By Ken McCarthy, Tyfone
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At a Philadelphia industry summit, executives and regulators described a cautious approach to artificial intelligence: use it to make employees more productive, but keep people in control.
For Jason Mertz-Prickett, the chief executive of a $92.7 million-asset credit union in California, artificial intelligence is less about chasing the newest technology than finding ways to give a small institution more time.
Upward Credit Union in Burlingame has deployed Microsoft Copilot to managers and selected employees, while Mertz-Prickett and the chief operating officer are the only employees permitted to use ChatGPT. The tools help with tasks including reviewing policies, drafting communications and developing member messages.
The goal, Mertz-Prickett said Wednesday at the National Association of State Credit Union Supervisors’ annual State System Summit in Philadelphia, is not to eliminate jobs. It is to make employees more efficient and free them to spend more time with members.
“Our employees love it, our board loves it,” he said during a session titled “From Innovation to Implementation: What Actually Works.” The technology has allowed employees to spend more time working directly with members while producing what he described as a stronger work product.
For Upward, the experiment reflects a broader challenge facing smaller credit unions. Institutions do not necessarily need to be first to adopt every new technology, Mertz-Prickett said. They need to figure out how to use tools already available without exposing member information or taking on risks they do not understand.
That caution has shaped Upward’s approach from the beginning.
Mertz-Prickett said he took an artificial-intelligence policy to the credit union’s board about three years ago, before Upward was using Copilot or ChatGPT in its operations. The move was intended to establish clear rules before the technology became embedded in the institution’s work.
Among those rules: Employees cannot put proprietary or nonpublic information into the AI platforms. Any material intended for members must be reviewed by a senior manager before it is sent out.
The policy also gave employees a common understanding of what they could and could not do with the technology as Copilot was gradually introduced, Mertz-Prickett said.