Arguably the biggest credit union event of the year, America’s Credit Unions’ Governmental Affairs Conference, held March 1-5, 2026, in Washington, D.C., brought together hundreds of credit union leaders to discuss the latest industry trends – not only in regulation and legislation, but also in technology.
After GAC concluded, we asked credit union fintech experts to weigh in on the following question: What tech concepts, innovations, or trends stood out the most at GAC, and how might we see them incorporated into credit union technology strategies in the coming year?
Here, you will find responses from Ankit Maharaj Singh, SVP of strategic growth for Quinte Financial Technologies:
At GAC, AI, particularly the emergence of agentic AI, stood out as a key trend shifting from hype to a strategic lever for personalization at scale, faster service and product innovation, stronger compliance and fraud defenses, and greater appeal to younger members. As many credit unions remain in evaluation stages, we expect targeted AI copilots in contact centers, digital banking, and back-office workflows rather than broad AI rollouts over the next year.
AI governance was equally prominent, with sessions highlighting data privacy, third-party risk, and emerging state AI laws. In 2026, credit unions are likely to adopt formal AI policies, vendor approval processes, human-in-the-loop controls, and stronger coordination between IT, compliance, risk, and operations.
Fraud and cybersecurity are also accelerating as top tech priorities, with threats ranging from AI-powered deepfakes to synthetic identity fraud, authorized push payment scams, business email compromise, and romance or ‘pig butchering’ scams. We expect more credit unions to fund layered identity proofing, out-of-band verification, behavioral analytics, scam detection in payment flows, consortium-based fraud signals, and expanded staff and member education.
Payments innovation was increasingly discussed through a policy-and-strategy lens, with sessions covering stablecoins, open banking, and the Credit Card Competition Act. Credit union tech roadmaps for next year will likely include more payment scenario planning: Reassessing interchange sensitivity, data-sharing architecture, and evaluating whether to experiment or monitor emerging payment models.
Modernization and fintech partnerships are becoming more essential, with competitive pressure linked to digital experience, automation, analytics, and AI. Credit unions will spend the next year simplifying vendor stacks, modernizing legacy integrations, improving data readiness, and choosing fewer but deeper strategic partners that can deliver measurable member and efficiency gains. Many sessions also emphasized that data readiness is a prerequisite for innovation, as siloed data and fragmented systems often limit the effectiveness of AI, fraud analytics, and personalization tools.
Finally, human differentiation still matters. With similar AI tools accessible to many credit unions, a lasting advantage will come from culture, talent, and combining technology with mission-driven service. Success will be measured not by AI adoption but rather by member outcomes, such as faster resolution, lower fraud losses, better onboarding, and stronger retention.
Overall, the conference’s biggest tech message was not ‘credit unions need more shiny tools.’ It was ‘credit unions need a tighter stack’: Cleaner data, stronger fraud controls, clearer AI governance, more deliberate fintech partnerships, and payment strategies that account for regulatory shifts. Over the next 12 months, credit union technology strategies will focus on targeted AI use cases, fraud and identity upgrades, and modernization that enables stronger long-term innovation.
– by Ankit Maharaj Singh
SVP of Strategic Growth, Quinte Financial Technologies
SVP of Strategic Growth, Quinte Financial Technologies
Source: This article was originally published in “Credit Union Times” on March, 2026.
