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Big data vs. AI.

Is this a war inside the walls of credit unions or can the two flourish in harmony?

On the show are Anne Legg, founder and CEO of Thrive 3.0, where the mantra is leveraging data to better members’ lives, and Saroop Bharwani, co-founder and CEO of Senso, where he has been bringing AI to credit unions for several years.

What you’ll hear in this episode is that indeed big data and AI can - should - co-exist for optimal results in credit unions.

Along the way you will hear about successful AI implementations at a number of credit unions, from One Nevada to Suffolk Credit Union.  

You’ll also hear how credit unions as small as $100 million in assets are successfully implementing AI and also big data strategies.

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You have a brand.

Know it or not, like it or not, you do.

And on the show today is Laura Beauparlant, a Canada based keynote speaker and consultant who helps clients know and polish their personal brand.

What’s your brand on social media? In meetings? At conferences?  Others sense your brand and that means it’s important for you to buff your brand until it shows you off in your best light.

In the show Laura talks about the how to of shaping your personal brand. And if you need reasons to do it, she also elaborates on why personal brand matters in your daily business life.

In the show we discuss Laura’s book, Brand Chemistry.  There’s a link in the show notes.

Incidentally, I met Laura at CU 2.0/Room (39a) Launch event  in Ashland Oregon.  

This is a different kind of show. But it just might prompt you to change your personal brand!

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About 45 credit unions are customers of JUDI.AI and they are drawn by the company’s simple promise: Eliminate friction in business lending.

There is money to be made serving small businesses and JUDI.AI has the formula, says Gord Baizley, the company’s CEO.

A key is automating a lot of the process and that’s JUDI.AI’s business.  

Here’s why the company exists: “Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, but 40-50% of small businesses rank access to capital as their top challenge. At JUDI, we’re transforming small business dreams into vibrant communities by increasing access to capital.”

That’s a big promise but, says Baizley, the company has had very little churn among credit unions who sign up.  That’s because they believe they are getting value and also that in fact they are finding ways to serve their communities’ small businesses.

Just about every credit union, certainly all bigger than $500 million in assets, dreams about making small business lending a bigger slice of their portfolio.

Baizley insists that dream can be reality.  On the show he tells how.

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“Prepare: AI is the new CU crisis super villain.”  That’s the title of a recent CUInsight story authored by Casey Boggs, founder of Reputation US, an d of course we had to get him on this podcast.

Understand, I am a strong supporter of AI in general and AI in particular inside credit unions.  This is a life and death matter.

Yet there is a possible downside to AI and we already know that the main AI tools have played substantial roles in teen suicides, in creating false “facts,” and in many other ways leading humans astray.

While I may disagree with many of Boggs' conclusions, his core advice - proceed with AI cautiously and thoughtfully - is on the money.

Only fools rush in.

Read Boggs’ CU Insight piece, listen to the podcast, read a recent CUInsight story by me where I explore CU use of AI with CU2.0 founder Kirk Drake, and keep on learning and experimenting and using AI. 

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Exactly what is Room (39)a?

There’s one at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center but today we are talking about the Room (39)a at CFCU, Community Financial Credit Union in Michigan, where past CU 2.0 Podcast guest Tansley Stearns serves as CEO and she has launched this Room (39)a as a CUSO that will offer subscriptions to its research.

As for what it does, CFCU’s Room (39)a describes itself this way: “a place where possibility and the unexpected collide. We blend the precision of research with human imagination to unlock new ideas, products, strategies and opportunities for companies and brands.”

Could this be exactly what credit unions need today as they battle with mammoth money center banks and fintechs with massive war chests.

On the show is Blake Woods, a CFCU SVP who also serves as chief ideator at Room (39)a.

The episode explores the Room (39)a approach to research, how it decides what topics to pursue, and why it believes the credit union industry very much needs the kinds of research it is doing.

Don’t think this is a propeller head show.  Quite the contrary. We dive deeply into gambling, for instance, and also into questions about credit union sports sponsorship deals.

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Three years ago Tropical Financial Credit Union, a $1 billion south Florida institution, signed on as a sponsor of the Florida Panthers and magic happened because the Panthers - in the National Hockey League - won the Stanley Cup in 2024 and won again in 2025. That’s the equivalent of winning the World Series in baseball or the Super Bowl in football and, definitely, the Panthers now are the darlings of south Florida because everybody loves a winner.

