Main Street AI

Multimodal

Main Street AI is an immersive content series probing the intricate intersection of humanity and artificial intelligence in the world of business and high-stakes industries.

Journey with us into stories of challenge and triumph of innovators navigating their unique industry mazes, and of the transformative power of AI seamlessly merging into these narratives. Think of it as "Masters of Scale" but customized for visionaries, pioneers, and enthusiasts in the ever-evolving AI-for-business space.

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Wednesday · 50 min
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=podcast Credit 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 1 Guest: Cain, Director of Digital Innovation, Credit Union 1 Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal 0:00 Introduction: Meet Zach and Cain 1:13 What Zach and Cain each own at CU1 5:01 Fix the process before adding AI 8:13 Deploy and learn vs infrastructure first 9:57 The FAQ bot that ate the commit 14:14 Don't let the vendor wag the dog 20:12 Buying for value, not volume 22:35 Trust and never blocking the human 24:17 When AI feels more human 28:14 Aviary AI outbound calling for mergers 32:44 The make-a-payment bot 35:46 Frontline feedback workshops 40:50 Replacement through attrition 43:15 What data readiness really means 44:09 The chatbot that quoted a disclosure as fact 48:34 What success looks like in 2027 50:30 Closing
August 17 · 26 min
Budgeting for Agentic AI in 2027: What to Ask Every Vendor
Ishita Jaiswal, Head of Growth at Multimodal, interviews Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder of Multimodal. 📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcast Multimodal builds agentic workflows for credit unions and community banks, covering member experience and lending operations. Ankur argues that a 2027 budget has to fund three things at once, an account on one of the big three models for every single person, a hard look at whether your incumbent vendors are opening their software up or walling it off, and a few net new agentic partners, with every vendor pushed to show simulated usage numbers before anyone signs. Guest: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal Host: Ishita Jaiswal, Head of Growth, Multimodal 0:00 Introduction: Meet Ishita 0:57 The two categories of agentic AI 2:39 Where credit unions start on personal productivity 3:15 Leadership, stewards, and uneven adoption 6:06 Member experience and lending operations 8:12 Why growth beats cost efficiency 9:19 Three pieces of budgeting advice for 2027 13:20 Walled gardens and the SaaS apocalypse 16:19 Usage pricing, tokens, and simulated numbers 20:04 What Multimodal built for credit unions 23:43 The ROI bar and the tuition expense 25:56 Closing
August 11 · 37 min
What Actually Gets AI Buy-In at a Credit Union
Ankur Patel interviews Youssi Farag, CFO at WEOKIE Federal Credit Union. 📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcast WEOKIE Federal Credit Union is a $1.5B institution where Youssi's seat covers finance and accounting, compliance, and commercial lending all at once. Her argument is that AI only sticks when you start from a real problem, put IT, compliance, legal, and the frontline in the same room, and hold vendors to a date instead of accepting "it's on the roadmap." Guest: Youssi Farag, CFO, WEOKIE Federal Credit Union Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal 0:00 Introduction: Meet Youssi 0:44 What Youssi owns at WEOKIE 1:51 Community bank speed vs credit union scale 4:43 How technology decisions actually get made 6:24 Where AI landed first: fraud, risk, and reporting 8:59 Buy, build, or partner 11:39 Budgeting for AI 13:44 Budget discipline with mid-year pivots 16:31 AI in consumer vs commercial lending 19:33 How far along WEOKIE is 21:39 Member-facing AI and measuring what changed 23:35 Vendor green flags and red flags 26:17 Structuring an experiment you can pivot out of 28:51 Reward seeking vs risk mitigation 31:28 Leading vs fast following 33:29 Getting the team bought in 34:45 What success looks like in three years 36:12 Closing
August 4 · 48 min
Why 30 Years of Hard-Won Skills Count for Zero
