The FAQ Bot That Ate a Credit Union's Entire AI Budget

Ankur Patel interviews Zach Cox, Director of Business Innovation, and Aaron Cain, Director of Digital Innovation at Credit Union 1.📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcastCredit Union 1 deployed AI use cases before it built the governance around them, and paid for the lesson when a narrow FAQ bot burned through the credit union's initial AI spend commitment without moving a single business outcome. Zach and Cain break down the vendor terms that made that happen, Cain's Aviary AI outbound calling program that reached 7,000 members ahead of a merger, and why CU1 now maintains a human version and an AI version of the same knowledge.Guest: Zach Cox, Director of Business Innovation, Credit Union 1Guest: Cain, Director of Digital Innovation, Credit Union 1Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal0:00 Introduction: Meet Zach and Cain1:13 What Zach and Cain each own at CU15:01 Fix the process before adding AI8:13 Deploy and learn vs infrastructure first9:57 The FAQ bot that ate the commit14:14 Don't let the vendor wag the dog20:12 Buying for value, not volume22:35 Trust and never blocking the human24:17 When AI feels more human28:14 Aviary AI outbound calling for mergers32:44 The make-a-payment bot35:46 Frontline feedback workshops40:50 Replacement through attrition43:15 What data readiness really means44:09 The chatbot that quoted a disclosure as fact48:34 What success looks like in 202750:30 Closing