What started out as a simple interview for a written article ended up becoming a great TechSolutions4CUs episode.

Podcast host John San Filippo recently sat down (virtually, of course!) with the ever-insightful Lee Wetherington, Senior Director of Corporate Strategy at Jack Henry. They were chatting about Jack Henry's brand new "2025 Strategy Benchmark" research, which, as you might guess, polls bank and credit union CEOs on their big priorities. Lee kicked things off by saying the top-line takeaway for everyone rolling into 2025 is a fierce focus on boosting operational efficiency. Apparently, 2024 was a bit rough with downward pressure on net income due to rising costs (think staff, talent, and loan loss provisions), so everyone's looking to tighten things up.

Naturally, this conversation quickly veered into how tech like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and even newer "agentic models" (more on that later!) can help. But Lee, being a pragmatist, pointed out a major "blind spot": Many institutions might not have the data infrastructure ready to actually leverage these cool tools for efficiency gains. He also touched on other big priorities: Banks are all about growing deposits, while credit unions are doubling down on growing loans and, no surprise here, attracting younger members. Lee made a strong case that all paths to growthlead through Gen Z.

Here are some of the top takeaways from their discussion:

• Efficiency is King, But Data is the Kingdom: The top priority across the board is improving operational efficiency. AI and automation are seen as key enablers, but their effectiveness hinges on having clean, accessible, and comprehensive data – a major hurdle many still face.
• All Roads Lead to Gen Z: Whether it's growing deposits or acquiring new members, understanding and attracting Gen Z is paramount. This means seamless mobile account opening (under three minutes!), divorcing account opening from immediate funding, and recognizing Gen Z's unique expectations.
• The "War" for Data: Ask First, Ask Best: With data  so fragmented, Lee emphasized that there's a "war," not just a race, for financial institutions to become the primary data aggregator for their accountholders. This means proactively asking members for permission to consolidate their financial data (with clear benefits like better fraud detection and personalized advice) before competitors do.
• Branches Aren't Dead, They're Evolving: Despite the digital focus, physical branches still matter, even to Gen Z. Younger generations want the option of in-person help for complex issues or advice, making it a "both/and" scenario rather than an "either/or" with digital channels.
• Agentic AI and the Mind-Blowing Future: Lee got pretty jazzed about "agentic AI" – essentially AI models that can not only analyze but also act on information and coordinate with other models. He also touched on the rapidly expanding "context windows" of AI, predicting that within three years, institutions will be able to feed all their data into a model, leading to "speech-to-action" or "text-to-action" capabilities where you can simply tell the AI what you need, and it gets done.

Lee wrapped up by stressing that amidst all the regulatory upheaval and economic uncertainty, financial institutions need to stick to first principles. That means truly knowing your member, which requires data. He urged credit unions to leverage the trust they've built to "ask first and best" for permission to aggregate member data, because you can't be a "fast follower" in the AI game if you don't have the data fuel.