Make no mistake: artificial intelligence isn't going away anytime soon.
But Julian Fayad saw this coming long before the current buzz.
"I've been building AI in finance broking for over five years now, and I've been talking about it for a really long time," Fayad told Australian Broker. "What I was saying, at one point, probably seemed like a lot of noise, a little bit like somebody who strayed from the path, or like I was bashing my head against the wall for a while. But now, people are starting to see what we're doing."
In 2020, he launched Sydney-based asset finance and fintech firm LoanOptions.ai, where he now serves as founder and chief executive officer. But before that, Fayad was on the front lines himself, working as a finance broker.
It's fitting then that he recently took home the Finance Brokers Association of Australasia's (FBAA) "Industry Champion of the Year" title — one of two recipients who received the honor — at the industry group's 2025 Supremacy awards.
Australian Broker sat down with Fayad to uncover the secrets behind his success, the support driving him forward and the changes he believes the industry needs to make.
JF: Amazing. It's a good piece of recognition for —not just how much this industry means to me — but what our team does and all the stuff that we do in terms of building technology in the industry. And I think, just the goodwill I've built up over time. I've spent the last 14 years in this industry, coming on 15 years. And I've always tried to give way more than I can receive. So it's great. It's humbling.
JF: I've been building AI in finance broking for over five years now, and I've been talking about it for a really long time. And I think with all the recent noise and hype around AI, brokers are really struggling to understand how to filter through what's signal and what's noise. And I guess what I'm trying to do is let them understand that there are tools available, give them really practical use cases for AI and finance broking, and most importantly, show them that, as long as you don't have your head in the sand and you're ready to adapt, you can thrive with AI as your companion.
JF: Yes, they give us a platform and an opportunity to speak. I've done some panel discussions with FBAA, talking about technology and AI and how to implement it into broking businesses. I am trying to share as much as I've learned over the last five years while building AI, to help people who are new to it, to understand what mistakes not to make and that kind of thing.
The platform that the FBAA provides us is very helpful. But it's also advocating for what we do to protect our industry. So it's very valuable. It's a lot of behind the scenes stuff. It's not very sexy, but it's very important.
JF: Don't be afraid to share what you really think. And it's perfectly fine to have an opinion, especially if it's a reasonably well-educated one in the subject matter that you have expertise in. And it's also okay to not follow the crowd and not follow the noise and make your own path.
What I was saying, at one point, probably seemed like a lot of noise, a little bit like somebody who strayed from the path, or like I was bashing my head against the wall for a while. But now, people are starting to see what we're doing. [For example], I hosted a webinar earlier this week, and there were 440 brokers who registered. And that was just a free information session. I didn't want anything out of it other than to help inform and support brokers.
JF: The key thing that I'd like to see is more openness from aggregators to collaborate with other technology products in the industry. I think that's a very important part. And what we're starting to see is that brokers want to adopt and adapt their business with new technology coming in. But sometimes aggregators can be — not all of them; some of them are fantastic to work with — but some can somewhat gatekeep, or be a little bit of a bottleneck. Sometimes that's not intentional. But it is occurring, and a lot of brokers are getting frustrated with that.
