Happy Thursday!
Members are getting clearer about what they expect from AI, and a new report out this week puts real numbers behind it. For credit unions, the takeaway is simple: the window to build around those expectations is getting smaller.
This week, we break down the data, what leading institutions are doing differently, and two other stories your team should have on the radar.
TRENDING AI NEWS FOR CU
75% of small businesses want AI tools from their CU. Most can't find them.
A new PYMNTS Intelligence and Velera report — "AI at the FI: Inside Credit Unions' Demand-Execution Gap" published this week surveyed nearly 14,000 consumers and 2,500 SMBs alongside 500 CU executives. The gap it found is stark: 75% of SMBs and 59% of consumers say they'd use at least one AI assistant feature from their financial institution. Only 25% of credit unions currently offer AI chat support. Only 17% offer AI financial advice. The members most likely to want these tools are Gen Z, millennials, and small business owners, exactly the segments most credit unions are trying to grow.
Why it matters for your CU: This isn't a future problem. Members are already looking for AI tools at your institution. The credit unions that get there first are pulling ahead on membership and asset growth. The ones that don't are losing the members most worth keeping.
Agentic AI may finally crack the core modernization problem
Agentic AI agents can now read legacy core code, including Symitar PowerOn, reverse-engineer the embedded business logic, and produce modernization output in days rather than the months a trained specialist would need. The piece argues that core modernization no longer has to be a single, massive bet. Sequenced, agent-supported moves across lending, deposits, and compliance systems can replace the rip-and-replace approach that stops most boards cold.
Why it matters for your CU: If your leadership has been treating core modernization as an "eventually" problem, this reframes what's actually possible now. The blocker may be smaller than your board thinks.
The AI tools protecting your members are being used against them
The Financial Brand reported this week that digital transformation is outpacing cybersecurity readiness at most credit unions. The specific risk: the same AI capabilities credit unions are deploying for fraud detection are being actively weaponized by adversaries to evade those exact controls: synthetic voices, deepfake video, and fabricated documents calibrated to pass existing verification systems. Seventy-three percent of cyber incidents at credit unions involved third-party vendors.
Why it matters for your CU: If your cybersecurity framework hasn't been reviewed since you started deploying AI tools, it was written for a threat environment that no longer exists. This is a board-level conversation, not just an IT one.
DEEP DIVE
Your members are ready for AI. Your credit union probably isn't.
The PYMNTS and Velera “AI at the FI” report gives credit unions a clear look at where AI adoption stands. The main takeaway: member interest exceeds what most credit unions offer today.
The demand is already there. Fifty-nine percent of consumers and 75% of SMBs say they would use at least one AI assistant feature from their credit union. Interest is even higher among key growth segments. Gen Z consumers are 77% likely to want at least one AI feature. SMBs with more than $1 million in annual revenue are at 75%. Former credit union members show even stronger interest.
The supply side looks different. Only 25% of credit unions offer AI chat support. Only 17% offer AI financial advice. Just 16% offer AI tools for payments or purchases.
What members want first
Members are not asking AI to take over their finances. They want help understanding their money first.
The strongest interests are expense tracking, budgeting help, and credit guidance. These rank ahead of AI-initiated payments or purchases. That matters for credit unions because the best starting point is not autonomous transactions. It is practical financial guidance.
For most credit unions, that is a more realistic entry point than a full AI payments roadmap.
What leading credit unions are doing
The top-performing institutions in the study are not waiting to build everything themselves. They are using external partners to move faster.
More than 80% of the highest-readiness credit unions say third-party partners help them innovate faster. They are deploying conversational AI, onboarding tools, and financial guidance features through purpose-built platforms rather than waiting on lengthy internal timelines.
Even the leaders are still early. Only 20% of top-tier credit unions offer conversational AI for payments. That means there is still room to catch up. But credit unions that move in the next 12 months will be ahead of those that wait for the next budget cycle.
The question for credit union leaders
The report found that credit unions with the highest innovation readiness scores are already outperforming peers on membership growth, assets per member, and new account acquisition.
The question for your team is simple: are you in the group moving early, or are you already falling behind?
Three things to do this week:
Pull your AI capability inventory and compare it against the 25% and 17% benchmarks in the report. Know where you stand.
Ask your digital banking partner for committed ship dates on their AI roadmap, not aspirational ones; the distinction matters when competitors are already in production.
Identify one financial guidance feature: budgeting, credit monitoring, expense tracking, and start there. It's the lowest-friction entry point and the one most likely to build member trust before anything more autonomous.
FROM MULTIMODAL
This week on Main Street AI: A CLO who closed the gap
Lisa Highley, Chief Lending Officer at University of Kentucky FCU
Lisa Highley, Chief Lending Officer at University of Kentucky FCU, sat down with Ankur this week on Main Street AI. She walks through how UKFCU rebuilt their commercial lending operation, launched a new mortgage department, went live with AI in consumer lending and the call center, and navigated their first merger, all at the same time.
If your board is asking what real AI adoption looks like at a credit union, this is the conversation to share.
Want to see what this looks like at your credit union?
Data point this week
16%
of credit unions currently offer AI tools for payments or purchases
Source: PYMNTS Intelligence + Velera, "AI at the FI: Inside Credit Unions' Demand-Execution Gap."
