“We’re staying comfortably uncomfortable.”
That’s how Heather Luciani, chief strategy officer at Honor Credit Union, describes her mindset — and it’s one many of her peers across the movement share.
In a financial services world that’s shifting faster than ever, credit union strategy leaders are learning to thrive in uncertainty. They’re rethinking everything from how members interact with their cooperative to how employees adapt, lead, and innovate. The goal? Stay relevant. Stay human. And stay ahead.
But technology alone isn’t the answer to ensuring a competitive credit union in 2030. What matters most is how credit unions combine automation with empathy, digital innovation with grassroots connection, and long-term strategy with a flexible mindset. That’s the work underway now — and the work that will define what success looks like in banking in 2030.
Automatic Value With A Personal Touch
Gone are the days when members pop by the branch to deposit a check. Members today, especially younger ones, value a unified experience in their banking relationships. According to the chief strategy officers interviewed for this article, technological forces will only continue to complicate the value-add credit unions currently provide for members.
However, just because members will rely more on digital channels for their day-to-day transactions like cashing checks and opening accounts doesn’t mean automation will reduce the need for personal service, says Heather Luciani, chief strategy officer at Honor Credit Union ($1.8B, Berrien Springs, MI). Instead, members will look to their credit unions to provide personalized financial guidance as a value-add for the in-person experience.
The credit union movement is rooted in community; it’s time to adapt that ethos for the digital age. Indeed, grassroots networking through local digital channels provides an avenue to drive organic growth.
SkyOne Federal Credit Union ($960.1M, Hawthorne, CA) employes a digital sales representative to not only reach out to applicants who quit midway through an application but also work through local channels such as city-specific Subreddit communities to drive conversation about credit unions on social media. Initiatives like this are among the credit union’s most successful drivers of membership.
“It’s understanding and playing in the digital world that everybody’s part of right now,” says Shannon Doiron, chief strategy officer at SkyOne.
When it comes to artificial intelligence, the role AI plays in the industry could include everything from predictive analytics, as in forecasting trends, to serving as a personal assistant for everyone in the organization, freeing up time for staff to focus on value-add endeavors like collections or loan originations.
AI is prompting Doiron to think through “what are we going to be when we grow up?” Meaning, when AI is here, what does the credit union look like? Georgia United Credit Union ($2.3B, Duluth, GA) is taking a wait-and-see approach to AI, knowing it is a path it must take but unsure of which steps to take first.
“It is a slow process because there’s a lot of questions around security and maintaining confidentiality of member information,” says Adam Marlowe, chief strategy officer at Georgia United. “On the other hand, don’t be afraid of it.”
3 Skills For 2030: Adaptability, Open-Mindedness, And Critical Thinking
For credit unions to thrive in a financial ecosystem that demands cohesion between digital and legacy experiences — where AI is embedded into every workflow and business models revisit the community-focused mindset — credit union employees need to embrace change.
Chief strategy officers cite adaptability and open mindedness toward change as core competencies necessary for banking in 2030. When it comes to implementing new technologies, employees who are curious about how to incorporate it into their own work usually make life easier for the implementation teams.
It’s important to keep in mind, however, that even employees less adept at adaptability are still valuable. An approach that moves person by person, branch by branch is better able to push through organizational change without rocking the boat.
Innovation is such a core component of culture at SkyOne that it is a key metric in the performance review process. The credit union has found that aligning innovation goals with performance reviews nudges associates into trying new tools.
“These new tools won’t just help employees do their work,” Doiron says. “They’ll also help them get a good score on their performance review.”
Of course, adaptability and open-mindedness beget the need for critical thinking. When digital technology automates transactional tasks, the remaining work is much more complex and requires strong critical-thinking skills.
It is critical thinking that ensures in-person and digital experiences are unified, not siloed, and employees are contributing to the organization’s strategy in complimentary ways. That’s how credit unions will meet the needs of members in 2030, according to Luciani.
How To Get To 2030
Successful banking in 2030 requires credit unions to blend their human capital and digital channels, then take both to the next level. Clearview Credit Union ($2.0B, Moon Township, PA) offers Clearview Live video banking to give members the opportunity to interact with the credit union for any service but withdrawing cash.
“Physically, we might not be open,” says Bill Snider, chief strategy officer at Clearview. “We might have cut back an hour or two, but we have all these other channels members can use to talk to us.”
For better buy-in, it’s important to incorporate the views of stakeholders when implementing new tools. Another key consideration is the balance between culture and talent. Online learning makes it easier than ever to hire for culture and upskill employees. An intentional hiring and promotion process that takes into consideration whether a credit union needs an outside hire for a specific skill versus upskilling an internal candidate is a reliable way to build an engaged staff that is able to adapt to change.
“Just because an outside hire can do the job doesn’t mean they’re the right person,” Luciani at Honor says.
Perhaps most important of all, the rate of constant, rapid technological evolution means credit union leaders simply cannot adopt a set-it-and-forget-it strategy.
Leadership needs quicker strategy re-thinks, says Marlowe at Georgia United.
“You can create a strategy based off what you know now, but I promise you, in 90 days or six months, something’s going to change,” he says. “You need to be able to go back and ask how it impacted strategy and do you need to alter it?”
To combat strategy stagnation, Georgia United conducts rolling three-year strategy sessions to evaluate what’s working and what needs to be reworked. This allows the cooperative to stay up-to-date in a constantly evolving technological and product landscape.
“You have to be nimble so you can be responsive to members not only today but also in another 20 to 30 years,” Marlowe says.
The path to successful banking in 2030 won’t come with a detailed playbook. Change is happening too fast — in technology, member expectations, and the tools employees use to serve. For the credit union leaders interviewed here, success means building resilient organizations that can evolve in real time, without losing sight of the cooperative difference. “Comfortably uncomfortable” indeed.