How AI Is Transforming Community Banking

Artificial intelligence was promised as a revolution for financial services, yet millions of consumers across the nation every day gets stuck in loops.

Now this may be the case when dealing with trap by megabanks that can prioritize automation over customer experience and with over 80% of banks and credit unions dedicating real capital to AI strategies, the industry does stand at a critical inflection point and as community financial. look to level the playing field against Wall Street drawings.

The challenge is no longer just adopting AI but governing it so that it drives personalized service without creating compliance or hallucinations here at the New York Stock Exchange to discuss what is next for AI in banking and how regional institutions are dealing with customer interactions is the cofounder and CEO of that great to have you here.

Thank you so much for joining me it's a pleasure to be here.

Well of course when it comes to the megabanks as well as financial institutions and AI, many of us have had very customer service interactions here.

So tell us about the challenges when it comes to the bigger financial institutions.

Absolutely, you know, megabanks are investing billions in hyper personalization using AI, but what about the regional and community institutions that hold 50% of the deposits across the country, right?

They would like to have the same opportunities to benefit from AI that the megabanks do, and that is exactly what we focus on at Glia.

We provide AI solutions for banks and credit unions across every state in the US, and I have over 700 clients today.

Yes, and I think the difference between community or regional banks versus the mega banks is the relationships, right, the interaction.

That actually take place even when we're talking about face to face personal interactions.

So tell us why you're focused on this area.

That's spot on, you know, their competitive advantage is really that personal touch, and if they could, they would hire an army of people to provide that personal touch at scale.

But unfortunately that's not a reality, right? with all the attrition that happens in the front and mid mid offices of these institutions.

It's really difficult to scale up that competitive advantage.

We see AI as an unlock to really supercharge what they already do so well, which is connect with specific groups, specific member bases or customer bases, regions across the country.

It can provide that incremental capacity that allows them to deliver that personalized experience at scale.

Yeah, so I'm sure many of us and also in the viewing audience have had experiences when we're on an app or maybe even if we're dialing in depending on which generation you're in and dealing with the megabanks and you can get stuck in these loops get really frustrated because you're not getting anything solved in the time that you want to.

So when we're talking about what you're doing that walk us through this and highlight some of the competitive advantages.

So first of all, what you're describing is really focused around inbound AI, right?

So inbound workflows.

We think about ourselves as a holistic AI operating system for AI built for banks and credit unions, right?

So think about it as inbound, internal and outbound.

So we provide automation solutions across the board and when you're referencing inbound, absolutely, you know it can get really frustrating if you're talking to a virtual assistant.

But the the unlock there is really focusing on context and instead of asking in a few words, can you please tell me what you're calling about?

I could say, well, listen, last time you called, you were asking about a transaction you wanted to freeze your card you were traveling to London are these any of the things that you're calling about?

So leveraging all of the information that we have about customers to handle those inbound.

Workflows is really, really powerful and you can only do that if you have a holistic system across all of the different types of workflows inbound, internal, and outbound.

Absolutely and Dan, you highlighted a lot of key points there and I think you know we're coming off the heels of hyper scale earnings, so we're hearing about.

Capital expenditure as well as investments and we know what we're talking about the major financial institutions they do have the capacity to invest but when we're talking about the community or regional banks, we know that it might not be so easy to scale.

So for viewers out there who are wondering what it actually takes for AI to be implemented, walk us through this.

So you know we try to make the sort of delivery plan for AI as as seamless as possible, and one of the things that is critical to achieving this is really sitting alongside our clients to understand the work, right?

A lot of AI companies are generalists.

They try to, you know, deliver solutions across the board for every type of business.

We only focus on regional and community banks and credit unions.

That is all we do.

So we deeply understand their work and what it takes for them to deliver that experience.

So in sitting next to them.

That's a core differentiator to make sure that these AI solutions are delivering the impact and the value.

So it's all about proximity to the end workflow and the the business itself.

Yes, and I'm sure you have encountered plenty of pain points, and I'm sure you have conversations with stakeholders.

So what do you think people out there need to know when it comes to the regional space?

Well, it's under threat, right?

So it's it's I believe that if you look at the amount of deposit concentration between megabanks and regional community institutions, it's about even, right?

So when as these accounts that are held by a huge portion of the population come of age and there's an opportunity for the there's an inflection point right that those funds could be transferred very easily into a megabank when somebody's inheriting that account, right?

But it could also go the other direction, right?

If, if a community original institution is able to provide a personalized experience at scale using these new capabilities, using AI.

There could be a situation where those accounts are moved into some of the funds are moved into these institutions because they can provide that exceptional human touch that is so difficult to build for the megabanks, right? hyper personalization that they're trying to achieve with AI is already available.

It just can't be scaled, and that's that's the that's the promise I would say.

And Dan, finally, before I let you go, what Is the vision for Glia moving forward?

I think it's very much that it's to level the playing field and basically increase the opportunities that these institutions have to compete and thrive against a much larger institution like a megabank because it's really the backbone of the country.

There are so many of these institutions that serve such Diverse groups from all over the country and we would love to see that continue to thrive instead of erode away.

So that's our vision is to empower the megabanks and fintechs to to empower the community and regional segment to compete against the megabanks and the fintech.

Well thank you so much for joining us, Dan.

This is a space that we'll continue to monitor, so I appreciate your time as well as your perspective.

Thank you.