By now, you’ve heard the hype. You’ve probably even experimented with ChatGPT or explored how AI can automate some back-office workflows. But let me be blunt: if your credit union isn’t using AI to reassign your people to higher-value work, you’re already behind. And not just a little. You’re doing $15-an-hour work in a $500-an-hour economy.
A recent quote from Mat Ishbia, CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage, sums it up perfectly: “AI won’t replace you. But someone using AI will.” He’s not wrong. The AI revolution isn’t about robots replacing humans. It’s about humans leveraging AI to increase their strategic value — especially in revenue generation and cost control.
Let’s shift the AI conversation from “Will this replace jobs?” to “How do we use this to produce more value per person, per hour?”
The Real ROI of AI
The real promise of AI isn’t just automation — it’s amplification. When used well, AI doesn’t cut heads. It lifts heads. It gets your frontline, middle managers, and back-office teams out of repetitive work and into value-creating action. Here’s where credit unions should focus:
Underwriting That Thinks Ahead
Old underwriting: Manually assess income, assets, and debts. Hours of back and forth.
AI underwriting: Near-instant analysis of risk using income trends, credit behavior, and even alternative data (think utility payments and rent history). Quicker decisions = faster closings = happier members.
Revenue Impact: Get loans to the finish line before the bank across the street picks up the phone.
Cost Impact: Underwriting time drops. Risk accuracy rises.
Fraud Detection That Never Sleeps
AI doesn’t get tired, distracted, or outsmarted easily. It can scan millions of transactions in real time, flagging the weird, the risky, and the suspicious — before a human ever gets to the alert.
Revenue Impact: Every fraud dollar prevented is a dollar preserved.
Cost Impact: Less time chasing false positives, more confidence in internal controls.
Compliance That Actually Keeps Up
Your compliance staff can’t read every reg, guidance letter, or enforcement action. AI can. Today’s large language models digest thousands of pages of regulatory text and summarize it by tomorrow morning’s team huddle.
Revenue Impact: Speed to product rollout without legal drag.
Cost Impact: Reduce the need for costly legal reviews and duplicate policy-writing.
Member Experience That Learns
From smarter chatbots to personalized product offers, AI can tailor your member interactions better than a one-size-fits-none approach. One credit union using predictive analytics saw a 40% boost in cross-sell success — not from working harder, but smarter.
Revenue Impact: Better offers. Better timing. Better conversion.
Cost Impact: Fewer manual outreach efforts. Lower marketing waste.
Executive Insight Without the Spreadsheets
Imagine a dashboard that not only tracks your KPIs but interprets them — alerting you to emerging risk, opportunity, or underperformance in real time. AI can synthesize performance data and recommend decisions based on historical outcomes and real-time benchmarks.
Revenue Impact: Faster pivots. More profitable campaigns.
Cost Impact: Less staff time cleaning, merging, and analyzing reports.
One 10X Credit Union’s Approach
One 10X credit union put AI into practice not with a moonshot but a mission: “More brainpower where it matters.” They introduced a tool to help loan officers instantly draft pre-approvals and summarize member needs based on CRM and transaction data. They didn’t replace any staff — they freed them.
Loan volume rose 15%. Staff engagement rose with it. And the kicker? Not a single new hire was required to meet the increased demand.
Getting Started: Three No-Regret Moves
If you’re ready to move beyond fear and start owning your AI strategy, start here:
- Assign a “Productivity Team” to find AI use cases that eliminate low-value tasks and increase throughput across operations, lending, and service.
- Invest in Training that reframes AI as a co-pilot, not a replacement. Teach every team how to use AI tools for drafting, summarizing, analyzing, and innovating.
- Pilot One Systemic AI Tool — not a one-off chatbot — but a tool that can be woven into workflows, like document analysis, risk scoring, or intelligent member outreach.
Final Thought: No More $15 Thinking
This isn’t about cutting jobs. It’s about lifting people into the work they were hired to do. Strategy. Insight. Decision-making. Empathy. Growth.
AI is your assistant, your analyst, your watchdog, your researcher. Let it handle the $15 work so your people can drive the $500 results.
If you wait too long, you won’t be replaced by AI. You’ll be replaced by someone who figured out how to make AI a competitive advantage.
Let’s get to work.
Jeff Rendel, CSP, is President of Rising Above Enterprises. As a leading strategic advisor to America’s credit unions, he helps Boards and Executives grow members, revenue, and relevance.
📩 jeff@jeffrendel.com | 🌐 jeffrendel.com | 🗣️ Keynotes. Strategy. Advisory.