Ankur Patel interviews Kirk Drake, Founder and CEO of CU 2.0. 📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcast Kirk wrote the AI strategy book for banks and credit unions in 2020, before most of the industry had heard of ChatGPT, then rebuilt CU 2.0 around AI first practices and moved two-thirds of his team onto that work. He argues that 30 years of hard-won PowerPoint, spreadsheet and Word skills now count for zero, that the "we can't put our data near these models" fear is mostly an excuse, and that the AI strategy every credit union is chasing is really just learning how to move faster. Guest: Kirk Drake, Founder and CEO, CU 2.0 Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal 0:00 Introduction: Meet Kirk 1:08 The 2015 talk that started it 6:31 Fintechs vs credit unions 11:49 Why the legacy stack won't port 13:15 30 years of skills at zero 15:09 Why you can't show them the future 18:22 You can't out-exercise your appetite 19:59 Two-thirds of the company on AI work 22:10 Building the impossible in 48 hours 26:09 Opt-in volunteers, not mandates 28:11 Don't hire a VP of AI 31:38 A faster way to learn 36:27 Greenfield prototyping in a day 38:46 If net interest margin drops to 1% 41:50 Skills catalog and workflows 45:10 When IT ships 50x faster 46:28 Closing
July 28 · 44 min
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=podcast St. 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 Union Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal 0:00 Introduction: Meet LeAnn 1:10 From marketing to strategy 6:36 What is St. Cloud Financial 7:24 A vision built on human connection 8:33 The convenience-vs-connection tension 11:08 Prioritizing AI use cases 13:00 34 fintech pitches, one budget 15:24 Member engagement and support 19:09 The iPhone pace expectation 20:42 Vendors who become partners 23:00 AI is not plug-and-play 25:09 Staff expectations and guardrails 28:01 Leading versus following 30:56 Evidence-backed AI and audit trails 33:00 Competing with the fintechs 37:54 Change management: start with the why 42:26 Signals and risks ahead 44:15 Closing
July 21 · 41 min
The Work Credit Unions Skip Before AI
Ankur Patel interviews Adrian Rodriguez, former SVP of Data & Innovation at American Heritage Credit Union, now an independent Data & AI advisor. 📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcast Adrian built a data and innovation function from the ground up at a credit union that didn't have one, and now advises institutions navigating the same journey for AI. His argument: most credit unions skip the unglamorous foundation work — clean, governed, clearly-defined data — that decides whether AI delivers reproducible answers or just propagates the mess underneath it. Guest: Adrian Rodriguez, former SVP of Data & Innovation, American Heritage Credit Union (now an independent Data & AI advisor) Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal 0:00 Introduction: Meet Adrian 1:06 Technical and operational debt as an anchor 2:38 The agentic AI inflection point 4:11 Standing up a data function from scratch 6:40 Build, hire, or partner 8:09 Why six-month timelines force partnering 12:14 Getting your data house in order first 15:49 The data flywheel 21:46 The next dashboard evolution 27:33 Top-down AI leadership 28:48 What's next: the data and AI journey 30:42 Finding an owner for governance 34:22 Leaders vs laggards 35:50 The cost of AI 39:43 Staying model agnostic 40:32 Closing
July 14 · 43 min
How Community Banks Should Adopt AI
Ankur Patel interviews Carey Ransom, Managing Director at Bank Tech Ventures. 📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcast Bank Tech Ventures is a strategic investment fund backed by 125+ community banks that runs as the industry's shared R&D arm — sourcing, vetting, and connecting the technology those banks actually need. Carey argues the winners won't look like banks in five years: they'll reimagine their operating model, own a customer segment, and start from the premise that AI can do everything until they prove why it shouldn't. Guest: Carey Ransom, Managing Director, Bank Tech Ventures Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal 0:00 Introduction: Meet Carey 0:43 What pulled Carey into community banking 3:21 What makes community banks distinct 8:40 Inside Bank Tech Ventures 13:36 Who they engage with at the bank 17:10 The technology themes banks care about 21:38 How they evaluate startups 26:16 Advice to banks and founders 31:28 The reset moment 33:56 People vs AI agents 40:10 The winning bank in 5 years 42:45 Closing
July 7 · 51 min
Building AI That Credit Unions Actually Trust
Ankur Patel interviews Phillip Autrey, COO at CUltivate. 📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcast CUltivate is a CUSO and AI platform built for credit unions by credit union insiders. Phillip makes the case that big-tech AI hasn't earned the trust credit unions need to deploy it, the product should amplify employees instead of replacing them, and the smaller shops without IT staff are the ones most underserved by what's on the market today. Guest: Phillip Autrey, COO, Cultivate Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal 0:00 Introduction: Meet Phillip 1:09 What is CUltivate 6:43 Why trust is the real barrier to AI adoption 10:26 The credit union journey 13:27 Context engineering 15:39 The orchestration layer that picks the right tool 18:47 The shared knowledge commons 21:55 The credit union movement vs public banking 23:45 What it takes to trust an AI tool 30:21 Job displacement 31:12 "If I only had time" 34:42 Why AI makes you more ambitious, not idle 36:59 Member experience and the human-agentic model 40:32 The adoption curve across 4,500 credit unions 45:11 Five years out and the off-ramps 49:16 Closing
