: fix the data first, then automate.

Timing can help. Lewis notes that companies often say they’re too busy to take on automation when volume is high, then say they don’t have the budget when volume drops. Slower periods can be a good window to clean up data so the business is ready when volume returns.

You can learn more about TrueFocus and how it approaches title and mortgage workflows on its About page.

TrueFocus Automation provides intelligent process automation solutions for title insurance, mortgage, and appraisal operations. Founded by Jimmy Lewis and Sridhar Loganathan, the company combines operational expertise with custom automation development. For more information, visit www.truefocusautomation.com.

This article is based on information provided by the expert source cited above. It is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or real estate advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals before making any real estate or financial decisions.