Think of it as Shark Tank with a credit union spin, and it’s just been renewed for another season.
The 2025 Innovation Series from CreditUnions.com and Callahan & Associates is underway. Every year since 2018, this series has offered a select group of suppliers 10 minutes each to impress an audience of credit union decision-makers. It’s simple: Each vendor pitches its offerings and attendees vote on their favorites.
The Innovation Series was a hit from the get-go and continues to grow in popularity. This year’s focus areas include financial wellness, member experience, lending, digital, analytics, and member engagement.
Read on for more from this year’s member experience finalists Agent IQ, Eltropy, TTEC Digital, and Tyfone. Plus, make sure to join us for the Innovations In Member Experience webinar. Register today!
Agent IQ
Describe your innovation.
The Lynq relationship banking platform.
What opportunity or challenge does it address?
Improve operational efficiency, strengthen member relationships, and attract new deposits.
How does it increase member value?
Allows all the services and support that can be found in a branch to be conveniently delivered whenever and wherever the member is. AI self-service also allows easy-to-answer questions and support are available 24/7.
What differentiates this innovation from competitors?
Providing self-service options and digital communication is not new, but providing the ability for credit unions to strengthen their member relationships through digital channels by allowing an authenticated persistent experience that can be personal and proactive is unique. This moves the engagement from purely transactional to relationship banking that increases loyalty and drives growth.
Eltropy
Describe your innovation.
Eltropy has created the industry’s first AI-powered unified communications platform specifically designed for credit unions. The platform seamlessly integrates multiple channels (text, video banking, voice, chat) with AI capabilities to enhance rather than replace the human touch that makes credit unions special. The platform includes credit union-specific features like compliant texting, secure video banking, AI-powered quality assurance, and integration with core credit union systems.
What opportunity or challenge does it address?
Credit unions need to serve members through their preferred communication channels while maintaining personal relationships and compliance. Members need access to support and services beyond traditional hours, but this must be achieved without compromising the credit union’s human touch. Traditional communication solutions lack credit union-specific features needed for modern member service.
How does it increase member value?
The platform allows credit unions to provide 24/7 AI-assisted support, reduce payment delays, improve loan processing times, and offer remote video banking for convenient access to financial services. Los Angeles Federal Credit Union ($1.3B, Glendale, CA) demonstrates these benefits: they reduced payment delays from 11 days to three days or less ahead of due dates, processed over 5,500 payments in five months, and increased digital payment adoption by 3.5x, while achieving a 25-30% reduction in agent workload.
What differentiates this innovation from competitors?
Unlike typical generic communication solutions, Eltropy’s platform is specifically designed for credit unions with features like compliant texting, secure video banking, and integration with core credit union systems. Our AI capabilities enhance rather than replace human interactions, using sentiment analysis and quality assurance to deliver faster, more accurate member service while maintaining the credit union’s personal touch.
TTEC Digital
Describe your innovation.
TEC Digital’s SmartApps Cloud platform enables credit unions to deliver exceptional member experience with quality, flexibility, security, and ease. Pre-built by TTEC Digital exclusively for use on the best-of-breed contact center platform, Genesys Cloud, the solution has a unique and highly configurable design to help credit unions optimize the value of their financial services software and contact center technology solutions.
What opportunity or challenge does it address?
SmartApps Cloud helps credit unions improve employee engagement and agent productivity, detect and prevent fraud, and offer enhanced self-service options for their members 24/7.
How does it increase member value?
SmartApps Cloud helps credit unions improve employee engagement and agent productivity, detect and prevent fraud, and offer enhanced self-service options for their members 24/7.
TTEC Digital’s SmartApps Cloud tool helps identify and authenticate members more quickly, reducing key performance metrics including speed to answer, agent handle time (AHT), and agent effort score, while also increasing first-call resolution rates. SmartApps Cloud features intelligent self-service options for both bank-by-phone and digital interactions, using Smart Bot, our conversational AI solution embedded within SmartApps Cloud. These offerings allow credit unions to provide members with 24/7 service access, reducing call volume to the contact center and enabling higher containment rates. TTEC Digital clients who implemented the bank by phone teller feature of SmartApps Cloud achieved 95% containment rates – meaning nearly all incoming calls would be answered and fulfilled there within the self-service system, no longer requiring the time and attention of a live agent.
What differentiates this innovation from competitors?
SmartApps Cloud provides a consolidated solution integrated best-in-breed solutions for authentication and fraud prevention all built on the top-of-market contact center solution, Genesys Cloud.
Tyfone
Describe your innovation.
Tyfone’s nFinia® Digital Banking Solution features Penni AI, an intelligent financial concierge that allows users to navigate effortlessly to any feature, function, or page using natural language.
Unlike traditional click-based systems, Penni AI leverages advanced generative AI powered by large language models (LLMs) and vector databases to interpret user intent with unparalleled accuracy. This enables members to interact with their digital banking experience intuitively, providing precise responses and seamless engagement.
What opportunity or challenge does it address?
Penni AI is more than a search bar — it’s a concierge, redefining how members interact with digital banking. Every feature, screen, or transaction is accessible through a single command, eliminating the complexity of navigating through multiple menus.
This innovation delivers efficient, intuitive digital experiences that meet the expectations of today’s tech-savvy members, helping credit unions operate more efficiently and remain competitive against digital-first institutions and fintechs.
How does it increase member value?
Chatbots often fall short because users don’t visit digital banking platforms for lengthy conversations. Instead, Penni AI is efficient and precise — one question, one answer or action.
For example, typing “send” brings up options like “send money.” Members can start queries like “how do I…” and instantly receive relevant suggestions. As more context is added — “How do I deposit a che-”—the system dynamically suggests RDC. Penni AI can complete actions.
If a member types “send John 20 bucks”, Penni AI will:
- Recognize “20 bucks” as $20.
- Automatically populate the member’s default source account.
- Identify “John” from the recipient list and autofill the destination account.
- Input $20 in the amount field.
All the member needs to do is approve the action.
With the unpredicted acceleration of AI capabilities driven by Huang’s Law, Penni AI uses vector embeddings rather than rigid word lookups. For example, if a user asks, “How do I change my address?”, the system instantly understands the intent and deep-links them to the address page, even if you mistype it as “hw do I chnge my adress?”
Penni AI enhances financial literacy and product discovery, pulling accurate information from trusted sources like the CFPB or the credit union’s internal knowledge base. For personal finance management, Penni AI provides real-time insights using pre-cleansed transaction data. A query like “how much did I spend at Starbucks last month?” triggers AI-powered analysis, instantly displaying the total spend with merchant logos tagged and ready—no manual categorization needed.
Clients using nFinia have seen:
- 50% reduction in support requests related to finding functionalities.
- 30% reduction in call center calls.
- 64% reduction in support requests related to digital enrollment.
What differentiates this innovation from competitors?
Penni AI is built in-house, natively integrated into nFinia, making it data-rich, privacy-promoting, and secure by design. Its deep integration allows Penni AI to access and process member data securely while ensuring that sensitive information is never exposed to third-party systems.
While other AI assistants like Bank of America’s Erica redirect users to static content or FAQs, Penni AI offers real-time, dynamic guidance and workflow automation. Penni AI operates strictly within the digital banking ecosystem, ensuring accuracy and reliability in every interaction and preventing hallucinations.
By focusing on efficiency, precision, security, and member-centric design, Penni AI turns complex tasks into intuitive, one-step actions, delivering a superior, future-proof member experience.
