Partnerships, Protection & AI: A New Path for Credit Unions

“This is a tough time to predict, but a better time to prepare.” Bill Gould’s line sums up 2025 for every credit union leader I talk to.

Margins are tight, member expectations keep climbing, and fintechs launch new experiences every quarter. Yet most credit unions aren’t losing because they’re too small. They’re losing when they try to do everything alone.

Here’s the thing about modern, member‑centric banking: the strongest credit unions don’t build everything in‑house; they build the right partnerships. Protection products, AI tools, and fintech collaboration can turn uncertainty into a strategic advantage—if you design them around your members instead of around vendor brochures.

This post pulls lessons from Securian Financial’s partnership mindset, Bill Gould’s approach to innovation and teams, and what I’ve seen work when credit unions bring in AI and fintech without losing their soul.

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Why Partnerships Matter More Than Ever for Credit Unions

Credit unions that win over the next 3–5 years will do one thing consistently: treat partnerships as part of their core strategy, not an afterthought.

A partner like Securian doesn’t just bolt on insurance products. Done right, they expand your value proposition, protect members’ financial health, and take work off your staff’s plate.

From vendor to strategic partner

The difference shows up in questions:

• A vendor asks: “How many policies can we sell?”
• A partner asks: “How do we protect more members without adding friction for your team?”

A true partnership should help your CU:

• Protect member outcomes – credit life, disability, insurance, and other protection products reduce financial shocks for members when life goes sideways.
• Increase non‑interest income responsibly – instead of junk fees, you earn through services that tangibly help members.
• Improve member experience – integrated, AI‑supported journeys where offers are timely, relevant, and understandable.

When Securian talks about partnering with credit unions, the focus is on blending protection products with process, culture, and tech. That’s the model to copy: don’t just add another product tile to your home page; bake protection into the way members bank with you.

Why this matters in 2025

A few pressures are hitting at the same time:

• Household savings buffers from the pandemic are largely gone.
• Delinquencies are creeping up in many loan portfolios.
• Members are juggling higher prices, higher rates, and higher anxiety.

Protection products + smart personalization can:

• Help vulnerable members weather job loss, disability, or unexpected bills.
• Reduce charge‑offs and loan losses.
• Deepen trust, because you’re not just selling a loan—you’re helping people keep their financial plan intact.

If you’re serious about member‑centric banking, this is where you prove it.

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Where Fintechs and AI Actually Fit in Credit Union Strategy

Most credit unions get this wrong. They either bolt on random fintech apps or avoid them entirely out of fear. Both are risky.

The reality? Fintechs and AI tools work best when they fill specific gaps in your member journey and your internal workflows, not when they’re treated as shiny objects.

Three smart roles for fintech partners

1. Experience accelerators
   Use fintechs to rapidly upgrade digital experiences you can’t realistically build in‑house:

   • AI‑driven chat or member support
   • Intelligent account opening and loan origination
   • Personalized dashboards that surface next‑best financial actions

2. Data and analytics multipliers
   You probably sit on years of transaction and lending data. Most of it’s underused. Fintech and AI platforms can:

   • Score member engagement and financial health
   • Flag at‑risk members before delinquency
   • Identify who’s most likely to benefit from a protection product, not just who’s most profitable

3. Operational shock absorbers
   Credit union teams are stretched thin. Automation and AI can quietly take on:

   • Repetitive back‑office tasks
   • Routine member questions
   • Pre‑underwriting and document checks

This isn’t about chasing every trend. It’s about picking 2–3 high‑impact use cases and aligning them with your member‑centric strategy.

Guardrails for member‑centric AI

If you’re serious about trust, you need some hard rules around AI and fintech partnerships:

• No dark patterns. If AI nudges a member toward a product, that product should clearly improve their situation, not just your fee income.
• Transparency by design. Members should understand what data is used and how it benefits them.
• Bias checks. Your models need periodic reviews for disparate impact across demographics, zip codes, and income levels.
• Human override. Staff must be able to overrule automated decisions and advocate for the member.

Credit unions already hold a trust advantage over large banks and many fintechs. AI should extend that advantage, not erode it.

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Turning Protection Products into Member Value, Not Just Revenue

Protection offerings can easily slide into checkbox products your team half‑explains at the end of a loan process. That’s where value dies.

The better approach—the one Securian and similar partners push—is to tie protection to clear member stories and measurable outcomes.

Design protection around real member scenarios

A useful mental model: start with events, not products.

