August 6, 2025 • 19 mins
Technology is reshaping every corner of financial services. For credit unions, the challenge isn’t just keeping up, it’s choosing the right tools, partners, and processes to stay ahead without losing sight of the member experience.In this episode, host Drew Megrey sits down with Bill Clancy, Vice President of Consumer Lending at Advia Credit Union, to explore how his team navigates digital transformation while maintaining the high-touch service members expect. From managing 50+ lending technology systems and partners to empowering older members with mobile banking, Bill shares how Advia strikes the balance between innovation and relationships.Join us as we discuss:
- How Advia curates a tech stack to match rising member expectations.
- Why digital adoption looks different across age groups—and what to do about it.
- Where AI decisioning fits into a long-term lending strategy.
- How to bring automation into lending without losing the human touch.
- What a frictionless future for loans could actually look like.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Leaders
in Lending. I'm your host Drew Megory, joined today by
Bill Clancy, the vice president of consumer Lending at Advia
Credit Union, roughly three and a half billion dollar asset
size credit union based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Bill, Welcome to
the podcast and thanks for making the time to join
me today.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yes, certainly, Drew appreciate the invite.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
So Bill, to kick things off. I always love to
start the podcast with the how did you get their?
Type of question, because everyone's path into financial services, of course,
is a little bit different. So can you tell us
one what first drew it into the financial services space?
And then on top of that, what did the journey
look like as you kind of progressed your into your
(00:45):
role today at ABA?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Sure thing, So a little bit of an interesting story.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
I've watched some of the prior Leaders in Lending podcasts
and seems like a lot of folks kind of backed
into our industry or their role, and that's not the
case for me. So growing up, I had parents that
were in sales and marketing, and so I always envisioned
myself going into business. And I was also a very
(01:11):
curious kid that liked to read a lot because I
wanted to know how things fit together. So I would
read the Wall Street Journal, I would read consumer reports.
And you're talking about like being a ten or twelve
year old, right, So I think the business track was
always my path. So I went to college, studied finance
and economics, and upon graduation got into consumer lending. And
(01:35):
twenty five plus years later, it's been a mix of
retail delivery and consumer lending. I've always worked with community
financial institutions, either large credit unions or medium sized community banks,
and I've been with Advia now for the last two
years in this role as vice president of Consumer Lending,
which for US represents indirect direct fintech partnerships and the
(01:59):
whole amit of consumer lending products heylock, credit card, personal loans,
auto loans, etc.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Awesome. Well thanks for that, and yes, you're right that
the majority of our guests wanted to be doctors, lawyers,
and or firefighters police officers, but for some reason they
decided to go the financial services route. Which I've often
heard too that once you start that route, it's very
hard to get out of it. So once you're in
the space you're kind of stuck. But thanks for that. Bill,
(02:27):
let's shift gears and kind of really start our conversation
and for the listeners, our conversation today is really more
or less around technology at the forefront. It's of course
really no secret that technology is fundamentally changing the way
that we lend, the way that we interact with of
course with our members, and really anymore how we structure
(02:47):
our strategies. Right, So, Bill, from your perspective, one, what's
been the biggest technological advancement or shift that's had a
direct impact on your lending strategy today?
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, it's really interesting. So my journey I mentioned, I've
been doing this for twenty five plus years, and as
technology has evolved in all aspects of our lives, but
specifically in financial services, I feel like today we've almost
become these aggregators or curators of technology platforms. So ADVIA,
(03:21):
just on the consumer lending side, we have roughly fifty
different technology systems and partners that we have and that's
just in lending, So you across the entire org, there's
one hundred plus different technology services and platforms. And I
think that's really interesting because if you were to ask
the consumer, you know who they bank with and who
provides their technology. For folks that our clients here, they
(03:43):
think it's advia. They don't realize that there's all these
partners on the back end, like an upstart or Jack
Henry or five Serve. And so I think, first and foremost,
it's understanding that our role has evolved in terms of
being a credit union and being able to curate that
member experience and how can we reduce friction. So I
(04:07):
think to sum it up or to answer your question,
i'd say, you know, it's about being very smart and
intentional in terms of the products, the systems, and the processes.
Because the consumer expectation has changed today and a lot
of that is due to the fang companies Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google,
right like, there is the expectation of twenty four to
(04:30):
seven availability, low friction, what I want, when I want it,
the way I want it delivered, and so expectations are
high and we need to raise our game to that standard.
