This year’s Innovation Series returns with bigger impact and broader horizons. Since 2018, this annual showcase has spotlighted forward-thinking solutions by giving innovators a stage to share ideas, demonstrate solutions, and spark meaningful change.
The Innovation Series is celebrating 2026 with a diverse slate of finalists whose breakthroughs are reshaping member experience, data and business intelligence, lending, employee engagement, fraud prevention, and digital member engagement — all with the power to help credit unions thrive in a rapidly evolving marketplace.
Read on to learn more about this year’s finalists in AI and member experience: BCI-IT, Glia, Switchthink, Talkdesk
BCI-IT, Inc. :
Describe your innovation.
K2 is a production-grade conversational and agentic AI platform purpose-built for credit unions and banks. Powered by Kasisto’s KAIgentic AI and accelerated through Kinective APIs, K2 enables institutions to operationalize AI across member-facing and internal workflows with governance, security, and accuracy designed for regulated environments.
Unlike generic AI tools, K2 integrates directly with core, digital banking, and servicing systems via existing Kinective connectivity, enabling real-time, grounded responses and workflow execution. Its agentic architecture applies policy controls, role-based access, and compliance guardrails before responses are delivered — reducing hallucination risk and supporting auditability, data residency, and regulatory expectations.
K2 provides a faster path from AI strategy to AI in production, leveraging existing infrastructure to deliver measurable outcomes in weeks rather than 12–18 months. For technology leaders, K2 represents a pragmatic, low-risk way to scale AI responsibly while maintaining architectural integrity and compliance.
What opportunity or challenge does it address?
Many institutions have experimented with AI but struggle to move into production due to governance concerns, unclear ROI, and lack of enterprise readiness. Cores, digital banking platforms, LOS, and servicing systems were not designed for real-time AI interaction, creating long deployment cycles and high integration risk.
K2 provides a proven, production-ready AI foundation that enables institutions to deploy conversational and agentic AI confidently — without long pilot cycles. By leveraging existing Kinective APIs, K2 dramatically reduces integration effort, allowing teams to launch high-impact use cases in weeks instead of 12–18 months.
Powered by Kasisto’s KAIgentic AI, K2 applies policy controls, compliance checks, and role-based access before responses are delivered — supporting auditability and regulatory alignment. K2 automates high-volume member inquiries and workflows, reducing call center load while delivering faster, more accurate member experiences.
K2 addresses the gap between AI ambition and AI execution. It enables credit unions and banks to deploy secure, compliant, enterprise-grade AI that delivers real operational and member-experience outcomes — without compromising governance, security, or architectural integrity.
How does it increase member value?
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- Faster, Always-On Member Service: K2 enables members to get accurate answers and complete common tasks instantly—24/7—across digital channels. Routine inquiries that previously required a call or branch visit are resolved in seconds, improving convenience and satisfaction.
- More Accurate, Context-Aware Responses: Powered by Kasisto’s KAIgentic AI, K2 delivers responses grounded in approved data and real-time system access via Kinective APIs. Members receive answers that reflect their actual accounts, products, and eligibility — not generic responses.
- Consistent Experience Across Channels: Whether a member engages via web, mobile, or assisted channels, K2 provides a consistent conversational experience. Members no longer receive conflicting answers depending on where or how they ask.
- Faster Issue Resolution with Fewer Transfers: K2’s agentic capabilities can guide members through multi-step processes (e.g., account servicing, loan questions) without bouncing them between departments or queues.
- Personalized, Relevant Interactions: By securely accessing member context, K2 can tailor responses and guidance based on individual needs—without exposing sensitive data or violating policy controls.
- Improved Access Without Increased Costs: K2 allows credit unions to scale service availability without scaling headcount. Members benefit from expanded access and responsiveness, while the institution maintains cost discipline.
What differentiates this innovation from competitors?
K2 is differentiated because it closes the gap between AI ambition and AI execution. It delivers governed, compliant, real-time AI that banks and credit unions can deploy quickly and scale confidently—without becoming systems integrators or taking on unnecessary risk.
Glia:
Describe your innovation.
While major financial institutions deploy highly-customized, billion-dollar generative AI platforms, credit unions — the financial backbone of most local communities — face an “AI gap” that threatens their long-term competitiveness and member loyalty.
Glia’s AI is the economic equalizer. It allows credit unions to deploy member service AI sophisticated enough to match or even surpass the capabilities of the big banks, but at a fraction of the cost and in full compliance with regulatory standards.
Glia’s Voice AI automates up to 80% of routine member inquiries, freeing frontline teams to focus on complex interactions. Most importantly, Glia reinforces the trust that defines the credit union-member relationship. Built specifically for banks and credit unions with domain-specific language models (DSLMs), Glia is ready for banking on day one. It can automate over 1,000 credit union-specific tasks with a zero-hallucination guarantee, positioning Glia as the secure, authoritative AI partner for the credit union movement.
What opportunity or challenge does it address?
While megabanks invest billions in proprietary AI, most credit unions are forced to rely on aging technology that puts them at a severe competitive disadvantage. The stakes of operating with subpar technology go beyond market share — it is a matter of mission. When a member waits on hold or cannot get help after hours, the trust that defines the credit union relationship erodes.
By replacing costly BPOs and providing 24/7 service with purpose-built banking AI, Glia doubles frontline capacity, returning significant cost and time savings to the organization.
With Glia’s AI handling routine tasks around the clock, frontline teams are empowered to focus on high-value conversations that cement member loyalty: loan guidance, financial wellness, and life milestones.
