Coadjute, the PropTech company backed by Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest, and Nationwide and championed by Phil Spencer, announced the deployment of Clara, the UK’s first digital human designed to support estate agents and their buyers and sellers with essential anti-money laundering (AML) checks.
Money-laundering is one of the UK’s most pressing financial crime challenges, with an estimated £10 billion laundered through property each year, funding organised crime, human trafficking, corruption and sanctions evasion. To address the scale of the problem, regulation has been increased, placing a substantial burden on estate agents.
Coadjute has already established itself at the forefront of supporting estate agents and conveyancers to modernise their anti-money laundering (AML) processes. The company provides a fully managed service that combines an advanced platform and UK based compliance team to remove the burden of achieving full compliance. Clara represents the next generation of their technology: assistance from a digital human.
Clara is an intelligent, conversational assistant designed to work with buyers and sellers, guiding them through the AML process. She helps explain what AML checks are, can discuss the exact documents needed, and even assists with uploading them in a way that is clear, responsive and natural. In doing so, she helps ensure that all the right information is collected and analysed to enable a fully compliant process for estate agents.
Clara is not only visually different to a traditional chatbot. She is deeply embedded within Coadjute’s platform, enabling her to bring a high level of compliance expertise and a sophisticated understanding of AML risk to her work. As information is provided, Clara is able to respond in real time to request additional information required, helping to streamline interactions and reduce delays, while maintaining the integrity of the process.
Importantly, every check completed through the Coadjute platform is still reviewed and signed off by a qualified compliance professional. Clara does not replace human expertise – she extends it. For example, by working 24/7 she enables Coadjute to assist international buyers operating in other time zones, or buyers and sellers in the UK who are completing their AML checks at night.
Clara represents just one element of Coadjute’s next generation platform. Described by technologists as ‘AI-native’, the new version of their platform doesn’t add AI as an afterthought, but was designed from the ground up to incorporate it. As well as providing a digital human to help buyers and sellers, the new platform also provides a range of powerful capabilities for estate agents and conveyancers to assist them in managing their AML risk. The system enables professionals to monitor individual risk indicators, adjust evidence levels, and track progress with unprecedented transparency and control.
Coadjute believe their next generation platform makes their users better equipped than ever before to meet their compliance responsibilities in a way that is engaging for buyers and sellers, and practical and efficient for the property professionals.
The new platform is being rolled out to existing Coadjute users over the next 6 months and is available for selected new customers.
Dan Salmons, CEO of Coadjute said: “We wanted the next generation of Coadjute’s platform to use AI not to replace people, but to work seamlessly with them. Clara makes the process so easy and intuitive for buyers and sellers – especially those who aren’t ‘tech savvy’ – and the many new features of the platform all help estate agents and conveyancers achieve really high levels of AML compliance without the burden. It’s transformative”.
Phil Spencer, broadcaster and Coadjute ambassador: “Coadjute have come up with a real gamechanger here. Estate agents are on the front-line of the battle against money laundering, and the new version of their platform is going to be a massive help. Home buyers and sellers are really going to love Clara, she makes the whole process so easy, she’s really quite astonishing”.
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