June 30 · 35 min
Why the 2nd Biggest Credit Union Is Conservative on AI
Ankur Patel interviews Phil Caputo, Executive Vice President & Director of the Enterprise Project Management Office at State Employees' Credit Union. 📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcast Phil runs the EPMO at SECU — the second-largest credit union in the US, nearly 3 million members, $60 billion in assets, on a core system older than many of its members. He makes the operator's case for being deliberately conservative on AI: why a late mover with a loyal, member-service-first base can afford to learn from others' pitfalls, how he separates real strategy from a wall of projects, and where AI does and doesn't earn a seat — governance and member service in, autonomous decisions out. Guest: Phil Caputo, Director of the Enterprise Project Management Office, State Employees' Credit Union Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal 0:00 Introduction: Meet Phil 0:43 What Phil walked into: a $60B credit union with no project governance 2:12 Building structure and who pushes back hardest 3:28 The missing middle: strategy between goals and projects 5:31 Going from big idea to real outcome: the digital overhaul 8:00 How governance and execution actually work at SECU 9:00 Post-implementation reviews and the rewards-card example 10:03 KPIs that measure outcomes, not activity 11:51 Buy versus build 15:02 AI as the next level of integration 15:59 When is a conservative AI policy grounded versus behind 18:34 Lessons from being conservative on prior technologies 23:58 What actually motivates SECU to move 25:13 Discovery: member requests, advisory boards, and tech debt 27:00 Recurring themes for improving member satisfaction 28:47 Which parts of the digital experience needed the most work 31:06 Unifying channels into one member experience 32:35 The members SECU has been missing 33:19 Where AI could materially improve member experience in three years 35:09 Closing
June 23 · 39 min
How CUSOs Let Credit Unions Compete on AI
Ankur Patel interviews Randy Salser, President & CEO of NACUSO. 📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcast Randy explains how the CUSO model empowers credit unions to compete on AI and stablecoin — how shared service organizations give a $500M institution a seat at the table next to JPMorgan, why the arbitrary 1% investment capital cap is the fight on Capitol Hill, and why AI adoption is a culture project led from the executive suite, not an IT project. Guest: Randy Salser, President & CEO, NACUSO Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal 0:00 Introduction: Meet Randy 0:44 How Randy ended up running NACUSO 2:10 Mapping the credit union, CUSO, and NACUSO model 5:09 How CUSOs work and the seat at the table they buy 10:34 Legacy tech stacks and the integration problem 12:51 The friction NACUSO is trying to solve: the 1% cap 13:51 Stablecoin, the Genius Act, and the capital cap fight 16:35 Why advocacy matters for small credit unions 18:38 What's actually blocking credit unions on AI 26:24 Why stablecoin has to flow through CUSOs 29:22 The cultural move before AI works technically 33:17 The fintech threat: credit unions reduced to back-end 37:46 What success looks like for NACUSO in 5-10 years 38:51 Closing
June 16 · 41 min
What Lawyers See Before Credit Union AI Deals Go Wrong
Ankur Patel interviews Michael Heller, Associate Attorney at Messick Lauer & Smith. 📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcast Michael Heller is an Associate Attorney at Messick Lauer & Smith, where he focuses on vendor management, technology contracts, due diligence, and fintech partnerships for credit unions and CUSOs. Guest: Michael Heller, Associate Attorney, Messick Lauer & Smith Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal 0:00 Introduction 0:42 How Michael started in vendor management for CUs 2:56 Credit unions, CUSOs, and where fintechs fit in 4:14 The nature of the deals: vendor, M&A, and CUSO formation 5:32 Where credit union and tech vendor deals actually go wrong 7:39 Regulated stability vs. move-fast disruption 9:26 Honeymooning and the seeds of discontent 12:16 Why agentic AI deals are harder than traditional software 14:53 Clear exit pathways and a robust change management process 16:32 Indemnification, liability caps, audit rights 17:58 Building a risk framework 20:00 Tricks of the trade 24:13 Setting up a long-term partnership and allocating risk 25:00 AI in credit decisioning: who holds the liability? 26:13 You can't outsource risk 27:44 AI as a tool: the human in the loop stays on the hook 29:44 State vs. federal AI regulation 31:16 Right-sizing AI adoption for smaller credit unions 34:17 How AI is reshaping the legal profession 37:08 Why lawyers are a shield and the cost of getting it wrong 38:14 What a credit union that gets this right looks like in 2-3 years 40:08 Closing
