It’s Time To Join The Robot Revolution

AI, chat bots, autonomous programs, and more are improving member service and back-office efficiency.

Artificial intelligence is helping credit unions respond to member requests in a way that doesn’t make self and service seem like they don’t belong together. From chatbots to process automation and beyond, cooperatives are deploying technology that can not only learn on the job but also offer a touch of personality.

High-Tech = High-Touch

Start small, get it out there, and add as you go.

That’s just one piece of advice from Christopher Brown, chief operative office at MassMutual FCU. The credit union’s chatbot, eMMA, has been answering members questions for nearly a year. Members love the self-serve convenience. The credit union loves the drop in live phone calls.

MassMutual Federal Credit Union ($355.2M, Springfield, MA), Telcoe Federal Credit Union ($450.8M, Little Rock, AR), Together Credit Union ($2.3B, St. Louis, MO), United Federal Credit Union ($3.9B, St. Joseph, MI), and USALLIANCE Financial Federal Credit Union ($2.2B, Rye, NY) are five credit unions that use high-tech to keep high-touch member service alive. But chatbots aren’t the only things learning; these credit unions are figuring out how to infuse technology with a touch of personality, too.

What best practices and lessons learned from chatbot avatars do these cooperatives have to offer? Read it all in “High-Tech Meets High-Touch: How Avatars Help 5 Credit Unions Advance Member Service.”

Robots To The Rescue

Robots are helping Patelco Credit Union ($9.0B, Dublin, CA) achieve new levels of efficiency in its busy mortgage processing department.

That’s the term Vince Salinas and his team use to describe the autonomous programs that are now handling tasks like collecting data, filling out forms, and assigning third-party services such as appraisals.

“We describe them as robots within the system,” says the vice president of home loans for the East Bay credit union.

Patelco launched mortgage-processing bots in July and is now saving approximately 128 hours of labor every month. Subject-matter experts serve as bot champions, and the combination of robots and people serve to increase loan production without increasing, or decreasing, staff.

Want to learn more about how Patelco is revving up robotic processes to improve its mortgage document flow without replacing people? Read “Robots To The Rescuetoday.

Artificial Intelligence? Real Service.

A 30-something contact center staffer hired at Royal Credit Union ($4.0B, Eau Claire, WI) in the thick of the pandemic has been growing in her job as she quickly becomes a key part of the Wisconsin credit union’s prowess at responding to member needs quickly and efficiently.

She’s a University of Minnesota graduate with two kids, a husband, a cat, a golden doodle, and a yen for online shopping for designer bags.

Her name is Val, but she’s not real.

Val is Royal’s chatbot avatar that’s been handling more than 7,000 queries a month through the cooperative’s website as well as through two entities of the age of artificial intelligence: Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant.

Learn more about how Val improves the member experience at the Wisconsin cooperative in “Artificial Intelligence Provides Real Service At Royal Credit Union.”

 This article originally appeared on CreditUnions.com on March 21, 2022.

October 31, 2022

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