The Business Case for AI to Power Member Growth Strategies

?As we dive into summer, many credit unions are starting to consider their strategic plans for 2025. Board planning and executive planning sessions are being scheduled for the coming weeks and months, and inevitably, there will be a topic on these agendas around AI.

The hype of AI is beginning to slow and now the realities of figuring out a tangible business case to justify investments in AI or AI-powered solutions are setting in. One key reality – AI is just a tool; it is not a solution on its own.

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The ROI of AI for Credit Unions

Building an ROI around a capability is difficult. It is much easier to build it around a specific use case where we can quantify the impact on the top line and bottom line and define qualitative impacts on our members and our employees. Member participation growth is a great use case for leveraging the power of AI and AI-based solutions, and the ROI and business case are a no-brainer.

The ROI for investing in AI solutions for member participation growth is achieved through higher member wallet share via more relevant and personalized member engagement. AI allows credit unions to talk to the right members about the right products and services that align with their goals.

For example, if today CUs want deposits, AI helps identify the right members to approach for net new deposits. AI does this at scale, efficiently driving higher deposit growth. Additionally, more targeted marketing campaigns reduce costs by focusing efforts on members with higher likelihoods for specific products, lowering overall marketing expenses.

The numbers support this: A Texas-based credit union client of Vertice AI saw a 326% higher product adoption rate using an AI-personalized targeted deposit campaign compared to traditional methods. In addition, the Filene “Member Experience & Service Excellence, Part 2” Study stated that the top quartile of credit unions with member-focused strategies saw more than double the asset growth and 20% higher ROA than the bottom quartile of member focused CUs.

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Approaching AI for Your Credit Union

Most credit unions don't have the size or budgets to hire a team of data scientists. The average fully loaded cost for one data scientist is between $150,000 to $200,000 annually, and they typically require additional tools and resources. Data scientists usually want to work in teams, which raises your investment to likely half a million dollars per year.

The alternative is using purpose-built AI-powered solutions that can be put directly into the hands of business teams. These solutions, designed for specific functions like marketing, lending, or the call center, are generally less costly than hiring a data science team.

In addition, most credit unions believe their data needs extensive “cleansing” or that they need a data warehouse or data lake to utilize their data. At Vertice AI, we believe data is a journey, not a destination.

Credit unions have plenty of available and easily accessible data that can quickly provide valuable insights and member recommendations. In fact, Vertice needs less than 50 data fields to deliver actionable member predictions and recommendations. In addition, we don’t need a direct connection to a credit union’s core or ancillary systems – just a CSV file format is sufficient to get started.

At Vertice AI, we have created an AI-powered solution tailored for marketing and strategy teams to know, grow, and measure each member. Our platform provides an easy and approachable way to create personalized, analytically determined audiences for marketing campaigns, delivering higher product adoption rates and higher initial account balances.

As an example, one of our North Carolina-based credit union clients experienced a 4.3x increase in new Money Market account openings and a 13.5% higher initial balance for new accounts using Vertice AI’s solutions.

The Path Forward for Credit Unions

AI and advanced analytics offer a transformative opportunity for credit unions to enhance member engagement and drive growth. Vertice AI’s tailored solutions, proven through real-world success stories, demonstrate the tangible ROI and member benefits of an AI-driven approach. Please visit our website for these detailed case studies.

By leveraging AI to understand, grow, and measure member participation, credit unions can achieve significant improvements in member engagement and financial prosperity. The future of credit unions lies in embracing these technologies, not as distant, complex tools but as integral, approachable solutions that empower every member interaction.

So, as you make your summer strategic planning agendas and think about how AI will fit into your growth initiatives for the rest of 2024 and 2025, there is a compelling business case for this new technology that can grow your member relationships and help your teams be more productive and effective.

Credit unions looking to achieve similar member growth goals can partner with Vertice AI to transform their member engagement strategies.

For more information, visit www.verticeanalytics.ai or contact us at [email protected].