Partnerships, protection, and AI give credit unions a practical path to member-centric banking, better risk management, and scalable personal service.
Most credit union leaders aren’t losing sleep over “innovation” in general. They’re worried about something much more specific: how to protect members, grow non-interest income, and keep service personal while everything around them is getting more digital, more complex, and frankly, more risky.
Bill Gould from Securian Financial summed it up well:
“This is a tough time to predict, but a better time to prepare.”
That line hits especially hard right now. Economic uncertainty, rising fraud, tighter margins, and members expecting 24/7 digital service that still feels human. The old playbook of “add another product, run another campaign” isn’t enough.
Here’s the thing about member-centric banking: you can’t deliver it at scale anymore without smart partners and smart technology — especially AI. That’s exactly where credit union–fintech partnerships, providers like Securian Financial, and modern AI tools intersect.
This article builds on insights from Bill Gould’s conversation on The CUInsight Network and connects them directly to AI for credit unions, with a focus on member-centric banking, protection, and practical innovation.
We’ll look at:
- How to think about partnerships in an AI-powered world
- Where fintechs and providers like Securian fit into your strategy
- How to use AI to protect members while actually improving experience
- What kind of internal culture you need so your team doesn’t get left behind
1. Partnership is your AI strategy, not a side project
The most successful credit unions treat partnerships as core infrastructure, not as experiments. That’s especially true for AI in credit unions.
Securian Financial has spent over 60 years helping institutions protect members with insurance and financial protection products. That history matters because the next stage isn’t just “more products” — it’s smarter products, powered by data and AI, delivered through trusted relationships.
Why partnerships matter more in an AI era
For most credit unions, building AI capabilities from scratch isn’t realistic. You don’t have the data science bench, the regulatory resources, or the time. But you do have:
- Deep member relationships
- Local trust and brand strength
- Rich transaction and behavioral data
Partners bring what you’re missing:
- AI models for fraud detection and risk scoring
- Automated decisioning tools for lending and insurance
- Member service automation (chatbots, assistants, workflow tools)
- Analytics and insights to spot trends and member needs
The smarter approach is:
Credit unions define the member promise. Partners and AI extend the promise at scale.
When Bill talks about partnerships improving experiences for both members and staff, that’s the real win: technology that doesn’t just sit in the background, but actually makes it easier for front-line teams to serve.
2. Where fintechs and providers like Securian fit in
Most credit unions get this wrong. They shop fintechs like they’re buying software features, not building long-term capability.
A stronger framing: build a member protection and growth ecosystem. Providers like Securian Financial and modern fintechs can sit in that ecosystem side-by-side.
Three partnership roles every credit union needs
Here’s a simple model I’ve found useful with leaders:
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Protection partner
A partner focused on financial protection products — life, disability, debt protection, credit insurance, and related services — with:- Strong compliance and regulatory expertise
- Claims and servicing that don’t frustrate members
- Data and analytics to identify who to protect and when
That’s essentially the lane Securian operates in. As AI matures, these partners should also be offering:
- Risk scoring to tailor coverage options
- Predictive models to flag at-risk members (job loss, financial stress)
- Automated outreach workflows to offer protection at the right time
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AI and decisioning partner
Tools that sit underneath your lending, collections, and servicing to:- Assess credit risk faster and more fairly
- Run AI-based loan decisioning with explainability
- Adjust pricing and offers based on member behavior
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Member experience / service automation partner
This is where chat, messaging, and virtual assistants come in:- 24/7 support for routine questions and tasks
- Smart routing to humans for complex issues
- Proactive nudges about bills, savings opportunities, or potential fraud
The credit union’s job is to orchestrate these pieces so members feel one consistent experience, not three disconnected vendors.
What “good” looks like in these partnerships
When you assess partners, especially around AI and member protection, look for:
- Shared philosophy: Member-first, not product-first
- Transparent AI: Ability to explain why a decision was made
- Regulatory readiness: Documentation, audits, compliance baked in
- Staff enablement: Training, simple dashboards, and clear workflows
If a partner’s AI tools are “black box,” you’re taking the regulatory and reputational risk while they keep the IP. That’s a bad trade.
3. Using AI to protect members and deepen relationships
There’s a myth that AI in financial services is mostly about efficiency. Cut costs, automate tasks, reduce headcount.
The reality? The best use cases in credit unions are protective and relational: fraud detection, smarter underwriting, financial wellness, and timely outreach.
AI for fraud detection and member protection
Fraud is one of the fastest-moving threats for credit unions. Manual review can’t keep up.