June 9 · 49 min
Why This CU Rebuilt Its Entire Digital Front Door
Ankur Patel interviews Courtney Rowan, SVP and Chief Digital and Transformation Officer at Citadel Credit Union. Courtney has spent 27 years watching digital go from a side project to the only front door, and she brings the rare full-arc operator perspective on what it takes to make that shift work. She breaks down the non-documentary onboarding rebuild that lifted funnel conversion 212%, the CDP/CXP stack overhaul behind true member individualization, and the three-pillar AI steering committee setting Citadel's strategy. 📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcast Guest: Courtney Rowan, SVP and Chief Digital and Transformation Officer, Citadel Credit Union Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal 0:00 Introduction: Meet Courtney 0:55 What Courtney owns at Citadel 1:54 Digital evolution: from side project to the front door 5:00 Rewiring piecemeal digital channels so AI can be excellent 7:51 One continuous experience across every channel 10:04 What a charter expansion actually involves 13:07 Onboarding with no branch: human-led, digitally enabled 18:07 The fintech onboarding playbook 19:46 The results: 212% funnel conversion and more 21:35 Gen Z, values, and why credit unions get stuck 25:15 Lots of data, no unified brain: building a CDP and CXP 28:00 Don't drive a Porsche like a Ford 31:13 Standing up an AI innovation steering committee 32:52 Governance, education, enablement 36:18 Adopting AI individual by individual 37:57 AI as copilot, not a layoff plan 39:02 Separating AI marketing hype from reality 41:03 How Citadel employees use AI today 44:15 Working with incumbent and new AI vendors 46:58 The 3-5 year vision: banking that feels effortless 48:55 Closing
June 2 · 50 min
How LMCU Cut a 150-Step Process to 15 with AI
Ankur Patel interviews Chris Ortega, who leads technology transformation at Lake Michigan Credit Union, a $17B asset institution and the 13th largest credit union in the US. What's distinct about Chris's approach is that he restructures how the organization operates before deploying the tools — agile teams, a Center of Excellence, and a single Emerging Technology Governance Board that owns AI, RPA, and stablecoin. The episode covers how that structure was built, where RPA vs. agentic AI is the right call, and the cost discipline that keeps emerging tech from running away from the institution. 📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcast Guest: Chris Ortega, CIO, Lake Michigan Credit Union Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal 0:00 Introduction: Meet Chris Ortega 0:32 Stabilizing the IT landscape at LMCU 1:40 Inside a top credit union 3:23 Building conviction for transformation 5:20 The Center of Excellence and the three C's 7:43 What surprised him about emerging tech 9:31 Where traditional project management falls short 11:25 Why agile fits today's pace 14:06 One committee for AI, stablecoin, and whatever comes next 15:53 From planning to execution to ROI 18:33 Closing the gap between business and engineering 22:09 Building trust through real back-and-forth 24:35 Why remote teams are an asset, done right 26:44 What smaller credit unions can take away 29:20 Pick your tech, then match your partners to it 33:25 Where agentic AI is showing up 35:45 The HUMDA win: 150 steps cut to 15 36:56 Mortgage, the call center, fraud, and audit 38:51 The token-bill trap 40:46 RPA vs. agentic AI 44:13 AI bootcamps, lunch and learns, and Co-Pilot 48:42 Star Trek, not Terminator
May 28 · 42 min
UKFCU's Change Agenda: New Mortgage Dept, Zest AI, First Merger
Ankur Patel interviews Lisa Highley, Chief Lending Officer at University of Kentucky Federal Credit Union (UKFCU). They chat about the credit union's new mortgage department, a rebuilt commercial lending operation, Zest AI live in consumer lending, GLIA live in the call center, and the institution's first merger. 📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcast Guest: Lisa Highley, Chief Lending Officer, University of Kentucky FCU Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal 0:00 Introduction: Meet Lisa Highley 1:03 UKFCU at $1.75B and the full lending portfolio 2:30 Why the change agenda 4:01 Diversifying out of indirect auto and home equity dependence 5:46 Branch referrals driving the new mortgage department 7:05 Build vs. buy 9:04 What Empower automates in mortgage origination 13:02 Document review pain still left for AI to solve 17:13 How many hours a mortgage file still takes today 18:27 Staying competitive in indirect auto 22:00 Where software actually helps 24:52 Why same-day funding matters to dealers 25:57 Zest AI rollout, year-one goals, six-month review 29:04 How UKFCU decides what Zest can auto-approve 32:11 GLIA on day two 33:30 Reducing after-hours call support by 70% 34:30 Voluntary staff repurposing, not layoffs 35:43 The case for AI close to the member 37:03 Lessons from UKFCU's first merger 40:17 Two-to-three-year vision
