PALM DESERT, Calif.–Artificial intelligence is important to future growth in credit unions, but the real key lies in human beings successfully navigating the human and cultural complexities of the rapid change AI is bringing, according to one person.
Speaking to the REACH conference here, James Robert Lay, digital anthropologist and CEO of the Digital Growth Institute, in remarks themed “Banking on Change: Achieving Exponential Growth in the Age of AI,” shared with the meeting his premise that confusion within an organization leads directly to employee burnout and customer churn.
According to the California, Nevada and Utah leagues, he argued that while AI offers unprecedented opportunities for personalized service and operational efficiency, its successful implementation hinges on preparing people, not just purchasing software.
Fill in the Blank
“If you could fill in the blank — the future looks like ‘blank’ — in your mind, you’re probably going to have an emotion,” Lay said. “But if we take the emotion out and look at it, the future is exponential. We know this by looking at the past. AI gives us something we didn’t have before. We had it, but it wasn’t that accessible.”
Lay acknowledged the critical pain points credit union leaders face, including regulatory complexities, talent gaps, and fragmented data infrastructure or data silos, and said that without a foundational strategy to address these internal hurdles, attempts at AI adoption often lead to costly, stalled pilot projects, the leagues reported.
The Risk of Falling Behind
Lay argued that the credit union movement risks falling behind competitors with deeper pockets if leaders approach AI as a magic bullet instead of a collaborative, team effort.
“He explained that achieving exponential growth requires confidence, clarity, and competence, emphasizing the necessity of individual transformation before organizational change can succeed,” according to the leagues.
To combat AI anxiety, the leagues said Lay provided attendees with an actionable strategic framework, focusing on internal culture, and he introduced the elements necessary for successful transformation: honesty, empathy, adaptability, responsiveness, and time.
He explained that success in the AI era demands leaders acknowledge the emotional impact of change on their employees, requiring teams to adopt a growth mindset — a continuous willingness to unlearn old habits and embrace new skills, particularly in the face of hyper-automation, the league said.
The Challenge for Humans
“The challenge is, human beings are linear thinkers,” Lay said. “We perceive our context and framing is linear, even as technology is moving exponentially. And if technology is moving exponentially, especially now with AI, and we’re still thinking and perceiving linearly, what does that create?”
Lay also advised leaders to demonstrate responsiveness by committing to a strategic process, namely to pause, process, plan, and proceed — instead of reacting to competitive pressure with panic.
“This deliberate approach is essential for building organizational courage,” Lay told the meeting, according to the leagues. “The competitive payoff for this human-centered transformation is the ability to deploy sophisticated technologies, specifically hyper-personalized member experiences and the next generation of agentic AI.
Examples Shared
He showcased examples where credit unions are leveraging AI across key operational areas, including:
- Loan augmentation, includes loan augmentation, where AI assists loan officers by analyzing complex data
- Flagging missing documentation, and streamlining underwriting to speed up approvals
- 24-7 member service, deploying advanced conversational and virtual assistants that move beyond simple chatbots to proactively offer tailored financial advice and act as all-in-one financial apps
- Risk management, utilizing real-time transaction monitoring and behavioral pattern analysis for more robust and faster fraud detection.
Lay also discussed the growth, encouraging credit unions to ditch vague, long-term roadmaps for focused, iterative cycles of testing and implementation. The ultimate goal is to communicate clarity to staff and members, making sure that AI augments the credit union’s core strength — the human touch — rather than replacing it, the leagues reported.