So for me, for us, it's being thoughtful and intentional
again about the partners that we choose and then also
(04:51):
trying to integrate those so that it's low friction and
a great number experience.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, that's let's kind of build off that, Like you
already outlined, consumer expectations of course have evolved alongside you know,
many different innovations. They don't really know that advia has
a lot of stuff in the background. Members want that
twenty four to seven type of access digital experience. Don't
want to go into a branch as much. They want
to click some buttons and really simplicity across almost every
(05:18):
touch point as it pertains to lending and then of
course on deposit side, so on and so forth. But
how has advia responded one to these trends and like
what types of strategies have you implemented and or found
most effective in kind of meeting those rising expectations.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, it's a mix.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
It's it's realizing that for as much as technology now
integrates all aspects of all our lives, you know, relationships
still matter. I just saw yesterday there's an article about
Wells Fargo is kind of leaning back into a branch
expansion because they realize they need to be present, they
(05:55):
need to build the relationships. And there's certain transaction types
and certain demographs that still want the face to face
and they want to be walked through the process. They
expect that they need that, and so you know, if
you want to call that high tech, high touch brick
and click like, you know, however you want to describe
it like, that's paramount for us in terms of well
(06:19):
slick online digital experience is a must, but you also
need to have the high touch service as a must
as well. So there's so many different ways that can present,
you know, in terms of well staying mindful of geographic
proximity to your members and what's the experience when they
go in person and making sure that it's unique and
(06:41):
memorable and differentiates from the competition, and that also has
to be present on the digital side as well. So again,
expectations are higher than ever and we need to raise
raise our game to meet those expectations.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
On that too. Like you think about there's different persona,
there's different age segmentation. Have you really seen an adoption
whether it be by either of those two examples of
like specific tools that your members are using to have
the more digital type experience. Are you seeing more of
the larger or the older age segmentation kind of shift
(07:19):
more to a digital type of experience, or is there
anything that's really like stood out. That's outline. You know,
success in this type of measurement, no.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Good question, fair question.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
And I think are our data reveals what you would
intuitively think in terms of the younger folks are going
to figure it out on their own and adopt it
more quickly and need less help. Yeah, I think what's
less intuitive is some of the older demographics they want
to use these services, but they need help understanding it
(07:52):
right because they're used to calling their grandchild and having
them you know, walk them through it or you know,
set it up for them when they're visiting their grandkids,
but they can't constantly do that. So you know, we've
seen success with having our financial services specialists in our branches,
(08:13):
you know, walk folks through establishing mobile banking and doing
mobile check deposit for the first time, accessing their credit
report through our Savvy Money partnership, and it's almost this
light bulb moment of hey, I can do it on
my own. They realize that, but they need to be
shown or they want to be shown the first time,
and so that's a key realization for us. And then
(08:35):
it's trying to tailor the message to that user and
make sure they know that that is available to them
and that increases engagement.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
So would you classify that your overall digital engagement has increased,
whether age segmentation is a derivative of the maybe not
adoption of it, or if you're kind of seeing kind
of a flatline and adoption of digital versus non digital.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
No, adoption continues to grow, but there's there's less room
for it to grow in the younger demographics. So we're
seeing bigger pickups in the older demographics, but only because
there was more opportunity there.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
So, thinking about just technology from a holistic view, I
assume everyone listening into this podcast is leveraging technology and
some facet as part of their lending strategy, part of
their personal life. Right, But technology, I don't know next year,
five years, ten years, I don't know what the what
(09:35):
the age gap here is is going to continue to evolve,
Like you think about what the iPhone is today compared
to what it was in six and seven. In your view,
do you have any sense of what the biggest trends
or innovations are on the horizon in the next five
ten years and how it pertains to the lending space.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
That's a deep question, and you know what I wish
I could I could predict that with accuracy. But you know,
we think about that, we talk about that, and I
think the trends and if you look at consumer expectation
and demand for low friction experience and digital and then
(10:15):
you also look at just the prolification of data that's
available on us today. I mean, you could go out
drough and google yourself and you may be surprised how
easy it is to find out so much about you
within a matter of a few seconds. And so from
the lending side, at what point do we or how
(10:36):
long does it take to get to the point where
load applications are essentially a thing of the past because
identity verification, income verification, asset verification, all these things are
going to be automated in instant where it's almost gonna
be like placing a fast food order through an app. Right,
I mean, you need a loan, I'm sure there'll be
(10:58):
some type of platform you go in, you know, scan
your finger or scan your retina or some voice biometric
and it's gonna instantly share your information with a pool
lenders and within seconds you'll have a preapproved loan offer,
whether it's for a credit card auto loan, So I
we're gonna get there. And all these tools separately exist today,
(11:21):
but like who's going to pull them together, and how's
that going to get pulled together, and how are the
lenders going to compete on those platforms? So I can
envision that happening within the next five years where it's
less and less of a one to one relationship, but
it's it's more just consumer goes out, clicks a button,
I want a loan, and instantly they have four or
five six offers and they really don't have to provide
(11:43):
any documents or do any work for that to come
to them.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah, that would be amazing. I don't know about retina
scan timing. That would be an interesting, interesting way of verification,
but I mean you already do it when you go
through an airport, so it's not something off the table.