May 22 · 40 min
How Capital Credit Union Uses AI in Marketing: From Strategy to Adoption
Ankur talks with Steve Zich, Chief Marketing Officer at Capital Credit Union in Green Bay, Wisconsin, about an operator's playbook on deploying AI in the marketing department. The conversation goes deep on personalization done right (vs. creepy), competing with big banks and fintechs on community rather than spend, and the team-level mindset shift that makes AI adoption stick. 📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcast Guest: Steve Zich, Chief Marketing Officer, Capital Credit Union Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal 00:00 Intro 00:38 What a credit union marketing operation actually owns 01:34 Filtering AI signal from marketing theater — Steve's three filters 05:06 Differentiating brand voice in a world driven by AI 07:56 Rolling out Jasper 12:56 Measuring ROI 14:29 Content cannibalization 16:45 What good personalization actually feels like 21:49 Personal vs. creepy — drawing the line in member outreach 24:34 Competing with big banks and fintechs on community + data 33:17 The fear narrative around AI 38:57 Why generations are shrinking 40:23 Closing
May 19 · 28 min
How Wescom Lifted First Contact Resolution by 34% with Copilot
Ankur Patel interviews Hashim Forrester, SVP of Remote Service Delivery at Wescom Financial — one of the largest credit unions in Southern California. Hashim brings three decades of operations and service delivery experience, and his team has become the trailblazers for AI adoption at Wescom — running Copilot in production, deploying intelligent virtual assistants on the phone system, and building out AI-driven quality assurance. 📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcast Guest: Hashim Forrester, SVP of Remote Service Delivery, Wescom Financial Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal 0:00 Introduction: Meet Hashim Forrester 1:02 Inside Wescom's remote service delivery 1:54 From single-channel to omnichannel banking 3:52 Volume across channels: 1M+ inbound calls 5:01 The Anywhere Branch 7:46 Omnichannel's knowledge problem 10:56 Rolling out Copilot 14:54 Why the first Copilot launch failed 17:25 Where Copilot ends and member data begins 20:46 Three years of intelligent virtual assistants 24:46 Moving QA from random sampling to 100% coverage 27:48 Prioritizing AI use cases: member-first, not tech-first 30:06 Build vs. buy 35:27 Driving real ROI 39:04 Closing the AI adoption gap 44:06 The future: agentic AI, but with humans in the driver's seat
May 15 · 48 min
How a Credit Union CIO Picks Vendors in the AI Era
Ankur Patel interviews Jeffrey Staw, Chief Information and Innovation Officer at Firefighters First Credit Union. Firefighters First has one of the most unique membership models in the industry, serving career firefighters and their families exclusively. Jeffrey brings a rare dual perspective, having previously led one of the most influential CUSOs in the country doing large-scale technology work for some of the biggest credit unions in the US. 📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcast Guest: Jeffrey Staw, Chief Information and Innovation Officer, Firefighters First Credit Union Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal 0:00 Introduction: Meet Jeffrey Staw 1:01 Inside the firefighters-only membership model 3:27 Specialty products for a specialty membership 10:23 High tech + high touch at national scale 14:25 Best-of-breed vs. single-vendor 20:07 Why he says no to AI-first vendor pitches 24:27 Deploying Copilot across the org 28:02 Closing the AI adoption gap with frontline employees 33:37 What RPA can teach us about the agentic wave 39:29 The data exfiltration risk everyone's forgetting 42:03 Adapting AI to non-technical executives 44:40 Lessons from the CUSO world 46:54 The 5-year vision
May 4 · 25 min
Building an AI Startup in 2026 (the last 3 months changed everything)