Effective AI-driven fraud systems:
- Analyze transaction patterns in real time
- Flag anomalies based on each member’s unique behavior, not just generic rules
- Adapt quickly as fraudsters change tactics
That’s not just about stopping loss. It’s about:
- Catching issues before a member notices
- Reaching out with context (“We saw a charge in another state…”)
- Restoring trust faster when something goes wrong
A protection partner like Securian can plug into this by combining claims data, product usage, and credit union data to:
- Identify members who may be underinsured or overexposed
- Tailor protection offers based on real risk, not generic segments
- Prioritize outreach to those most likely to be impacted by life events
AI in loan decisioning that still feels human
Traditional underwriting can be slow, rigid, and sometimes biased. Modern AI loan decisioning can:
- Approve qualified members in seconds instead of days
- Use more data points (cash flow, spending patterns, saving behavior)
- Offer risk-based pricing that’s fairer and more accurate
But member-centric banking demands one extra layer: explainability.
Members should be able to ask, “Why was I denied?” and get a clear, respectful answer. Your staff should be able to override or review decisions in edge cases.
The sweet spot:
AI makes the first call. Humans handle the exceptions and the conversations.
Partners who understand credit unions — including insurance and protection providers — know how critical that human layer is. The goal isn’t to remove people; it’s to let them spend time where judgment and empathy actually matter.
4. Don’t forget the humans: engaging and upskilling your team
Bill Gould emphasized something a lot of AI conversations skip: employee engagement. If your staff feels threatened or left behind, even the smartest AI strategy will stall out.
Two fundamentals for AI-ready teams
Bill talked about two qualities he looks for when adding people to his team. While he didn’t list them out in the RSS snippet, here’s what consistently shows up in leaders who make AI work inside credit unions:
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Curiosity
People who ask “Why do we do it this way?” and genuinely want to understand systems and members. -
Adaptability
Staff who don’t cling to old processes just because “that’s how we’ve always done it,” and who are willing to try new tools.
If you’re building an AI and partnership roadmap, you should be hiring, promoting, and training with those two traits in mind.
Making AI feel like support, not surveillance
One of the fastest ways to kill adoption is to roll out AI tools as if they’re replacing people rather than helping them.
Practical ways to avoid that:
- Co-design workflows with front-line staff before rollout
- Show time savings in real numbers: “This will save you 90 minutes a day on repetitive tasks”
- Give staff visibility into AI decisions and flags
- Pair training with outcomes: higher NPS, faster approvals, more effective protection outreach
When you position AI as how we keep our member promise in a digital era — not as “management’s shiny new toy” — you get a very different level of buy-in.
5. Emerging trends credit unions should prepare for now
Bill framed the moment well: hard to predict, perfect time to prepare. For credit unions thinking about AI and member-centric banking, a few trends are already visible on the horizon.
Trend 1: Members will expect proactive protection
Members won’t just ask, “Do you have insurance?” They’ll expect their credit union to:
- Warn them about financial risk before they feel it
- Suggest relevant protection products at life moments (new job, baby, home, health issue)
- Offer AI-powered financial wellness tools that coach, not just calculate
Partners like Securian can help design the protection layer. AI helps you time and target it without being pushy.
Trend 2: Hyper-personalized, AI-assisted service
Generic email blasts and one-size-fits-all offers are already fading. Over the next few years, winning credit unions will:
- Use member service automation to handle routine tasks in seconds
- Combine CRM data, transaction data, and AI to recommend:
- Savings goals
- Loan consolidation options
- Protection products that fit each member’s situation
The key is to keep it permission-based and transparent. Members should always feel like they’re in control.
Trend 3: AI regulation will tighten — and trust will matter more
Regulators are watching AI closely, especially around:
- Discrimination in lending
- Data privacy and usage
- Explainability of automated decisions
Credit unions with strong, transparent partnerships will be better positioned. This is where long-established providers with mutual or member-centric roots — like Securian Financial — can give you an edge. They’re building for compliance and trust because their business depends on it.
Where to go from here
If you’re responsible for strategy, digital, or member experience at a credit union, this is the moment to treat AI partnerships and member protection as one connected agenda.
Start with three questions:
- Where are we still relying on manual judgment that AI could enhance — fraud, underwriting, outreach, service?
- Which partners today truly share our member-first philosophy, and how can we go deeper with them on AI and analytics?
- What would it take for every employee to say, “AI helps me serve members better,” and actually mean it?
This series on AI for Credit Unions: Member-Centric Banking exists for one reason: to help credit unions stay human and stay competitive. Providers like Securian Financial show how partnership and protection can evolve together. AI is simply the next chapter.
The credit unions that win the next decade won’t be the ones with the flashiest tech. They’ll be the ones whose members feel, every day, “They see me, they protect me, and they make my financial life easier.” AI — used well, with the right partners — is how you get there.