
← Main Street AI3 sep · 35 min
Why the Smallest Credit Unions Are the Best at AI
Ankur Patel interviews Mike Lawson, Founder and Host of CUbroadcast.<br /><br />📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcast<br /><br />Mike has interviewed more than 8,000 credit union leaders as host of CUbroadcast, giving him a view across the entire industry rather than one seat inside one institution. His sharpest take: the smallest credit unions are often the best AI adopters because their teams wear so many hats they have to automate, while SoFi onboards more new customers in a year than the whole industry combined.<br /><br />Guest: Mike Lawson, Founder and Host, CUbroadcast<br />Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal<br /><br />0:00 Introduction: Meet Mike<br />0:39 What's changed, what's stayed the same<br />2:26 Fintech and big bank pressure<br />4:35 The collaborative advantage<br />8:39 Where credit unions are in the AI journey<br />10:17 Budgeting for AI<br />11:55 Use cases bubbling up<br />14:02 Why small credit unions excel at AI<br />16:55 AI in the call center<br />19:20 Fighting AI-powered fraud<br />23:10 Lessons from the global movement<br />24:07 The membership age problem<br />28:09 Consolidation and mergers<br />30:50 Fintech partnerships and vendor risk<br />33:06 Two imperatives for the next five years<br />34:40 Closing