Thinking about though, of technology that is available today that
is small in nature from an adoption perspective, thinking of chat, GPT,
(12:07):
thinking of gen AI type of solutions, Do you have
any consensus of how these types of AI tools and
technology are going to be integrated not only within lending,
but maybe within your organization, your personal space, so on,
and so forth to make things more efficient on top
of kind of the verification stuff that you outlined in
the you know, the further advancement of the approval process.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Yeah, short answers, No, we don't. But another topic we're
frequently thinking about talking about, you know, for us today,
we're we're more recently getting into AI decisioning for all
the loans that we do. You know, that's something that
Upstart does. It is an expert with and we appreciate
that expertise that we can lean into as we design
(12:49):
our strategies around it. But we're we're getting into that ourselves.
But bigger picture, when you start to talk about AI,
all the use cases aren't defined yet within our space,
and so we're figuring we're still trying to define and
figure out what are those risks, what are those use cases,
how can we gain benefits? What's the ROI in terms
(13:10):
of focusing effort in particular areas. So we've got our
toes in the shallow end in several different areas. Right,
So we're starting to do more with our phone systems
and whether it's voice authentication or having AI agents that
can provide twenty four to seven availability via phone for
(13:30):
phone banking type tasks of checking balances, seeing if checks
have cleared. That's a that's low hanging fruit, right, that's
a pretty easy one. Or how can we use AI
to automate some data entry tasks that relate to indirect
loan funding. So there's there's a lot of small steps
that we're taking, but we're going into this eyes wide
(13:53):
open in terms of well, what's the industry going to
push towards, move towards? And then all are our regulators
going to view all this as well?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
What are they going to let us continue to do
and what are they not going to let us do?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
What I'm curious on your thoughts of the member experience
of leveraging agents, chatbots, so on and so forth. I
know most companies, even outside of the financial services space,
have some realm of that today. I know that I
use them. I often get angry at them and then
want to talk to a person. But you think about
the advancement of that. Do you think that there's still
(14:28):
going to be a disconnect between a live individual looking
to seek answers questions get something out of it, or
do you think that the adoption from the actual individual
with these bots and agents, is going to progress or
any type of risk that you could all land there
that you're thinking of.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Yes, so we all have those examples where we've used it,
we've become frustrated with it, so that the technology is
not there today. It's simply not. So it can handle
a lot of things well, but sometimes you ask a
very basic task and it puts you in this loop
where you get stock and you can't get out of.
So I'd say, you know, it gets back to being
(15:09):
very intentional and thoughtful and not trying to have a
one size fits all solution for your members. So like
using the AI agent for telephone banking, example, present that
up front to folks and say hey, you have this option,
but if you prefer not to use it, press this
button or say this and I'll put you in the queue. Right, Like,
(15:31):
give people options and then they're choosing their path to
success in what they want. And I think that's what
members want. Again, It's about engagement, So engage them and
treat them the way they want to be treated through
these paths that we've already set and approved. So that's
one simple example, but it's how we're trying to think
about the use of AI in terms of gaining efficiencies
(15:53):
and improving the experience for those that want to use it,
but not forcing everybody down that path because the technology
simply is not there yet.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Now I would I would agree with that. I know
there's other companies that don't adopt that same mentality, but
we'll leave those companies out for discussion for another day. Well,
Bill thinks those are all the questions that I had
for you. I think this is a good transition spot.
As you know, I always like to close the podcast
out with three kind of off the wall type of questions.