How does it increase member value?
With Glia’s AI platform, members experience dramatically shorter wait times, fewer dropped calls, and 24/7 service availability — whether they reach out by phone, online, or through a mobile app, ensuring a credit union can always be there for members, whenever and wherever they need help.
Glia frees staff to spend more time on the conversations members want and need to have with humans: loan guidance, debt questions, budgeting support, and other high-touch needs. The result is a more personalized, supportive service experience.
By eliminating operational strain, the capacity Glia returns to the organization can be reinvested in strategic, high-impact activities like reducing fees, enhancing member offerings, and developing local programs. This enables the credit union to equalize its cost structure while actively strengthening the unique community bond it shares with its members.
What differentiates this innovation from competitors?
Glia is the only end-to-end, channelless AI platform built exclusively for financial institutions. While generic AI tools can be a liability for credit unions — plagued by “hallucinations” and a 95% pilot failure rate — Glia provides a turnkey solution that delivers measurable impact in weeks, not months. With three times more banks and credit unions on our platform than the nearest competitor, our scale and specialization are unmatched.
Ultimately, Glia exists to help credit unions achieve their mission of empowering communities. We do not just offer a tool; we provide the foundation for a future where technology strengthens, rather than replaces, the unique human bond between a credit union and its members.
SwitchThink:
Describe your innovation.
SwitchThink AI Assist is an AI-powered conversational virtual assistant for voice and digital channels, purpose-built for credit unions. Developed in collaboration with boost.ai, it delivers secure, compliant and context-aware member and staff interactions while integrating seamlessly with Corelation’s KeyStone core. SwitchThink provides not only the technology, but also full lifecycle management — configuration, integration, optimization and continuous enhancement — ensuring sustained performance and value.
What opportunity or challenge does it address?
Credit unions face rising member expectations for 24/7 digital service alongside increasing operational strain from high call volumes, staffing limitations, and compliance risk. SwitchThink AI Assist addresses these challenges by automating routine inquiries, authenticating members before agent escalation, and scaling support during peak periods, without requiring additional headcount or in-house AI expertise.
How does it increase member value?
AI Assist delivers faster, always-on access to accurate information across channels, reducing wait times and friction for everyday banking needs. Members benefit from consistent, reliable service — including after hours, during surges or in urgent situations — while frontline staff are freed to focus on higher-value, relationship-driven interactions. The result is greater convenience, trust, and a more modern member experience without sacrificing the human touch.
What differentiates this innovation from competitors?
SwitchThink AI Assist stands apart through its deep KeyStone core expertise, turnkey deployment model and fully managed approach. Unlike generic AI tools, it is customized for credit union operations, continuously trained and governed with robust auditability and compliance controls. SwitchThink’s ongoing stewardship — paired with proven, real-world results — ensures credit unions achieve lasting impact rather than a one-time technology implementation.
Talkdesk:
Describe your innovation.
Talkdesk Financial Services Experience Cloud™ is the all-in-one member experience platform built for credit unions. It unifies member data and communications channels to automate workflows for account servicing, lending, collections, fraud prevention, and more. Delighting members with human-like, multilingual self-service available 24/7. Pre-integrated with core systems and powered by pre-trained AI, Talkdesk Financial Services Experience Cloud™ delivers secure, compliant automation with flexible deployment that enables a high-speed, low-risk path to greater efficiency and accelerated growth.
What opportunity or challenge does it address?
To grow sustainably, credit unions must deliver more value to members while preserving operating margins. Industry leaders will deliver high-touch service at scale using automation and AI, with speed and intention. Talkdesk provides the technical, operational, and strategic foundation to deploy modern member experiences with AI at the pace of member expectations and institutional priorities.
How does it increase member value?
Talkdesk Financial Services Experience Cloud™ enables credit unions to deliver faster, easier, and more personalized service at scale while reducing risk and operating costs. Members receive instant, human-like support through AI self-service across voice and digital channels for everyday needs such as balance checks, login issues, credit questions, and branch information. When human support is required, agents, tellers, and bankers are equipped with real-time context, AI copilots, and automated task execution to resolve issues faster and more accurately.
Talkdesk Financial Services Experience Cloud™ also strengthens fraud protection across the entire service journey with layered, risk-aware security. It supports multi-factor authentication, voice biometrics, continuous verification throughout interactions, and AI-driven anomaly detection to identify suspicious behavior in real time. Back-end analytics surface emerging fraud patterns and continuously improve defenses.
By unifying data, channels, and workflows across the front and back office, Talkdesk Financial Services Experience Cloud™ reduces transfers and wait times while increasing self-service containment and fraud resilience. In production today, credit unions using Talkdesk Financial Services Experience Cloud™ are achieving over 60% self-service containment, up to 90% reductions in handle time, major NPS gains, lower abandonment rates, and millions in annual savings.
What differentiates this innovation from competitors?
Talkdesk Financial Services Experience Cloud™ delivers an all-in-one, natively built member experience platform that unifies omnichannel communications with a complete AI portfolio, giving credit unions maximum control to deploy intelligent automation across the full member journey. No-code configuration, administration, and analytics enable both technical and business teams to continuously optimize member experience.
Beyond technology, Talkdesk brings deep financial services expertise to quickly align solutions to each institution’s ecosystem, workflows, and strategic priorities. Flexible deployment allows credit unions to modernize from where they are, whether deploying on top of existing contact centers, using in-house or third-party large language models, or adopting the full Talkdesk platform. Built-in AI guardrails and regulatory compliance ensure safe, responsible innovation at enterprise scale.