On September 10, Figure Technology Solutions (NASDAQ:FIGR) announced a partnership with Sierra, the conversational AI platform co-founded by Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor, to attack one of mortgage lending’s oldest problems: applicants who start a home equity loan and never finish it. The Mortgage Bankers Association found that only 49% of home equity applications closed in 2024, even as HELOC volume hit $271 billion in 2025. Figure wants its new AI agent to close that gap in a $2 trillion industry.
An Agent That Never Gives Up
The Figure Agent, built on Sierra’s newly launched Horizon platform, marks the first U.S. use of a system designed to let AI work for days on complex, revenue-generating tasks rather than simple customer support. Once a home equity application stalls, the agent follows up by voice and text, walking borrowers through credit checks, identity verification, and bank account linking before handing them to a human loan officer to finish the deal.
Figure and Sierra reported that stalled applicants who engaged with the agent moved through those friction points at a 30% to 52% higher rate than those who did not, and funded 67% more loan volume overall. Pairing the agent with a loan officer produced a 143% lift in funded loan conversion compared with loan officers working alone. Figure said it plans to roll the integration out to partners across its network over the coming months.
That AI push arrives on top of a business already growing fast. On August 13, 2026, Figure reported second-quarter Consumer Loan Marketplace volume of $4.3 billion, up 132% year over year, while net revenue climbed 113% to $226 million and net income more than doubled to $87 million. The company added 102 origination partners in the quarter, bringing its total to 489, and guided to $4.8 billion to $5.2 billion in Consumer Loan Marketplace volume for the third quarter.
Old Risks Still Loom Large
For all the AI headlines, Figure’s own numbers show some of the tension in its model. Even as marketplace volume surged, the net take rate it earns on that volume slipped to 3.6% in the second quarter from 4.0% a year earlier, a reminder that faster growth has not translated into a richer fee on every dollar financed. Figure’s business also still leans heavily on the health of the HELOC market and home values, both of which move with interest rates and the broader economy.
The Sierra partnership itself is new enough that Figure has run it only as a pilot, and the plan to extend it network-wide is a promise rather than a proven track record. Figure’s own filings also flag its dual-class share structure, which concentrates voting control, along with a history of losses the company has only recently turned around, as risks investors weigh alongside the growth story.
Funds Pull Back, Skeptics Circle
Hedge fund ownership of Figure fell to 32 funds in the most recent quarter from 51 the quarter before. That is a meaningful pullback in institutional conviction, even as the business just posted its best results yet. Short interest sits at 6.53% of the float, enough to show a real bear camp has formed around the stock rather than token skepticism. That combination shows the market is still unsure whether the AI-driven conversion gains will last.
What Comes Next Decides It
Figure has shown that pairing loan officers with an AI agent can turn more stalled applications into funded loans, and its underlying volume and profit growth back that up with real numbers. But a shrinking bench of hedge fund holders and a rising short interest suggest the market wants proof the Sierra rollout works past a single pilot before it fully buys in. For the growth story to keep compounding, Figure needs partners across its network adopting the agent at the same rate the pilot showed.
READ NEXT: 10 Best Future Stocks to Buy Under $10 and 12 Best Performing Semiconductor Stocks to Invest In.