(16:23):
Rapid fire number one on the same theme of kind
of technology. What's the latest and greatest app or technology
gadget that you cannot live without?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Yeah, we've been talking about it today. You brought it up.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
It's chat GPT, So I can't claim that it's the latest,
but it's so convenient. So I found myself recently like
making dinner and looking up recipes for it. We're currently
planning one of my kids high school graduation open houses,
and so even coming up with some themes or different
things to do there.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
I've used it there.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
And then just last week my wife and I put
in pictures of our house and we ask for it
to give us some ideas of renovations to like a
modern farmhouse look, and it comes back instantly with all
these different designs for landscaping and outdoor reno. So it's fun,
it's useful, and it's becoming ubiquitous. So everybody needs to
(17:16):
get out now.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I couldn't agree more. I leveraged chat GBT now more
than I ever thought I would, almost to the point
where like I don't go to Google search anymore, but
I would agree with you. Question number two, If you
could switch jobs with anyone for a day, who would
it be and why?
Speaker 3 (17:33):
I would say my wife. She is an elementary school teacher,
so we work in very different fields, and I think
that would be very intriguing and very enlightening to me
to walk a day in her shoes, so to speak.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
So yeah, my.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Wife, that is a great answer. I give huge kudo,
says I have young children to elementary school teachers and
all that they do for our kids. Interesting, interesting answer.
And then last question and you can't tell me, Retina
scanning for approval odds on loans, But what is what
is one bold prediction for the future?
Speaker 3 (18:10):
One bold prediction to How about two bold predictions, Drue. First,
I'm going to say our main regulators within community, within banking,
FDIC and NCUA, they are going to consolidate within the
next two years. That's sorry, the next ten years, ten years.
(18:31):
I can foresee that happening, especially in light of what
we've seen recently in current administration directives. Second, for those
that don't know, I'm a big Notre Dame football fan,
and they had a great season this past year. I
really like the new head coach, newer head coach. So
(18:51):
let's say Notre Dame is going to win the national
championship in football within the next ten years as well,
and we'll aft which of my predictions comes true.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
First, I like how you throughout the next ten years,
not this this coming year, giving yourself some some wiggle
room there. Yeah, we'll have to come back in the
next decade and see if if that happens. It's of
course been been quite some time, but Bill, this has
been such an insightful conversation. Uh again, thanks so much
for you know, sharing your experiences and your perspective. As always,
(19:22):
to our listeners, thank you for tuning in. If you
enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe and of course
share with a colleague or friend in the industry. Until
next time, keep innovating, stay curious, and thanks again for
being part of our conversation.
Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Leaders
in Lending. I'm your host Drew Megory, joined today by
Bill Clancy, the vice president of consumer Lending at Advia
Credit Union, roughly three and a half billion dollar asset
size credit union based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Bill, Welcome to
the podcast and thanks for making the time to join
me today.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yes, certainly, Drew appreciate the invite.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
So Bill, to kick things off. I always love to
start the podcast with the how did you get their?
Type of question, because everyone's path into financial services, of course,
is a little bit different. So can you tell us
one what first drew it into the financial services space?
And then on top of that, what did the journey
look like as you kind of progressed your into your
(00:45):
role today at ABA?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Sure thing, So a little bit of an interesting story.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
I've watched some of the prior Leaders in Lending podcasts
and seems like a lot of folks kind of backed
into our industry or their role, and that's not the
case for me. So growing up, I had parents that
were in sales and marketing, and so I always envisioned
myself going into business. And I was also a very
(01:11):
curious kid that liked to read a lot because I
wanted to know how things fit together. So I would
read the Wall Street Journal, I would read consumer reports.
And you're talking about like being a ten or twelve
year old, right, So I think the business track was
always my path. So I went to college, studied finance
and economics, and upon graduation got into consumer lending. And
(01:35):
twenty five plus years later, it's been a mix of
retail delivery and consumer lending. I've always worked with community
financial institutions, either large credit unions or medium sized community banks,
and I've been with Advia now for the last two
years in this role as vice president of Consumer Lending,
which for US represents indirect direct fintech partnerships and the
(01:59):
whole amit of consumer lending products heylock, credit card, personal loans,
auto loans, etc.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Awesome. Well thanks for that, and yes, you're right that
the majority of our guests wanted to be doctors, lawyers,
and or firefighters police officers, but for some reason they
decided to go the financial services route. Which I've often
heard too that once you start that route, it's very
hard to get out of it. So once you're in
the space you're kind of stuck. But thanks for that. Bill,
(02:27):
let's shift gears and kind of really start our conversation
and for the listeners, our conversation today is really more
or less around technology at the forefront. It's of course
really no secret that technology is fundamentally changing the way
that we lend, the way that we interact with of
course with our members, and really anymore how we structure
(02:47):
our strategies. Right, So, Bill, from your perspective, one, what's
been the biggest technological advancement or shift that's had a
direct impact on your lending strategy today?
