Michigan State University Federal Credit Union’s consumer-facing chatbot is answering member live-chat questions at a pace equal to that of more than 50 employees.  

“We’ve been on this (AI) journey for a little while,” MSUFCU Chief Executive April Clobes said at the Jack Henry Connect event in Indianapolis last week. The credit union has been fine-tuning its chatbot capabilities for the last three years, she said. 

The $7.6 billion, East Lansing, Mich.-based credit union has two chatbots — an internal-facing bot, Gene, for employees to use as a resource and its client-facing bot, Fran, to interact with client questions, according to the MSUFCU website. 

In March, the Fran bot took on the workload of 16 full-time employees, Ami Iceman-Haueter, chief research and digital experience officer at MSUFCU, previously said at the Bank Automation Summit U.S. 2023. Now, that bot is facilitating live chat sessions that would be allocated to about 50 employees. 

As the bot takes on digital customer queries, the credit union’s call center volume remains high, Clobes said. “No matter how much we have online, no matter how much self-service” members still call the call center, and MSUFCU can allocate employees to the call center as Fran manages chatbot questions.  

AI implementation

As MSUFCU’s chatbot continues to evolve, with a place for AI within the bot, the credit union is also looking at other areas of implementation — and avoidance, Clobes said.  

One of the FI’s teams is looking at AI for large language modeling, generative AI adoption and other areas of benefit, she said.  

However, MSUFCU is also focused on where not to implement AI. Clobes said she is working to navigate guidance, guardrails and policies around AI use throughout the organization.  

For example, while she doesn’t expect her team to rely on AI to write board reports, there may instead be an opportunity for coding.  

She is identifying what MSUFCU should be comfortable with when it comes to AI implementation, but also, just as important, what they might not be comfortable with, Clobes said.