Building an AI agent strategy for credit unions used to feel like planning for a distant future. It isn’t anymore. Clutch and TruStage recently convened credit union and fintech leaders to unpack how real-time payments, open banking, and AI are rewriting the rules of financial services – and what credit unions need to do now to stay competitive.
The panel featured Nicky Hinrichsen (CEO & Co-Founder, Clutch), Ron Shevlin (Chief Research Officer, Cornerstone Advisors), Darlene Johnson (Chief Strategy Officer, Suncoast Credit Union), and Eric Sager (COO, Plaid). Here’s what they see coming, and how to prepare for it.
From Apps to AI Agents
For decades, financial services have revolved around forms and applications. Even today’s sleek digital interfaces still ask members to type, click, and upload. But consumer behavior is moving faster than most institutions’ technology roadmaps.
As Ron Shevlin put it, asking “how do we implement AI?” is like asking “what can I use a PC for?” – the honest answer is everything. This isn’t just about making today’s process smoother. It’s about preparing for a future where AI handles the tasks members don’t want to do themselves, faster and with less friction than any human-run process could match.
The Convergence That Changes Everything
Real-time payments, open banking, and AI aren’t developing in isolation – they’re converging quickly. Together, they point toward a future where shopping for financial products requires no clicks, no forms, and not even a screen.
Picture a member asking a voice assistant to find the best bundle of products for their goals. Behind the scenes, AI compares offers across providers, opens accounts, moves money instantly, and returns a result without a single keystroke. The building blocks – instant payments, API-enabled data sharing, conversational AI – already exist. What most credit unions lack is the integration and strategy to participate in that future.
Real-Time Payments: Become a Sender, Not Just a Receiver
Most credit unions are experimenting with FedNow and RTP in receive-only mode. The larger revenue opportunity sits on the send side: instant disbursements, loan funding, and business treasury services.
Institutions that lean into sending can become the primary financial hub for members and local businesses alike. Those that wait risk being reduced to a utility.
Open Banking: A Narrowing Window
Open banking lets members share financial data seamlessly through APIs, creating a real opportunity for credit unions to deepen relationships through transparency and advice. But as Plaid COO Eric Sager warned, the window is narrowing. Large incumbents like JPMorgan Chase are already shaping how open banking evolves in the U.S. Credit unions need to engage now, or risk exclusion from the ecosystems members will soon depend on.
AI: Human and Machine, Not Human vs. Machine
AI isn’t about replacing people – it’s about freeing them to do the work only people can do. Darlene Johnson put it plainly: credit unions are built on relationships, and AI should never replace that “magic sauce.” Instead, it should absorb the repetitive, low-value tasks so staff can focus on the complex, human-driven work that actually builds member loyalty.
Clutch applies this philosophy through tools including Fastlane, which surfaces ready-to-fund loans and reduces manual review; HAL, which engages members post-application with AI-driven follow-ups and document intelligence; and agentic voice AI for collections outreach. Together, they show AI can scale efficiency without sacrificing the human element that makes credit unions distinct.
The Strategic Imperative
The top priorities for credit unions today remain loan growth, deposit growth, and member experience. AI, real-time payments, and open banking aren’t optional upgrades sitting on top of those priorities – they’re becoming prerequisites for competing on them.
The question isn’t whether this shift is coming. It’s whether your credit union will have an AI agent strategy in place before it arrives.
Request a demo to see how Clutch is preparing credit unions for what’s next.
Want the full conversation? Catch the webinar on demand: Will Your Credit Union Be Ready When Siri Shops for Financial Products?