WASHINGTON–It’s been three months since one of the most extensive white papers on artificial intelligence (AI) and credit unions has been released, and those involved in helping put the 70-page-plus paper are sharing the feedback they’ve been hearing, as well as their advice.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has generated a World Wide Web’s worth of interest, excitement and fear, and that includes in credit unions. For that reason, Mitchell Stankovic released in November of 2023 its white paper on AI, as CUToday.info reported in detail here.
How credit unions have responded to that white paper was discussed by a panel at the Underground meeting here. Panelists included George Estrada, principal strategic advisor, AWS; Kevin Martin, EVP with SchoolsFirst FCU; Chad Ritchie, CIO with Ventura County CU; and Paul James, a director with Kinecta FCU.
Estrada served as panelist for the panel.
Here is some of what was discussed:
Estrada: What is AI going to do to our core values? What have you been hearing through the grapevine since release of the white paper?
Martin: In this process, don’t start with the technology; start with your members first, the challenges they are facing, which journeys are difficult? Can these tools help you with the no happy path? That’s how we have been approaching it.
We have a strategy at SchoolsFirst called ‘test and learn.’ If you are like us you want everything to be perfect before you release it. We have spent the last four years creating a ‘discovery portfolio.’ You can create something, and it’s OK to fail and everybody understands that. That’s what we’re doing right now with AI.
Six or seven weeks ago we launched an internal service assistant. Some of our members told us in their complaints sometimes they can’t get answers fast enough or get inconsistent answers.
Six weeks in I got my first report on the data, and our members were asked was it helpful or not helpful, and 81% said helpful, which is good, but 19% said not helpful. But it’s just six weeks old. Some people in our organization want to launch it to everyone right now. But that’s not how it’s going to work.
Estrada: What have you heard through the grapevine since release of paper on AI?
Ritchie: Ritchie shared an anecdote about a passenger with Air Canada who had asked a chatbot about the airline’s bereavement fare policy. The chatbot responded by creating one on the spot, even though it was not Air Canada’s policy. When the passenger complained, Air Canada basically said the passenger should not have believed the chatbot. The perplexed passenger responded by asking who he is supposed to trust.
In the end the issue was settled in court after the passenger filed suit. The airline has since eliminated the chatbot.
“The CIO there said it was an experiment and we'll try it again in the future,” said Ritchie. “But this is what's really important. We're in a rush to try and use this technology without fully understanding what it can do, and this this shouldn't just be a technology thing and it shouldn't just live in the realm of your digital folks.
Hurting the Brand
“This is going to impact brand reputation, it's going to impact your members’ experiences, it's going to have a dramatic impact across the board and nobody should be able to say, ‘Oh that's a technology thing. Let them deal with it’,” said Ritchie. “Everybody at the table should understand what this technology can do, because it's going to affect…everybody. We put that white paper together and the idea was, ‘Let's not describe what technologies you need. Let's describe the kinds of things that you're going to want to think about and how to ask the right questions of your folks when they start to come in and say, ‘Hey, we want to do this. Just make sure that the conversation is something that's happening in a much broader space than just your digital folks.”
Estrada: Where do you sit now four months out from the report?
James: It’s not just about members, it's also about employees because they're going to be affected, too…I assure you (employees) all will (be affected by AI) very soon.
I’m reminded about (Donald) Rumsfeld saying, ‘There's what we know, what we don't know and then there's what we don't know we don't know, which has me concerned.’
This white paper is a great resource. I encourage you all to download it. It's available on the Mitchell Stankovic website.
I can tell you about governance at my little institution. We partner with our CEO and his great team talking about things like demand for services, about ransomware and I think this AI is just a new version of the conversation that needs to happen at the board table with the executive team.
We have spent time talking about these other things and we're about to spend time talking about AI this year.