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, it's really interesting. So my journey I mentioned, I've
been doing this for twenty five plus years, and as
technology has evolved in all aspects of our lives, but
specifically in financial services, I feel like today we've almost
become these aggregators or curators of technology platforms. So ADVIA,
(03:21):
just on the consumer lending side, we have roughly fifty
different technology systems and partners that we have and that's
just in lending, So you across the entire org, there's
one hundred plus different technology services and platforms. And I
think that's really interesting because if you were to ask
the consumer, you know who they bank with and who
provides their technology. For folks that our clients here, they
(03:43):
think it's advia. They don't realize that there's all these
partners on the back end, like an upstart or Jack
Henry or five Serve. And so I think, first and foremost,
it's understanding that our role has evolved in terms of
being a credit union and being able to curate that
member experience and how can we reduce friction. So I
(04:07):
think to sum it up or to answer your question,
i'd say, you know, it's about being very smart and
intentional in terms of the products, the systems, and the processes.
Because the consumer expectation has changed today and a lot
of that is due to the fang companies Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google,
right like, there is the expectation of twenty four to
(04:30):
seven availability, low friction, what I want, when I want it,
the way I want it delivered, and so expectations are
high and we need to raise our game to that standard.
So for me, for us, it's being thoughtful and intentional
again about the partners that we choose and then also
(04:51):
trying to integrate those so that it's low friction and
a great number experience.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, that's let's kind of build off that, Like you
already outlined, consumer expectations of course have evolved alongside you know,
many different innovations. They don't really know that advia has
a lot of stuff in the background. Members want that
twenty four to seven type of access digital experience. Don't
want to go into a branch as much. They want
to click some buttons and really simplicity across almost every
(05:18):
touch point as it pertains to lending and then of
course on deposit side, so on and so forth. But
how has advia responded one to these trends and like
what types of strategies have you implemented and or found
most effective in kind of meeting those rising expectations.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, it's a mix.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
It's it's realizing that for as much as technology now
integrates all aspects of all our lives, you know, relationships
still matter. I just saw yesterday there's an article about
Wells Fargo is kind of leaning back into a branch
expansion because they realize they need to be present, they
(05:55):
need to build the relationships. And there's certain transaction types
and certain demographs that still want the face to face
and they want to be walked through the process. They
expect that they need that, and so you know, if
you want to call that high tech, high touch brick
and click like, you know, however you want to describe
it like, that's paramount for us in terms of well
(06:19):
slick online digital experience is a must, but you also
need to have the high touch service as a must
as well. So there's so many different ways that can present,
you know, in terms of well staying mindful of geographic
proximity to your members and what's the experience when they
go in person and making sure that it's unique and
(06:41):
memorable and differentiates from the competition, and that also has
to be present on the digital side as well. So again,
expectations are higher than ever and we need to raise
raise our game to meet those expectations.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
On that too. Like you think about there's different persona,
there's different age segmentation. Have you really seen an adoption
whether it be by either of those two examples of
like specific tools that your members are using to have
the more digital type experience. Are you seeing more of
the larger or the older age segmentation kind of shift
(07:19):
more to a digital type of experience, or is there
anything that's really like stood out. That's outline. You know,
success in this type of measurement, no.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Good question, fair question.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
And I think are our data reveals what you would
intuitively think in terms of the younger folks are going
to figure it out on their own and adopt it
more quickly and need less help. Yeah, I think what's
less intuitive is some of the older demographics they want
to use these services, but they need help understanding it
(07:52):
right because they're used to calling their grandchild and having
them you know, walk them through it or you know,
set it up for them when they're visiting their grandkids,
but they can't constantly do that. So you know, we've
seen success with having our financial services specialists in our branches,
(08:13):
you know, walk folks through establishing mobile banking and doing
mobile check deposit for the first time, accessing their credit
report through our Savvy Money partnership, and it's almost this
light bulb moment of hey, I can do it on
my own. They realize that, but they need to be