At Multimodal, agentic AI is reshaping how the team ships product, hires, and thinks about work itself. In this episode of Main Street AI, Ankur Patel sits down with Ishita Jaiswal, Head of Growth at Multimodal, for an internal look at how a 3-year-old agentic AI startup is operating in a market where the last three months brought more change than all of 2025. What makes this conversation different: just a candid conversation between two operators about what's actually changed. Why prompt engineering is dead. Why planning now takes 25 minutes and execution takes 5. Why Multimodal scrapped entire product lines when Claude and ChatGPT caught up. Why the team is doubling down on agentic coding before hiring more engineers. And why "10x workers" are about to become the norm across every function — not just engineering. 📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcast Guest: Ishita Jaiswal, Head of Growth, Multimodal Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal 0:00 Introduction: The last 3 months changed everything 1:08 How agentic AI reshaped product development at Multimodal 3:18 What taste and judgment look like when execution is free 5:21 The product lines we scrapped in 2026 (and why) 7:30 Why prompt engineering is dead 9:50 Planning 25 minutes, executing 5: the new workflow 12:48 Working more, not less — the magical powers problem 13:57 Inside Multimodal's lean engineering team 16:29 How GTM is changing alongside engineering 17:51 What we hire for now vs. a year ago 20:54 Specialists vs. generalists in an agentic world 22:30 What this means for banks, credit unions, and legacy institutions 23:57 Closing Thoughts
April 29 · 34 min
430% Growth and Why Human Connection Wins
Ankur Patel interviews Jed Meyer, CEO of St. Cloud Financial Credit Union — a 5-branch, $425M institution serving 28,000 members in central Minnesota. Jed has driven 400% organic growth in nearly 12 years at the helm, with 2025 marking the best year in the credit union's 96-year history. Jed is focused on using technology to create more human connection, not less. From launching the first-ever CU Digital Asset Vault, to deploying ITMs without removing the human behind the window, to a meaningful difference program that empowers every teller to impact a member's life. 📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcast Guest: Jed Meyer, CEO, St. Cloud Financial Credit Union Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal 0:00 Introduction: Meet Jed Meyer 0:52 What drove 400% growth and a record-breaking 2025 3:08 Competing as the 3rd smallest in a market of 41 institutions 5:49 Price, convenience, service 11:34 Operationalizing human connection at scale 17:58 Where AI fits (and where it doesn't) 26:03 ITMs, drive-throughs, and why the human still sits behind the window 30:25 How a $400M credit union invests in tech vs. the $5B competitors 36:08 The 2026 roadmap: doubling to $1B and 50,000 members 41:00 Tech for survivors of domestic abuse 42:37 Closing thoughts
April 24 · 32 min
How the World's Largest Credit Union is Scaling Digital
While many financial institutions are still figuring out their digital strategy, Meghan Gound is running digital at a scale most will never see. In this episode of Main Street AI, Ankur Patel chats with Meghan Gound, SVP of Digital at Navy Federal — the world's largest credit union with over 15 million members across the military community, veterans, and families. Meghan owns digital strategy across online banking, mobile, chat, and the omni-channel experience that ties it all together. Navy Federal has 10M+ members logging into digital every month — 27 times a month on average — from every corner of the globe. Meghan's team is blurring the lines between self-service and human-assisted channels, extending the same digital interface to team members in a 24/7 contact center, rolling out features like Trusted User for deployed military, and thinking hard about what conversational AI looks like when "human in the loop" isn't a buzzword but a design principle. 📩 Subscribe to the Main Street AI Newsletter: https://multimodal.beehiiv.com/subscribe?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=podcast Guest: Meghan Gound, SVP of Digital, Navy Federal Credit Union Host: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal 0:00 Introduction: Meet Meghan Gound 0:40 Leading digital at the world's largest credit union 1:20 What "digital" actually means at Navy Federal 2:18 Why 380+ branches still matter 3:30 The scale challenge: 10M members, 27 logins a month 5:20 How AI is reshaping the digital roadmap 7:50 The context problem across channels 10:00 Keeping AI authentic: human in the loop 12:30 How the roadmap actually gets built 14:30 The Trusted User story 16:13 Balancing digital with human connection 20:45 Where new ideas come from 22:00 How Navy Federal tests and pilots 25:00 How being member-owned shapes decisions 28:30 What the rest of the industry can learn 30:40 What keeps Meghan up at night 31:50 The 5-year vision: transactional to conversational 32:17 Closing thoughts

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