Vendors usually show up with a roadmap already built. We showed up with a whiteboard.
That’s how we’ve always worked with our customers. Before we build anything, we sit in the room with the leaders and the practitioners doing the work – learning what’s slowing them down, where the real blockers are, what a bad day actually looks like – and we build with those pains in mind. It’s how Clutch has operated since the beginning, hand in hand with credit unions.
This month, we took that same process and applied it to AI. We cleared a week, packed our bags, and set up shop on-site with Suncoast Credit Union in Tampa. Not for a kickoff meeting or a training session, but to run our first AI Lab: a structured, five-day working session focused entirely on where AI could move the needle in their business. Think Shark Tank, but for AI ideas, where the “yeses” got built on the spot.
Ideas Grounded in Real Problems
The week started wide open. From each department, Suncoast’s teams pitched us on where AI could move the needle in their business: lending, operations, collections, finance, front line staff. We heard incredibly thoughtful suggestions across two days, each one grounded in a real number, a real workflow, a real member pain, and a real frustration someone deals with daily. These ideas came from the people working closest to Suncoast’s members, rethinking how AI could change both the member experience and the work happening behind it.
They had real outcomes as inspiration – Clutch’s AI Collections Agent, Emma, is already making more than 17,000 calls per day to Suncoast accounts, managing collections so that Suncoast’s team can focus on the members and the problems that need a human touch. They pitched us on ideas where AI could make that same kind of impact next, pushing us on capabilities we hadn’t yet built – like an agent who can reach out to people who drop out of the application flow, spots signs of hardship before an account ever becomes delinquent, or helps a new member set up direct deposit and mobile banking.
With each idea, they were helping us shape where Clutch’s agentic banking platform goes next.
From Pitch to Prototype, In the Same Week
After the pitches, we spent the second half of the week building. With our engineering and product team on-site, we piloted working prototypes against Suncoast’s real workflows and real data, building in hours what would typically take months to even scope. Suncoast’s team sat next to us the whole time. By the end of the week, we had working prototypes and a clear path to production.
The ideas that made it this far all had the same thing in common: a clear problem, that could be solved using autonomous AI agents rather than valuable human hours. When Suncoast could point to exactly which members, which queue, which workflow, we could build against it immediately.
Building AI solutions Alongside Our Customers
We already have Emma in production at credit unions solving real member problems around engagement and collections, and HAL doing the same for lending – both with results that speak for themselves. Though we’ve always built Clutch products using direct customer feedback, what made this week different is that we were looking at each customer problem through the lens of AI.
Now, we want to make sure other credit unions can get access to these same AI solutions.
Suncoast set out to become one of the most AI-forward credit unions in the country. We don’t think that happens through a single vendor relationship or a single product launch. It happens through weeks like this one – Suncoast bringing the ideas, the pains, and the need for a solution, Clutch bringing the engineers and the platform, and both teams leaving with something real already built.
We’ll be back in Tampa soon to keep building. In the meantime, we’re taking the same approach to every credit union willing to put in the work with us. We’re headed to one AI Lab a week through the end of the year.
Send a note to moc.hctulchtiw@ia to get on the schedule.