As Financial Literacy Month wraps up this April, your credit union stands at a pivotal moment. Your trusted position as a member-owned cooperative isn’t just about financial services—it’s also about empowering communities that traditional banks have left behind.

Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) can be tremendously helpful in advancing member financial literacy. As a new and developing technology, the latest wave of AI also has many credit unions asking questions before adoption. It’s understandable—if trust is the foundation upon which you build relationships with members, any technological tool you use or endorse needs to support that trust, not undermine it.

Some skepticism around AI makes sense, but the value it offers is too significant to pass up. It’s far more than just a buzzword. AI is the catalyst credit unions need to scale inclusion, education, and support for every member.

Here are three ways your credit union can use AI to improve financial literacy.

1.   AI that speaks the right language—and listens too

Let’s say you’re a Spanish-speaking member of a credit union in a mid-size American city. You’re trying to open a checking account, but no one on staff speaks your language and you’re not sure where to begin. Sadly, this is a common scenario, and it’s exactly the kind of problem AI-powered virtual assistants (VAs) can solve.

Modern AI-powered virtual assistants do more than simply simulate conversation—they serve as digital financial guides, capable of providing personalized interactions and financial education. And, most importantly, they can be trained to understand cultural context and communicate in multiple languages. If your credit union is grappling with limited staff or resources, VAs are an efficient way to serve and educate multilingual communities.

The goal here isn’t to replace your people, it’s to remove friction wherever possible so your staff can focus on the interactions that require a human touch. You want a real human representative handling complex loan disputes, not password resets. Password issues can be handled by a VA.

It’s easy to imagine the impact of multilingual AI-powered VAs. For example, a credit union short on bilingual staff can use a Spanish VA trained specifically to answer routine inquiries for Spanish-speaking members. As a result, those members get the support and resources they need in their first language, 24/7, without fear of miscommunication.

2.   Context, not repetition

Anyone who has called their credit union’s customer service and was quickly transferred from one department to another knows how frustrating it is to be asked to describe the same issue more than once. With many traditional interaction management systems, handoffs between VAs and human reps often mean members have to start from scratch. For members already navigating language or knowledge gaps, this can be a major barrier to getting the support they need.

Unified, AI-powered interaction management platforms remove this hurdle entirely. This technology allows interaction context to follow the member as they are transferred throughout a credit union’s contact center. This ensures that when an interaction is escalated from a VA to a human rep, the rep simultaneously receives an AI summary of the full conversation, allowing them to start where the VA left off, with no repetition or backtracking required of the member.

This might seem like a technical fix to a historically clunky customer service experience, but it can have a big impact on member financial literacy. Preserving context lowers frustration, builds trust, and allows your reps to provide stronger member experiences.

Financial literacy starts with education, and education starts with access. When members don’t have to navigate clunky transitions to get answers to their financial questions or requests, they’re more likely to reach out in the first place—ensuring every member has the resources and support they need to thrive financially.

3.   Seeing patterns, not just problems

AI can also help your credit union adapt its products and services to align with the needs of your member community. We know that inclusion is important to credit unions. But, true inclusion means knowing who your members are—not just in theory, but in practice too. What questions are your members asking over and over? What could you be doing better? What’s getting missed?

This is where AI can help—not only with member-facing, AI-powered VAs, but also behind the scenes, where AI can analyze interaction data to identify patterns and themes. Modern tools can analyze thousands of interactions across any channel throughout the entire organization. Here’s how it works: contact center leaders can ask AI tools questions about the performance of their reps or the experiences of their member base. Then, the AI tools can respond within seconds with data-driven information in natural language for leaders to use to inform new resources or service improvements.

For example, these modern AI tools could tell you that a significant number of your members are using their personal loans for immigration-related expenses. Knowing this allows you to step back and ask: Are our current loan products offering the right support for this particular use case? Is there a better product? A clearer way to support our members?

This AI-driven analysis allows you to build new products and services that meet the real needs of your member base. By becoming more attuned to the needs of your members and providing resources that address gaps in education, you can also help keep them away from predatory alternatives.

Accessibility, personalization, and trust—at scale

You have seen just three of the ways AI can help your credit union promote member financial literacy and inclusion. But a cautionary note is in order: None of these will work without proper security and support. AI is a powerful tool, but every new technology needs guardrails, so be mindful of the tools and partners you choose. Look for systems designed with financial services in mind—platforms that protect member data, follow compliance rules, and give consistent, accurate information.

AI won’t magically make your underserved members richer, but it can help them to be more confident with their financial decisions. If adopted responsibly, AI can ensure your credit union is best positioned to fulfill your mission—empowering all members to enjoy financial success.