Every credit union leader I talk to says the same thing: “We know we need to move on AI, we just don't know where to start.” That’s why this newsletter exists. Each week, we cover what’s actually happening in AI and what it means for your Credit Union.
Glad you're here.
TRENDING AI NEWS FOR CU
AI can now clone your member's voice.
Synthetic identities, voice cloning, AI that mimics real member behavior, fraudsters have these tools now. Most CU fraud-detection systems were not built to catch them. The fix is smarter escalation on real risk signals, not more friction on every login.
Why it matters: Ask your fraud vendor when they last updated their model for AI-generated attacks. If they hesitate, you have your answer.
NCUA's exam letter doesn't mention AI. It doesn't need to.
Credit risk. Fraud. Third-party vendors. Every item in the January supervisory letter now runs on AI at most institutions. Examiners won't ask about AI directly, they'll ask about your models, your documentation, and your vendors.
Why it matters: Read the NCUA AI Resource Hub before your next exam. It tells you exactly what examiners are looking for.
Loan delinquency just hit a 10-year high. Manual processes are making it worse.
NCUA's Q4 2025 data confirmed it: delinquency and charge-off rates are at their worst since before 2013. The institutions getting ahead of it are using AI for early warning detection. The ones waiting are absorbing the losses.
Why it matters: If your collections team is still running manual processes, the cost is already showing up in your numbers.
DEEP DIVE
Forum CU processed up to 70% more loans. Same team. No new hires.
Forum Credit Union. Fishers, Indiana. $2.3B in assets. They started using AI to handle routine underwriting decisions, the ones where a loan officer looks at an application for two minutes and approves it. Clear file, obvious outcome, no judgment required.
"There's a lot of easy decisions, I mean there are so many easy decisions that we don't need to have a human look at it."
So they stopped. The result was up to 70% more loan volume from the same team.
The question for your CU is not how to copy Forum. It is simpler: which part of your lending workflow has the most volume and the least judgment?
That is where you start.
Three things to do this week:
Ask your CLO how many hours per week go to routine document review. That number is your business case.
Read the NCUA AI Resource Hub. It tells you what vendor questions examiners are trained to ask.
When a vendor shows you a demo, ask for a live deployment at a CU under $1B. Test data is not the same thing
Full story — America's Credit Unions
Andy Mattingly on Pioneers podcast — Multimodal
FROM MULTIMODAL
The State of Agentic AI in Credit Unions
We published our first research report. Free.
Forum CU is featured alongside Suncoast CU, which prevented $800K in fraud in six months, and Teachers FCU, which eliminated 8 million manual clicks.
If you are building the case for AI at your institution, this is the document to put in front of your board.
Data point this week
16%
The share of credit unions with an enterprise-wide AI roadmap, even though 66% are actively implementing AI somewhere in their organization.
Source: Wipfli State of the Credit Union Industry 2026. Survey of 100 CU executives.
ONE QUESTION FOR YOU
If you could automate one thing at your CU this year, what would it be?
Hit reply. The best answer will show up in next week’s issue.
