Adopting AI without losing the human connection

Ankur Patel interviews LeAnn Case, Chief Strategy Officer at St. Cloud Financial Credit Union.📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcastSt. Cloud Financial is a $450M central-Minnesota credit union doing things most institutions its size won't touch — cannabis banking, digital asset custody, and a nationwide foundation. LeAnn's argument: adopt AI to strip out the friction (a cannabis business review takes 15 hours to file) and buy back time for members, without sacrificing the human connection that's the whole point of the place.Guest: LeAnn Case, Chief Strategy Officer, St. Cloud Financial Credit UnionHost: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal0:00 Introduction: Meet LeAnn1:10 From marketing to strategy6:36 What is St. Cloud Financial7:24 A vision built on human connection8:33 The convenience-vs-connection tension11:08 Prioritizing AI use cases13:00 34 fintech pitches, one budget15:24 Member engagement and support19:09 The iPhone pace expectation20:42 Vendors who become partners23:00 AI is not plug-and-play25:09 Staff expectations and guardrails28:01 Leading versus following30:56 Evidence-backed AI and audit trails33:00 Competing with the fintechs37:54 Change management: start with the why42:26 Signals and risks ahead44:15 Closing