Main Street AI

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Aug 2026

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"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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August 17, 202626 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, 202637 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, 202648 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, 202644 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, 202641 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, 202643 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, 202651 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, 202635 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, 202639 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, 202641 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