AI in Credit Unions: Adoption, Innovation, and Strategy

Dr. Jennifer Golbeck, Author and Professor – University of Maryland

“I’m pretty sure my take will be different than what you’re used to,” opened Dr. Jennifer Golbeck.

At a time where AI is dominating the news and how we approach many day-to-day tasks, Dr. Golbeck’s expertise captivated the Synergent Connect audience. Her presentation provided anecdotes and examples focused on how artificial intelligence is transforming all industries. As AI plays a larger role in a range of work, credit unions are tasked with understanding its benefits and potential pitfalls, along with learning strategies to use the technology ethically to both preserve member trust and comply with the regulatory landscape. While AI stands to jolt the industry, there is potential to do both good and harm, but there was good news for attendees.

“You do not need to worry about AI taking over humanity,” stressed Golbeck. “It is bad at a lot of things that humans are good at.”

Especially in our industry, based on trust and finances, adopting AI in a strategic, safe, and responsible way is essential. While predictive AI is still making up most of the widely deployed AI, Generative AI like ChatGPT continues to learn and grow. She took a look back at how companies were using data from a decade ago and how data has been gathered and examined over time. Regardless of personal account settings, data can be extrapolated in numerous ways from numerous sources and algorithms are built to identify patterns that hold true without always having clear reason. The challenge of bias emerging from certain patterns is well-established as a problem that is not always solvable. She advised that, in a regulated industry, it is important to take care with how AI tools are used to make decisions so as not to inadvertently replicate bias and to establish a clear AI governance lifecycle strategy.

Dr. Golbeck also shared numerous scenarios to consider involving ways AI can generate graphics, aggregate locations, or otherwise identify patterns that can create inaccurate results. From analysis of personal data to generative AI like ChatGPT, AI can be both helpful and intrusive. Overall, Dr. Golbeck examined the power of AI, the way data is collected to fuel it, best practices for making decisions about what to adopt, and how to avoid complications that can pose organizational risks.

Banking on Change | Achieving Exponential Growth in the Age of AI

James Robert Lay, Author and CEO, Digital Growth Institute

The biggest obstacle to future growth in the age of AI is not the abundance of new technologies coming online, but a lack of understanding about how leaders can guide themselves and their teams through the complexities of exponential change. That’s because change of any kind, let alone exponential change, can feel hard, scary, and painful.

“Perspective is two things,” shared James Robert Lay. “It is the sum of context, but it’s also framing. As we’re moving forward and through and further into this age of AI, the need for perspective will be even greater.”

In this interactive session, credit union attendees learned how to:

• Immediately increase their confidence by gaining clarity into all of the changes they’ve experienced on their own journey of growth.
• Apply ancient wisdom in a modern world to master the most important technology in the Age of AI.
• Leave with a strategic growth framework that includes tools they can immediately apply to guide their teams and credit unions through the complexities of exponential change with courage.

To illustrate how perspective wildly varies in the workplace, Lay informally polled attendees on how old they were in 1994 and general experiences leading up to that time. In 1994, Amazon launched, becoming a milestone in a fast-moving technology revolution that has reshaped many of the ways we do business as a society. The milestones that Lay highlighted included:

He discussed change and how most resist it, but also how it is approached. Is it with hope, energy, and a growth mindset or with a view that it is scary and confusing? How one answers determines largely what happens next on their own growth journey. He defined key steps that lead to transformation and examined the connection between financial, mental, and physical wellbeing. He also stressed the importance of creating calls to action that provide the best user experience to drive conversions and growth by focusing on awareness, consideration, and the purchase.

Lay also highlighted the VMVPV framework (Villain, Mission, Vision, Purpose, and Values). He illustrated the importance of focusing on overcoming the villain by zeroing in on purpose and making sure each story has a hero and a helper:

“Put people at the center of everything you do,” said Lay.

5 Years Forward: Strategy from the Future Backwards

Lee Wetherington, Senior Director of Corporate Strategy – Jack Henry

Strategy is best done from the future backwards. In this session, Lee Wetherington explored a long view on the future of financial services and what opportunities and threats that future presents now, soon, and later. He posed many questions to consider, including what will credit unions look like five years from now? How will dysregulation and agentic AI impact the evolution, distribution, and consumption of financial services? How will stablecoins alter the outlook for card franchises, real-time payments, and Pay-by-Bank schemes? How will open banking inform and support your data strategy? And, by the way, do you have a data strategy?

Wetherington explained that there is a difference between strategy and planning. Strategy is positioning, a step more uncertain than planning is. Planning is a set of activities to be completed. To get to planning requires starting with a data-driven view of the most reasonable future for the next three- to five-year increments and deciding how to position one’s credit union in that most probable future. From there, working backwards is where planning begins, all while being aware of potential blind spots.

“Foresight is central and integral to doing strategy work,” advised Wetherington.” You can’t do it well or effectively if you have massive blind spots.”

He then went on to elaborate that, in the current financial environment, credit unions are no longer competing against entities within their industry but are increasingly competing against entities outside the industry because the line has been blurred between chartered and non-chartered financial service providers.

Wetherington’s detailed presentation provided an in-depth sneak peek at numerous data-driven insights aggregated by Jack Henry that have not yet been released to illustrate today’s landscape and where the industry is headed.

Fiserv Merchant Services: A Modernized Approach to Deliver for Your Clients

Andrew Geisler | Senior Sales Executive, Fiserv Community Financial Institutions

This session focused on how Fiserv Merchant Services helps drive value for financial institutions and their small and medium business (SMB) members. Andrew Geisler, Senior Sales Executive at Fiserv Community Financial Institutions, explained how Fiserv partners with credit unions to deliver SMB payment solutions that not only support member business needs but also generate non-interest revenue for the institution.

By embedding these modern services into their offerings, credit unions can elevate their role from service provider to strategic partner—helping their SMB members grow while capturing new income opportunities. The session emphasized the importance of delivering scalable, relevant tools that meet the demands of today’s small business owners.

Financial Enablement: Becoming the Trusted Financial Partner for Your Members

Joshua Thomas | Account Executive – Financial Institutions, Array

What services are your members hungry to access? This session tackled that question head-on, focusing on how credit unions can integrate high-value offerings into their digital experience to become the trusted financial partner their members are looking for. Joshua Thomas, Account Executive at Array, outlined how tools like credit monitoring, identity protection, and budgeting insights can help prevent member leakage to fintechs like LifeLock, Credit Karma, and Rocket Money.

Rather than let members go elsewhere to find these features, Thomas encouraged credit unions to embed them directly into their platforms. Doing so keeps members engaged, reinforces trust, and strengthens the credit union’s competitive position in a marketplace crowded with fast-moving digital alternatives.

Fintechs Don’t Outspend You, They Out-Experience You

Nicholas Hinrichsen | CEO and Co-Founder, Clutch

Credit unions have an edge that big banks and fintechs can’t replicate: deep member relationships and agility. But in a digital-first landscape, they’re often overlooked—not due to limited budgets or branches, but because of a broken experience. This session explored how friction in the deposit journey—like delays in account access or disjointed onboarding—causes credit unions to lose members before they can prove their value.

Nicholas Hinrichsen, CEO and Co-Founder of Clutch, walked attendees through a modern, frictionless deposit experience featuring instant online banking access, real-time eligibility, card funding, and smart cross-sell. He also showcased tools like HAL and Fastlane that bring AI and instant decisioning into play—empowering credit unions to compete and win by reducing friction and letting their relationship strengths shine through a seamless digital journey.