shown or they want to be shown the first time,
and so that's a key realization for us. And then
(08:35):
it's trying to tailor the message to that user and
make sure they know that that is available to them
and that increases engagement.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
So would you classify that your overall digital engagement has increased,
whether age segmentation is a derivative of the maybe not
adoption of it, or if you're kind of seeing kind
of a flatline and adoption of digital versus non digital.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
No, adoption continues to grow, but there's there's less room
for it to grow in the younger demographics. So we're
seeing bigger pickups in the older demographics, but only because
there was more opportunity there.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
So, thinking about just technology from a holistic view, I
assume everyone listening into this podcast is leveraging technology and
some facet as part of their lending strategy, part of
their personal life. Right, But technology, I don't know next year,
five years, ten years, I don't know what the what
(09:35):
the age gap here is is going to continue to evolve,
Like you think about what the iPhone is today compared
to what it was in six and seven. In your view,
do you have any sense of what the biggest trends
or innovations are on the horizon in the next five
ten years and how it pertains to the lending space.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
That's a deep question, and you know what I wish
I could I could predict that with accuracy. But you know,
we think about that, we talk about that, and I
think the trends and if you look at consumer expectation
and demand for low friction experience and digital and then
(10:15):
you also look at just the prolification of data that's
available on us today. I mean, you could go out
drough and google yourself and you may be surprised how
easy it is to find out so much about you
within a matter of a few seconds. And so from
the lending side, at what point do we or how
(10:36):
long does it take to get to the point where
load applications are essentially a thing of the past because
identity verification, income verification, asset verification, all these things are
going to be automated in instant where it's almost gonna
be like placing a fast food order through an app. Right,
I mean, you need a loan, I'm sure there'll be
(10:58):
some type of platform you go in, you know, scan
your finger or scan your retina or some voice biometric
and it's gonna instantly share your information with a pool
lenders and within seconds you'll have a preapproved loan offer,
whether it's for a credit card auto loan, So I
we're gonna get there. And all these tools separately exist today,
(11:21):
but like who's going to pull them together, and how's
that going to get pulled together, and how are the
lenders going to compete on those platforms? So I can
envision that happening within the next five years where it's
less and less of a one to one relationship, but
it's it's more just consumer goes out, clicks a button,
I want a loan, and instantly they have four or
five six offers and they really don't have to provide
(11:43):
any documents or do any work for that to come
to them.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah, that would be amazing. I don't know about retina
scan timing. That would be an interesting, interesting way of verification,
but I mean you already do it when you go
through an airport, so it's not something off the table.
Thinking about though, of technology that is available today that
is small in nature from an adoption perspective, thinking of chat, GPT,
(12:07):
thinking of gen AI type of solutions, Do you have
any consensus of how these types of AI tools and
technology are going to be integrated not only within lending,
but maybe within your organization, your personal space, so on,
and so forth to make things more efficient on top
of kind of the verification stuff that you outlined in
the you know, the further advancement of the approval process.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Yeah, short answers, No, we don't. But another topic we're
frequently thinking about talking about, you know, for us today,
we're we're more recently getting into AI decisioning for all
the loans that we do. You know, that's something that
Upstart does. It is an expert with and we appreciate
that expertise that we can lean into as we design
(12:49):
our strategies around it. But we're we're getting into that ourselves.
But bigger picture, when you start to talk about AI,
all the use cases aren't defined yet within our space,
and so we're figuring we're still trying to define and
figure out what are those risks, what are those use cases,
how can we gain benefits? What's the ROI in terms
(13:10):
of focusing effort in particular areas. So we've got our
toes in the shallow end in several different areas. Right,
So we're starting to do more with our phone systems
and whether it's voice authentication or having AI agents that
can provide twenty four to seven availability via phone for
(13:30):
phone banking type tasks of checking balances, seeing if checks
have cleared. That's a that's low hanging fruit, right, that's
a pretty easy one. Or how can we use AI
to automate some data entry tasks that relate to indirect
loan funding. So there's there's a lot of small steps
that we're taking, but we're going into this eyes wide
(13:53):
open in terms of well, what's the industry going to
push towards, move towards? And then all are our regulators
going to view all this as well?
