Residential conveyancing capacity is under growing strain. The number of solicitors practising in the sector has fallen by more than 2,000 since the end of 2021, while the average time to exchange has reportedly reached around 123 days. A separate report puts the five-year decline in conveyancer numbers at almost 16%.
This creates a significant client-experience issue for advisers: mortgage offers, chain deadlines, rate expiries and borrower expectations all need active management long after an application is submitted. Technology providers are responding with AI document analysis, communications hubs and compliance tools designed to reduce manual administration and bring fragmented case updates into one workflow.
AI may help identify incomplete documentation, summarise updates and trigger proactive client contact, but it cannot remove the legal, lender and property-specific causes of delay. Advisers using such systems should validate outputs, protect client data, and be transparent about where automation is being used in the service journey.