Bits & Banks - With Aditya Khandekar and Elizabeth Osborne - Episode 7

What does true innovation look like inside a credit union contact center? Meet Olive, the bilingual AI chatbot at Great Lakes Credit Union, handling thousands of calls and even earning a seat in Congressional conversations.

In this latest episode of Bits & Banks, I sat down with Elizabeth Osborne, COO at Great Lakes Credit Union and one of American Banker’s Most Powerful Women in Credit Unions (2023 & 2024). Elizabeth reveals what it takes to bring generative AI into the heart of member service, sharing the strategy, risk management, and lessons learned from building a revolutionary call center from the ground up.

Key Insights You’ll Hear:

Building the Business Case for AI: Elizabeth started with a ground-up assessment, partnering closely with vendors to create a concrete, member-centric proposal. She leveraged proven workflows and pre-built integrations with their core platform for rapid implementation and customization.

Rapid ROI with the Crawl-Walk-Run Method: Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, Great Lakes CU started with proven vendor solutions, taking advantage of pre-built integrations and gradually layering in custom features. This pragmatic approach meant faster time-to-value, deeper member understanding, and agile pivots as needs evolved.

Balancing High-Tech and High-Touch: Elizabeth candidly discusses the real anxieties faced by credit unions - would automation alienate “traditional” members who value human relationships? Her solution: keep personal service available for complex needs, while letting Olive handle routine queries : delivering 24/7 options for 110,000+ members without sacrificing warmth.

She acknowledged, “It’s important everyone understands the why, and you educate and communicate openly to ease adoption”.

Risk Management and Regulatory Guardrails: Great Lakes CU’s framework evolved dramatically - starting from a highly conservative contract language. Over time, guardrails matured: encrypted data, restricted access, rigorous partner vetting, and constant monitoring. She urges leaders to “go back to your FFIEC handbook,” treat AI as any high-risk technology, and embed strong checks-and-balances into every process.

This episode is packed with packed actionable lessons for any credit union, bank, or leader navigating the path to responsible AI innovation. Get the full story - Elizabeth’s playbook, on leading a credit union through a generative AI revolution!