Speaker 2 (14:02):
What are they going to let us continue to do
and what are they not going to let us do?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
What I'm curious on your thoughts of the member experience
of leveraging agents, chatbots, so on and so forth. I
know most companies, even outside of the financial services space,
have some realm of that today. I know that I
use them. I often get angry at them and then
want to talk to a person. But you think about
the advancement of that. Do you think that there's still
(14:28):
going to be a disconnect between a live individual looking
to seek answers questions get something out of it, or
do you think that the adoption from the actual individual
with these bots and agents, is going to progress or
any type of risk that you could all land there
that you're thinking of.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Yes, so we all have those examples where we've used it,
we've become frustrated with it, so that the technology is
not there today. It's simply not. So it can handle
a lot of things well, but sometimes you ask a
very basic task and it puts you in this loop
where you get stock and you can't get out of.
So I'd say, you know, it gets back to being
(15:09):
very intentional and thoughtful and not trying to have a
one size fits all solution for your members. So like
using the AI agent for telephone banking, example, present that
up front to folks and say hey, you have this option,
but if you prefer not to use it, press this
button or say this and I'll put you in the queue. Right, Like,
(15:31):
give people options and then they're choosing their path to
success in what they want. And I think that's what
members want. Again, It's about engagement, So engage them and
treat them the way they want to be treated through
these paths that we've already set and approved. So that's
one simple example, but it's how we're trying to think
about the use of AI in terms of gaining efficiencies
(15:53):
and improving the experience for those that want to use it,
but not forcing everybody down that path because the technology
simply is not there yet.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Now I would I would agree with that. I know
there's other companies that don't adopt that same mentality, but
we'll leave those companies out for discussion for another day. Well,
Bill thinks those are all the questions that I had
for you. I think this is a good transition spot.
As you know, I always like to close the podcast
out with three kind of off the wall type of questions.
(16:23):
Rapid fire number one on the same theme of kind
of technology. What's the latest and greatest app or technology
gadget that you cannot live without?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Yeah, we've been talking about it today. You brought it up.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
It's chat GPT, So I can't claim that it's the latest,
but it's so convenient. So I found myself recently like
making dinner and looking up recipes for it. We're currently
planning one of my kids high school graduation open houses,
and so even coming up with some themes or different
things to do there.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
I've used it there.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
And then just last week my wife and I put
in pictures of our house and we ask for it
to give us some ideas of renovations to like a
modern farmhouse look, and it comes back instantly with all
these different designs for landscaping and outdoor reno. So it's fun,
it's useful, and it's becoming ubiquitous. So everybody needs to
(17:16):
get out now.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I couldn't agree more. I leveraged chat GBT now more
than I ever thought I would, almost to the point
where like I don't go to Google search anymore, but
I would agree with you. Question number two, If you
could switch jobs with anyone for a day, who would
it be and why?
Speaker 3 (17:33):
I would say my wife. She is an elementary school teacher,
so we work in very different fields, and I think
that would be very intriguing and very enlightening to me
to walk a day in her shoes, so to speak.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
So yeah, my.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Wife, that is a great answer. I give huge kudo,
says I have young children to elementary school teachers and
all that they do for our kids. Interesting, interesting answer.
And then last question and you can't tell me, Retina
scanning for approval odds on loans, But what is what
is one bold prediction for the future?
Speaker 3 (18:10):
One bold prediction to How about two bold predictions, Drue. First,
I'm going to say our main regulators within community, within banking,
FDIC and NCUA, they are going to consolidate within the
next two years. That's sorry, the next ten years, ten years.
(18:31):
I can foresee that happening, especially in light of what
we've seen recently in current administration directives. Second, for those
that don't know, I'm a big Notre Dame football fan,
and they had a great season this past year. I
really like the new head coach, newer head coach. So
(18:51):
let's say Notre Dame is going to win the national
championship in football within the next ten years as well,
and we'll aft which of my predictions comes true.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
First, I like how you throughout the next ten years,
not this this coming year, giving yourself some some wiggle
room there. Yeah, we'll have to come back in the
next decade and see if if that happens. It's of
course been been quite some time, but Bill, this has
been such an insightful conversation. Uh again, thanks so much
for you know, sharing your experiences and your perspective. As always,
(19:22):
to our listeners, thank you for tuning in. If you
enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe and of course
share with a colleague or friend in the industry. Until
next time, keep innovating, stay curious, and thanks again for
being part of our conversation.
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