Jimmy Lewis: Title Insurance Automation Requires More Than Technology Expertise

Written by:

Heather Hook

Date:

17 Feb 2026

KeyCrew Studio

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The title insurance industry has seen a wave of automation vendors emerge in recent years, but a critical question often gets overlooked: does understanding the technology behind automation mean you understand the processes being automated?

Jimmy Lewis, Co-Founder and CEO of TrueFocus Automation, argues that the answer is definitively no. With over 20 years in title insurance operations before founding TrueFocus seven and a half years ago, Lewis has watched tech-first companies struggle to deliver meaningful results in an industry where operational nuances make or break automation projects.

“We’re not just tech guys trying to build automation for you,” Lewis explains. “We’re operational folks who now build automation. There’s a huge difference.”

That difference shows up in the details. Title insurance workflows involve complex interactions between legacy systems, manual handoffs, and county-specific requirements that vary dramatically across jurisdictions. Lewis points to Title Hunter®, one of TrueFocus’s solutions, as an example. Title Hunter® bots have completed upwards of 50 title searches in as little as an hour, work that may take human abstractors several hours or even days when done manually.

The key isn’t just the speed. It’s understanding which manual processes between existing systems create the actual bottlenecks. Many automation vendors focus on replacing entire systems or building flashy interfaces, but miss the tedious, time-consuming steps that happen between platforms.

“Most vendors miss the manual processes between your existing systems entirely,” Lewis notes. “That’s where the real time sinks are.”

TrueFocus’s approach differs in another significant way: client ownership models. While most automation vendors build solutions they retain ownership of, charging ongoing transactional fees, TrueFocus offers clients the option to own what they build. For any company handling sensitive data, this model helps address core concerns around security, control, and long-term cost exposure when relying on third parties.

“Some people just don’t have the mindset to pay you transactional rates for the next five to ten years,” Lewis says. “They want to own it. And we’re fine doing that.”

The numbers back up the operational expertise advantage. TrueFocus has deployed approximately 760 bots supporting over 2,400 individual tasks across title, mortgage, and appraisal operations. The ROI timeline matters too. Where many enterprise automation projects require three to four years to see returns, TrueFocus clients typically see ROI within months, not years.

Sridhar Loganathan, TrueFocus’s COO and Co-Founder, stresses transparency. “We believe in being upfront,” he says. “If something can’t be automated, we’ll tell you. We don’t take on projects just to make money. Protecting our reputation is more important than short-term revenue.”

That operational perspective extends to pricing models as well. Instead of the large upfront investments often associated with traditional automation platforms, TrueFocus’s development costs average roughly $9,500 per bot, with ROI frequently achieved in months rather than years.

The challenge for the industry isn’t whether automation works. It’s whether the vendors deploying it understand what they’re actually automating. Technology expertise without operational knowledge leads to solutions that look impressive in demos but fail to address the actual friction points in daily workflows.

As automation continues to reshape title insurance, the distinction between tech-first and operations-first approaches will likely determine which solutions deliver genuine value versus which simply add another system to manage.

About TrueFocus Automation

TrueFocus Automation provides intelligent process automation solutions for title insurance, mortgage, and appraisal operations. Founded by title insurance operations veterans, the company combines deep industry expertise with custom bot development to automate complex workflows while allowing clients to maintain ownership and control of their automation infrastructure.

Disclosure: Individuals or companies mentioned may have a commercial relationship with KeyCrew.