For many financial institutions, the customer service contact center is the frontline of the support experience, but it is also a department often experiencing inconsistency and friction.
Signal Financial Federal Credit Union faced fluctuating wait times and varying service levels, prompting a mission-driven shift to make operations “easier, faster, and better” for their members. Adriana Freeman, vice president of marketing and engagement, recognized this challenge as an opportunity to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) in banking.
Through her leadership, Signal Financial FCU launched an AI-supported protocol (in partnership with Glia) which has transitioned the organization’s call-center methodology from subjective and reactive troubleshooting, to a standardized, data-informed strength-focused operation.
Gaining back precious time, serving members faster, and aligning team members with roles that match their skills and passions.
Before implementing AI, leadership at the Signal Financial FCU contact center struggled with differing, subjective approaches to coaching employees through the resolution experience.
By utilizing AI to recap and transcribe calls, then automatically apply a predetermined scoring methodology, the institution established a consistent “gold standard” for providing performance feedback. Freeman explains their thought process when designing their AI solution:
We really wanted to use AI to help us to standardize what we looked at as the gold standard for scoring and for coaching. Coaching is subjective. We can have a supervisor that says, ‘Oh, that call was a six,’ and then we have another supervisor that says, ‘Oh, that call was an eight.’ AI supported analysis provides a neutral baseline for us to really coach our staff.
– Adriana Freeman, Vice President of Marketing and Engagement, Signal Financial FCU
The technology does more than just record words; it identifies emotional cues. Signal Financial FCU’s contact center’s AI solution has been trained to detect even the slightest bit of agent frustration that a human monitor might miss, but the account holder on the line will surely perceive.
Providing a standardized, neutral baseline for interpreting has made coaching and development conversations more actionable. Contact center leaders found that by no longer needing to spend their one-on-one time listening to full sample calls together, they instead could narrow in on a “highlight reel” of key moments to review with each team member.
The most transformative outcome of this AI journey has been the creation of new, specialized roles that align with team members’ unique strengths. Freeman explains,
Because of AI, we are able to identify and categorize simple versus complex calls. This then enabled us to move one of our senior reps out of the queue, and create a new position for her called a Digital Correspondence Rep (DCR). She now only focuses on emails, secure messages, and faxes.
– Adriana Freeman, Vice President of Marketing and Engagement, Signal Financial FCU
The impact was immediate: response times that previously took 24 to 72 hours were slashed to under a minute.
Furthermore, Signal Financial FCU continues leveraging AI-driven call analysis to better understand where members need the most support. Insights from this work are now being used to shape specialized support functions, including:
While AI acts as a supportive tool, helping teams work more efficiently, Signal Financial FCU remains steadfast in the importance of human oversight and governance. As they scale their “virtual branch,” the focus remains on ensuring data quality and maintaining the “human touch” that members expect.
To Freeman, building a member-supporting virtual branch is vital:
As we continue to build out our virtual branch, we will keep looking for opportunities to use AI to help us uncover where needs are, see through blindspots, identify and help us remove biases we may not realize we carry. I look at AI like it’s a tool, not a director. For me, AI has helped me to be more creative, while also remaining safely within our pre-established guardrails.
– Adriana Freeman, Vice President of Marketing and Engagement, Signal Financial FCU
AI is not a replacement for humans; it is a catalyst for creativity and professional evolution, allowing employees to move into roles where they can provide the most value.
For banking leaders ready to begin their own journey into AI, Freeman’s advice is rooted in intentionality and rigorous oversight.
She emphasizes that AI should be viewed as a creative tool rather than a replacement for human talent, noting that each leader and institution may find their own set of use cases dependent on the needs of the ecosystem and the strengths of the team.
Freeman sums it up by saying to succeed with AI, institutions must, “establish strong auditing practices and maintain human oversight from the outset to manage ‘hallucinations’ or incorrect responses.
By prioritizing data quality and clear governance, you can ensure that AI serves as a reliable partner that empowers staff to move out of the weeds of manual tasks and into high-value, specialized roles that ultimately better serve those who entrust us with their financial lives.”
In the use case presented by Signal Financial Federal Credit Union (Signal Financial FCU), AI standardizes their call analysis and identifies service gaps, allowing them to respond to member needs more accurately and quickly.
Other popular use cases that Alkami has identified through research and by building solutions for our bank and credit union customers include:
The above chart comes from Alkami’s 2024 market study, “Application and Consumer Perception of Artificial Intelligence in Banking”.
That has not been the case at Signal Financial FCU. Instead, AI helped identify staff strengths and freed up time to create new specialized positions like Fraud Experts and Digital Correspondence Reps.
In general, the definition of a virtual branch is a virtual twin of the in-branch experience. A virtual branch allows account holders to securely complete most banking tasks from start to finish in a digital environment, supported by the same expertise found in a physical location.
This involves an interconnected technology stack most often including a digital banking platform and mobile application.
Within those digital access points, account holders can manage their money and accounts that traditionally required them to visit a physical branch.
These include functions like: checking balances, account opening, depositing checks, moving money between accounts, resolving support issues, sending wire transfers, applying for loans, accessing financial wellness solutions, and more.
Even getting financial advice or educational resources, or asking common questions can be done within a virtual branch.
