We’ve covered a wide range of topics that are propelling change in the lending space this year — from the use of technology to policy recommendations to unexpected changes, our guests didn’t disappoint with the many insights and predictions they shared. 

Despite a difficult macro environment and increasingly high interest rates, credit unions grew their members — proving that lending responsibly and investing in communities pays dividends. And collectively, financial institutions made tremendous strides in expanding customer experience and leveraging technology.

In our final episode of the year, our host, Jeff Keltner, takes a look back at our series highlights from 2022, and what some key takeaways mean for 2023. 

The importance of leading with lending in difficult economic times

2022 was a huge year for credit unions, which saw some of the highest levels of growth in members ever, despite some murky market waters.

Likewise, despite the difficult macro environment that lenders have seen this year, credit unions have successfully continued lending to consumers and the tough times have proven to be beneficial in unexpected ways. 

“When everybody else is greedy, get nervous. And when everybody else is nervous, get greedy,” Jeff explained. “I think a lot of people are nervous right now and I don't think that means we have to be greedy — but I think it means there's an opportunity to differentiate to better serve an underserved customer.” 

By constantly staying up to date and bringing in new technologies and products, credit unions have been able to enable better experiences for members. This lays a foundation that’s built for continuous growth and helps unions overcome the obstacles of an ever-changing market, ensuring preparedness for whatever comes next.

The potential of blockchain to improve product experiences, despite the collapse of FTX

The collapse of FTX sent a shockwave through the crypto community and its widespread effects on the marketplace are still to be determined. 

Though crypto has faced its fair share of challenges and skepticism, Jeff urges that this not be a distraction from the true potential and value of blockchain, specifically going into the new year.

“As cryptocurrencies struggle in terms of valuation, the question of ‘What are the product experiences that can be uniquely enabled by the concept of the blockchain?’ is still really relevant,” said Jeff.

Approaching 2023, there may be hope to usher in a new wave of innovation when it comes to blockchain, with new products and capabilities to match. 

Though the use of blockchain and cryptocurrency have barely breached the banking industry, the potential is endless. 

Recent AI-powered technologies

AI is yet another corner of the tech world that is seeing advancements and increasing interest amongst the masses. 

Just in the last few weeks, two new technologies have emerged that showcase the true opportunity and capability of AI — ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion.

ChatGPT allows users to chat with an AI bot — built on a language model called GPT-3 — who will answer any question. Stable Diffusion is a text image generator that creates images, paintings and even photo-realistic images — all from users simply entering a few words or a short description. 

Both technologies have seen growing popularity and mass usage since their debut.

The potential applications of AI

An interesting part of the explosive relevancy of ChatGPT is that GPT-3 was created two years before ChatGPT was built, suggesting that even though some fascinating underlying technology may already exist, it needs the right vessel and context to be implemented and become widely accessible. 

With Stable Diffusion, users can download the code, but need additional Python packages and the correct silicon to get it working, making it inaccessible for those who may not be tech-savvy. 

Still, a new iPhone app called Lensa has seen even more popularity than Stable Diffusion due to its less-intimidating UI and accessibility. By just downloading the app and uploading 10-20 photos, the user has access to AI-generated images in a variety of styles, such as “superhero” and “sci-fi.”

This is a lesson for credit unions and lenders alike: take the technology of AI and integrate it into the customer experience in a way that is both accessible and user-friendly to ensure mass adoption and user retention.