Members face a handful of high‑impact life events:

• Job loss or reduced hours
• Illness or disability
• Death of a wage earner
• Natural disasters or accidents

For each event, ask:

1. What typically happens to a member’s cash flow and credit profile?
2. How could protection products change that outcome?
3. How can we offer this proactively and empathetically, not as an upsell script?

Then build:

• Scripts and digital copy anchored in those scenarios
• Trigger‑based notifications (e.g., before major life stages or renewals)
• Simple, visual explanations of coverage and cost

Example: Member‑centric protection in action

Picture a member taking a $32,000 auto loan. A traditional approach might tack on a brief, rushed mention of credit life coverage.

A member‑centric, AI‑supported approach looks different:

• Your system flags that this member has two dependents, a high debt‑to‑income ratio, and no emergency savings.
• During the loan conversation—online or in‑branch—the system prompts your MSR with a short, plain‑language script:
  “If you lost your job or had a medical event, would making this car payment be stressful? There’s an optional protection that covers the payment in those situations. Want to see what that looks like in dollars?”
• The member sees a quick, side‑by‑side cost vs. benefit comparison in your app or on a tablet.

No pressure. Just clarity. That’s what combining a partner like Securian with an AI‑assisted workflow can look like when you design it well.

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Building the Internal Team to Support Innovation

Partnerships and AI won’t help if your internal culture fights every change.

Bill Gould highlights two fundamentals when building teams for innovation in financial services. I’d describe them as:

1. Curiosity over comfort
   Hire and promote people who ask “why” and “what if” more than “that’s how we’ve always done it.”

2. Resilience over perfection
   The regulatory environment, member needs, and tech stack will keep shifting. You want people who adjust instead of freeze.

Keeping employees engaged through change

Many credit union employees quietly worry that AI will replace them. That fear kills engagement.

A better narrative—and a more accurate one—is:

AI should strip away low‑value tasks so your people can spend more time on high‑value member conversations.

To make that real, you’ll need:

• Clear communication about why you’re adopting certain tools and how they help staff, not just the balance sheet.
• Training plans that turn frontline staff into confident users of AI‑assisted tools, not passive recipients.
• Feedback loops where employees can call out what’s not working and suggest changes.

The credit unions I’ve seen succeed with AI rollouts treat staff as co‑designers, not just end users.

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A Simple Roadmap: Member‑Centric AI & Protection in 6–12 Months

If you’re staring at a crowded roadmap, here’s a focused approach that doesn’t require a wholesale transformation.

1. Clarify your member segments and needs

Within 4–6 weeks, you can:

• Identify 3–5 key member segments (e.g., young families, pre‑retirees, gig workers).
• Map their top financial stressors and typical journeys (loans, savings, protection gaps).

This doesn’t need a 200‑page consultant deck. Start simple and refine over time.

2. Choose one or two high‑impact use cases

Good starter targets:

• AI‑assisted member support for common questions about loans and protection
• Personalized protection offers at key points in the lending journey

Tie each use case to one measurable outcome, such as:

• 15–20% higher protection adoption among eligible members
• 20–30% reduction in call handle times for common coverage questions

3. Find partners that share your values

When evaluating providers (whether it’s Securian for protection or an AI platform), look for:

• Documented member‑outcome metrics, not just sales numbers
• Experience integrating with credit unions, not just big banks
• Clear, explainable AI approaches and compliance support

If a partner can’t talk about member trust, disclosure, and long‑term relationships, they’re not a good fit for a credit union.

4. Pilot fast, iterate faster

Run a targeted pilot instead of a system‑wide rollout:

• Start with one product (e.g., auto loans) and one region or branch group.
• Track adoption, NPS, complaints, and staff feedback weekly.
• Adjust scripts, UI, and targeting rules in small, frequent updates.

In 90–120 days, you should know if the partnership and AI support are truly adding member value.

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Preparing, Not Predicting: Where Credit Unions Go From Here

Bill Gould’s point stands: you can’t predict the next few years, but you can absolutely prepare for them.

For credit unions, preparation looks like:

• Treating partnerships as strategic extensions of your mission
• Using AI to support, not replace, human relationships
• Turning protection products into real safety nets, not line items
• Building teams who are curious, resilient, and genuinely member‑obsessed

If your credit union wants to move toward a more member‑centric, AI‑supported model in 2025, start small but start deliberately. Choose partners who respect your values, protect your members, and are willing to build with you—not just sell to you.

The institutions that make those choices now won’t just survive the next economic cycle. They’ll be the ones members turn to first when money gets complicated and trust really matters.