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.

  1. 1d ago

    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=podcastMichael 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 & SmithHost: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal0:00 Introduction0:42 How Michael started in vendor management for CUs2:56 Credit unions, CUSOs, and where fintechs fit in4:14 The nature of the deals: vendor, M&A, and CUSO formation5:32 Where credit union and tech vendor deals actually go wrong7:39 Regulated stability vs. move-fast disruption9:26 Honeymooning and the seeds of discontent12:16 Why agentic AI deals are harder than traditional software14:53 Clear exit pathways and a robust change management process16:32 Indemnification, liability caps, audit rights17:58 Building a risk framework20:00 Tricks of the trade24:13 Setting up a long-term partnership and allocating risk25:00 AI in credit decisioning: who holds the liability?26:13 You can't outsource risk27:44 AI as a tool: the human in the loop stays on the hook29:44 State vs. federal AI regulation31:16 Right-sizing AI adoption for smaller credit unions34:17 How AI is reshaping the legal profession37:08 Why lawyers are a shield and the cost of getting it wrong38:14 What a credit union that gets this right looks like in 2-3 years40:08 Closing

    41 min

  2. Jun 9

    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=podcastGuest: Courtney Rowan, SVP and Chief Digital and Transformation Officer, Citadel Credit UnionHost: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal0:00 Introduction: Meet Courtney0:55 What Courtney owns at Citadel1:54 Digital evolution: from side project to the front door5:00 Rewiring piecemeal digital channels so AI can be excellent7:51 One continuous experience across every channel10:04 What a charter expansion actually involves13:07 Onboarding with no branch: human-led, digitally enabled18:07 The fintech onboarding playbook19:46 The results: 212% funnel conversion and more21:35 Gen Z, values, and why credit unions get stuck25:15 Lots of data, no unified brain: building a CDP and CXP28:00 Don't drive a Porsche like a Ford31:13 Standing up an AI innovation steering committee32:52 Governance, education, enablement36:18 Adopting AI individual by individual37:57 AI as copilot, not a layoff plan39:02 Separating AI marketing hype from reality41:03 How Citadel employees use AI today44:15 Working with incumbent and new AI vendors46:58 The 3-5 year vision: banking that feels effortless48:55 Closing

    50 min

  3. Jun 2

    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=podcastGuest: Chris Ortega, CIO, Lake Michigan Credit UnionHost: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal0:00 Introduction: Meet Chris Ortega0:32 Stabilizing the IT landscape at LMCU1:40 Inside a top credit union3:23 Building conviction for transformation5:20 The Center of Excellence and the three C's7:43 What surprised him about emerging tech9:31 Where traditional project management falls short11:25 Why agile fits today's pace14:06 One committee for AI, stablecoin, and whatever comes next15:53 From planning to execution to ROI18:33 Closing the gap between business and engineering22:09 Building trust through real back-and-forth24:35 Why remote teams are an asset, done right26:44 What smaller credit unions can take away29:20 Pick your tech, then match your partners to it33:25 Where agentic AI is showing up35:45 The HUMDA win: 150 steps cut to 1536:56 Mortgage, the call center, fraud, and audit38:51 The token-bill trap40:46 RPA vs. agentic AI44:13 AI bootcamps, lunch and learns, and Co-Pilot48:42 Star Trek, not Terminator

    50 min

  4. May 28

    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=podcastGuest: Lisa Highley, Chief Lending Officer, University of Kentucky FCUHost: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal0:00 Introduction: Meet Lisa Highley1:03 UKFCU at $1.75B and the full lending portfolio2:30 Why the change agenda4:01 Diversifying out of indirect auto and home equity dependence5:46 Branch referrals driving the new mortgage department7:05 Build vs. buy9:04 What Empower automates in mortgage origination13:02 Document review pain still left for AI to solve17:13 How many hours a mortgage file still takes today18:27 Staying competitive in indirect auto22:00 Where software actually helps24:52 Why same-day funding matters to dealers25:57 Zest AI rollout, year-one goals, six-month review29:04 How UKFCU decides what Zest can auto-approve32:11 GLIA on day two33:30 Reducing after-hours call support by 70%34:30 Voluntary staff repurposing, not layoffs35:43 The case for AI close to the member37:03 Lessons from UKFCU's first merger40:17 Two-to-three-year vision

    42 min

  5. May 22

    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=podcastGuest: Steve Zich, Chief Marketing Officer, Capital Credit UnionHost: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal00:00 Intro00:38 What a credit union marketing operation actually owns01:34 Filtering AI signal from marketing theater — Steve's three filters05:06 Differentiating brand voice in a world driven by AI07:56 Rolling out Jasper12:56 Measuring ROI14:29 Content cannibalization16:45 What good personalization actually feels like21:49 Personal vs. creepy — drawing the line in member outreach24:34 Competing with big banks and fintechs on community + data33:17 The fear narrative around AI38:57 Why generations are shrinking40:23 Closing

    41 min

  6. May 19

    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=podcastGuest: Hashim Forrester, SVP of Remote Service Delivery, Wescom FinancialHost: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal0:00 Introduction: Meet Hashim Forrester1:02 Inside Wescom's remote service delivery1:54 From single-channel to omnichannel banking3:52 Volume across channels: 1M+ inbound calls5:01 The Anywhere Branch7:46 Omnichannel's knowledge problem10:56 Rolling out Copilot14:54 Why the first Copilot launch failed17:25 Where Copilot ends and member data begins20:46 Three years of intelligent virtual assistants24:46 Moving QA from random sampling to 100% coverage27:48 Prioritizing AI use cases: member-first, not tech-first30:06 Build vs. buy35:27 Driving real ROI39:04 Closing the AI adoption gap44:06 The future: agentic AI, but with humans in the driver's seat

    28 min

  7. May 15

    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=podcastGuest: Jeffrey Staw, Chief Information and Innovation Officer, Firefighters First Credit UnionHost: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal0:00 Introduction: Meet Jeffrey Staw1:01 Inside the firefighters-only membership model3:27 Specialty products for a specialty membership10:23 High tech + high touch at national scale14:25 Best-of-breed vs. single-vendor20:07 Why he says no to AI-first vendor pitches24:27 Deploying Copilot across the org28:02 Closing the AI adoption gap with frontline employees33:37 What RPA can teach us about the agentic wave39:29 The data exfiltration risk everyone's forgetting42:03 Adapting AI to non-technical executives44:40 Lessons from the CUSO world46:54 The 5-year vision

    49 min

  8. May 4

    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=podcastGuest: Ishita Jaiswal, Head of Growth, MultimodalHost: Ankur Patel, CEO & Founder, Multimodal0:00 Introduction: The last 3 months changed everything1:08 How agentic AI reshaped product development at Multimodal3:18 What taste and judgment look like when execution is free5:21 The product lines we scrapped in 2026 (and why)7:30 Why prompt engineering is dead9:50 Planning 25 minutes, executing 5: the new workflow12:48 Working more, not less — the magical powers problem13:57 Inside Multimodal's lean engineering team16:29 How GTM is changing alongside engineering17:51 What we hire for now vs. a year ago20:54 Specialists vs. generalists in an agentic world22:30 What this means for banks, credit unions, and legacy institutions23:57 Closing Thoughts

    25 min
See All (89)

About

"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.

Information

  • Creator
    Multimodal
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    89
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Multimodal
  • Show Website
    Main Street AI