On the show is Marylen Yiris, vice president of marketing at Tropical Financial and she tells how the credit union partnered with the Panthers and the benefits she believes the credit union has gotten from the arrangement. Note: new member activations are one metric she uses in assessing the value of the relationship.

Understand: Tropical Financial is enthusiastic about sports sponsorship. It now has  inked a sponsorship with Fort Lauderdale United FC, a women's soccer team that competes in a new league.

And Yiris indicates that Tropical Financial is open to exploring still more sponsorship deals with sports teams.

Earlier this year the CU 2.0 Podcast hosted Christine Blake, CEO of Cardinal Credit Union in Ohio which has a sponsorship deal with the Cleveland Browns in the NFL.

It’s hard to get noticed in today’s cluttered mediascape - and the credit unions that have sponsorships say they work in elevating brand awareness.

Listen up.

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Back on the show today after a hiatus is Kirk Kordeleski, onetime CEO of Bethpage Federal Credit Union and now a partner in Parc Street Partners where he focuses on credit union executive retirement plans.

Kordeleski has been on the show many times but he always is welcomed back because he has deep insight into what it’s like to be a credit union CEO and also into how to compensate those CEOs appropriately.  Here’s a link to the Kordeleski Archives.

What brings Kordeleski back to the show is that much is changing in the retirement planning for credit union CEOs and senior staff.  Changing macro economic conditions have triggered significant changes in the retirement plans.  Breathe easily.  There remain good, stable plans.  Kordeleski tells about them here.

Know that appropriate compensation for senior executives is a must at credit unions that want to succeed.  And a good retirement plan is a critical part of that package.

‘

Kordeleski brings us up to date.

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Tansley Stearns had been working in  a credit union for maybe five years when a big idea grabbed her: she decided she wanted to be a CEO of a credit union.

For a young woman who had grown up on a farm in southern Michigan that was a very big idea.

Three years ago she made it happen, when she was named CEO at Community Financial Credit Union, a Plymouth MI headquartered institution.

How is she liking the job? Is sitting in the CEO seat what it’s cracked up to be?

‘In this show Stearns faces questions from two hosts, Robert McGarvey and also CU 2.0 CEO Kirk Drake.

You’ll hear what she thinks credit unions will look like a quarter century from now, what she believes the impacts of AI will be on the industry, and also what credit unions need to do more of to stay competitive.

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Whew, credit unions dodged the threat of loss of their tax exemption - but don’t think all is smooth sailing for credit unions in today’s turbulent Washington DC.  Lots is happening that may impact credit unions, large and small.

On the show is repeat guest Elizabeth Eurgubian, a lobbyist - with the Defence Credit Union Council among her clients - who also has served as NCUA Director of the Office of External Affairs and Communications and Policy Advisor to Chairman Harper.  Before that  she was deputy chief advocacy officer at CUNA and before that she was a vice president and a lobbyist for ICBA.

Her specialty is regulatory matters and that means NCUA, but also CFPB and other agencies.

In this episode she talks about what’s up with NCUA’s one person board, the shrinking of CFPB, the GENIUS Act and the opportunity presented by stablecoins, and NCUA’s Central Liquidity Enhancements Act and why this matters to smaller credit unions in particular, and also NCUA’s recurring paperwork review and how it’s an opportunity for credit unions to seek changes at the agency.

See: there’s a lot happening inside the Beltway.

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You might know it as the dismal science, but a conversation with Bill Handel, Chief Economist of Raddon, a Fiserv company, is anything but dismal.  It in fact is an enlightening romp through the complexities and confusions of today’s global economy.

In the show Handel makes a prediction about the future of interest rates - and, no, don’t expect an imminent return of 4% 30 year fixed rate mortgages.  

He also talks about how young adults are adjusting their financial habits to navigate today’s economy.

Importantly, too, Handel explains what is going on in the White House’s attempt to reset the global economy - and he indicates that the present economy is something of an artifact of the aftermath of World War II so there are reasons to think a reset is in order.

But how is a credit union CEO supposed to navigate in a global economy that is filled with uncertainties? Handel’s advice is to create plans that feature built in flexibility - because, really, you don’t know where interest rates will be a year from now.  Staying flexible will be key to succeeding, he says.

Handel also says that the operating margins of credit unions have to improve.  Period.  He tells why in the show.

Dismal science? Not in this show.  Here, economics becomes an exciting tool for navigating what’s coming at us.

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Find out more about CU2.0 and the digital transformation of credit unions here. It's a journey every credit union needs to take. Pronto